The opening solo bit (which you could process as a tribute to steel-welder Jennifer Beals in Flashdance) is terrific, but then it shifts back into the same old whoo-whoo, hedonistic, male-stripping realm that Channing Tatum inhabited in Steven Soderbergh‘s original Magic Mike, and which he grew out of by the end because he’d fallen in love with Cody Horn and realized where the stripper lifestyle was leading. So Magic Mike XXL (Warner Bros., 7.3) is about (a) relapse! and (b) “forget all that growing into maturity and building on your future in furniture design” stuff.
