Magic Mike 2000

Rating: 5/10 (29 August 2015)

I really enjoyed the first Magic Mike movie. It made me feel like I understand what women want, made me learn interesting things and Channing Tatum was excellent, plus the film had an actual story, with character development. This version is just the pumped up, former celebrities filled, more diverse, less Miked road trip version of the film. It was quite a disappointment. Not even Amber Heard's beautiful presence could save it.
The premise is that the band is splitting up and they want to go for one last "stripper conference". Matthew McConaughey is gone, Steven Soderbergh is gone, enter black people and beloved, yet tired (and less paid) celebrities like Jada Pinkett Smith, Andie MacDowell and Elizabeth Banks. The feeling that you understand the characters is gone, replaced by "explanatory dialogues" of why they are like healers and how they listen and understand. God damn it, every word I am writing in this review lowers my rating more and more. It is like a sequel constructed by studio lawyers with the help of focus groups made of mentally challenged people.
The worst crime of this film, though, was that it wasn't about Magic Mike at all and had shitty choreography to boot. Channing Tatum's character joins the party as an outsider, while the focus is on everybody and everything else, while they are driving to the convention, meeting all kind of folks and giving occasional performances that seem like they are setting up the great one at the end of the movie. A performance which really sucked.
Bottom line: I wonder if even women will like this film.