Magic Mike XXL | film review

Quick disclaimer - If you haven't seen the film and are yet to see it then I would wait until after watching the film to read this. I don't want to spoil anything for you!!

Hello!!

After having such fabulous weather all throughout June and the beginning of July, these past couple of days have been a little dull. It is frustrating because where I live the sky is full of grey clouds and it always looks as if it is going to rain, but the temperature is still so warm!

But in any case I thought that I would take this opportunity to sit and do a film review. My sister and I spent the day together shopping, and agreed to go and see Magic Mike XXL at the cinema. (Although she was a little reluctant to see it and I had to drag her along, but we won't mention that!(; )

I remember seeing the first Magic Mike film in the cinema when I was around 16/17 years old and then I wasn't very much of a critical judge so I enjoyed it despite the weird yellow wash they had on all the scenes and the badly written script. But now I'm 20 and after being at university for a couple of years, I find that my mind has expanded further and I am more prone to having opinions for and against certain things. I never used to be much of an opinionated person before. But even today I still enjoy watching the film now because it's a good laugh and hey - who doesn't want to watch Channing Tatum, Alex Pettyfer and Matthew Mcconaughey strip naked and dance?!(;

If you have not seen Magic Mike then the story follows a man who's an engineer by day creating his own furniture wanting to set up his own business, and stripper by night. Magic Mike XXL is set 2/3 years after the first film and Mike (Channing Tatum) has his own furniture business running, but after a reunion with his stripper friends, they decide to go on a road trip to Myrtle Beach to perform at the stripper convention. Although Mike is a retired stripper he cannot refuse the excitement of going back to the old days. The film follows them on the road and the many stops on the way to Myrtle Beach.

The film didn't have the weird yellow wash through the day scenes like it did in the first one and I enjoyed it for what it was. It was fun, outrageous and had me giggling fro beginning to end. The dance scenes were brilliant and were very entertaining.

However I still think that the script was extremely poorly written and a lot of it I found was hard to follow. For example their speeches were terrible and there is pretty much a "f*ck" and a "sh*t" every other word. It was difficult to understand the character's feelings and connect with them because it was hard to actually understand what they were saying.

Another thing was that the film didn't do a great job of was introducing new characters. In one scene Mike meets a girl called Zoe (Amber Heard) and in this meeting you can't even see her face because it is completely shadowed out by the dark skies. So you know Mike has met this new girl but you don't know what she looks like until he meets her again later on. And even then it isn't evidently clear at first that she is the same girl he met on the beach.

Another thing that caught me out was when Mike sees Rome (Jada Pinkett Smith) who turns out to be his ex lover he walked away from. But the audience does not find this out until after they kiss when they first see each other and she asks him why he's back. At first I thought it was someone he knew from the first film that I missed or perhaps a manager or something. It was very unclear until their love was briefly mentioned in passing.

The final thing that was a little confusing and very lightly (and lazily) touched upon was a woman they meet towards the end (Elizabeth Banks) who they asked if she would allow them to take part in the stripper convention. They know her and she knows them but you never find out how. And there's this strong chemistry between Banks' and Smith's character that just by the sight of her, she lets them into the convention. You know nothing about their relationship nor do you ever find out who she actually is. She is just there for the sake of it I feel.

I found this all very confusing and I remember getting the same vibe from the first film. But altogether despite the poor language and script, it was enjoyable. The dance scenes were brilliant and the whole film was a good laugh. The innuendos were enough to make anyone giggle.

Was it a waste of money? No. If I hadn't enjoyed it then it would have but I was happy to have watched it despite it's faults. But that's all down to my own opinion.

If you have seen either Magic Mike films I would love to know what was your opinion on it and to see if anyone has the same as me or completely different. Lets discuss.

Goodbye for now!

Yours, Georgia x