Three years after the first low budget film hit our cinema screens, those hot muscular male bodies line up as the Kings of Tampa once again. Yes Magic Mike XXL or rather Channing Tatum is back with those boys, though not all the original line up, but not that we noticed overmuch.
I say low, as I understand the original in 2012 to cost a mere $7m to produce yet takings were in the $100s, $167m to be precise, it’s understandable why he donned his wielding mask, oiled his torso after enduring months of careful nutritional dieting and heady workouts to bring him back to life. But who does this film really cater for, turning up at cinemas in good numbers to create the success it is? Simple, the film is two hours of glorious feminist spectacle, with plenty of shirtless grinding, body parading and homage to our girlie view of young hot masculine men. That’s not forgetting some unbelievable hip curling moves that are all Tatum at his best and no trickery. What we see is plenty of those classic hot boys routines, that thrust every body part into our full view. Ahhh…..!
To add to my conclusion is that as most of the film’s women remain fully clothed throughout with few exceptions, and those that do appear are a variety of shapes, sizes and colours, certainly no stereotypical casting of traditionally attractive white characters. This film was certainly not aiming in that direction. There are even less sexual scenes, actually none at all that I noted, but what you do get is plenty of very sexy muscular male bodies and lots of them filling the screen, leaving the other aspects to our imagination.
To me it has the vibe for being a rather gay feeling film yet with straight men and storylines throughout and what I do know about gay erotica is that many women love to watch it for all those fabulous muscular bodies. These men look to be built for their perfect torsos for us to look at if nothing else and that is exactly what Tatum Channing offers us in plenty. His fabulous body in unbelievable motion for us to just ogle at and leave us smiling.