Depending on your view, Magic Mike was one of the pleasant movie surprises of summer 2012 when it hit theaters.
Personally, I thought it provided a fun change of pace to superhero blockbuster fare like The Avengers. (The crowd I saw the movie with may have gotten just a bit too excited, as if we were actually at a male strip club. But hey, nothing wrong with getting into the spirit of the thing.) Just as the Avengers are back at the cinema this year, so are Magic Mike and the rest of the on-stage talent from Xquisite.
Here’s the trailer for Magic Mike XXL.
Magic Mike XXL takes place three years after the last film, with Channing Tatum’s title character and his stripper colleagues having left behind Matthew McConaughey’s Dallas. (Also gone from the original cast are Alex Pettyfer and Cody Horn.) The story follows the gang on a road trip to a stripper convention in Myrtle Beach, S.C. Along the way, they encounter a strip club owner played by Jada Pinkett Smith and her top dancer (Michael Strahan).
As you can see in the trailer, other additions to the cast besides Pinkett Smith and Strahan include Elizabeth Banks, Andie McDowell, Donald Glover and Amber Heard. Steven Soderbergh wasn’t the director for this sequel (which takes away one attraction for film fans who might have used that for justification to see the first film), but was behind the camera as cinematographer and editor. Gregory Jacobs, a longtime assistant director for Soderbergh, takes the directing chair this time out.
Magic Mike XXL is ready for a movie theater near you on July 1.
