Mixed reviews for Magic Mike XXL: 'There's not much meat on these bones'

Bare chests, chiselled bods and raunchy routines are guaranteed - but reviews have been mixed for the much-hyped sequel to Magic Mike.

Magic Mike XXL is due out next week, the sequel to one of the sleeper hits of 2012 that made $160 million on the back of a $7 million budget and Channing Tatum's bare chest.

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As with any film hitting those kinds of numbers, and with a popular, willingly shirtless leading man in Tatum, a sequel was inevitable.

For Magic Mike XXL, Oscar-winner Steven Soderbergh stepped down from directing duties, passing those on to his assistant director from the first movie Gregory Jacobs.

The plot sees Tatum's Mike and his fellow 'Kings of Tampa' head to a stripping convention for their final performance.

But early reviews for the film have been mixed. It has a 65 per cent rating on Rotten Tomatoes, well under the 80 per cent the first film ended up with.

Similarly, it has scored 63 per cent on Metacritic, again down from Magic Mike's 72.

Reviewers say there's plenty of flesh on show, but the film's plot is barely there.

Lou Lumeinck from The New York Post called the plot skimpier than the stripper's jockstraps, but said the movie was "good-naturedly inclusive fun".

"Magic Mike XXL is an unabashed celebration of the female (and gay male) gaze as well as a cream puff of a summer blockbuster stuffed with whipped cream, lap dances and feather boas. It may not measure up to its predecessor, but size isn't everything.

Entertainment Weekly's Leah Greenblat gave a mixed review, calling the plot "far shaggier than it's scrupulously manscaped stars".

"Supporting players including Jada Pinkett Smith, Andie MacDowell, and Elizabeth Banks have good fun with underwritten roles, and the movie's take on desire is admirably democratic (Sex: it's not just for hot millenials!).

"Still, for all the glistening, body-glittered beefcake, there's not much meat on these bones."

Andie MacDowell, alongside the other female stars, are described as having "good fun with underwritten roles".

Others have been less positive. In a two star review, The Guardian's Peter Bradshaw said watching XXL was like "watching pained strippers dry hump".

"The characters are supposedly rethinking the male burlesque, chucking away the silly posing pouches and fireman costumes and even building in some hip-hop vocals, but it's exactly the same thing all over again for these muscly romantic troubadours, except with less plot, less character, less interest and no Matthew McConaughey."

Preston Jones at dfw.com says the film was delivered with "all the subtlety of a crotch to the face", slamming it as shallow and cynical.

"The first Mike installment, directed by Steven Soderbergh, balanced the salacious sight of Tatum and his co-stars writhing to '90s R&B with the uglier side of a life spent stripping and a sly, faintly satirical edge. The second installment, written by Reid Carolin in a way that manages to be simultaneously arch, painfully self-referential and flatly stupid, chucks any pretense of intelligence and aims squarely at the lowest common denominator."

He concedes that the film works for what it is. "As pure beefcake cinema goes, Magic Mike XXL delivers the goods... It's just a shame the filmmakers didn't try to appeal to the brain as enthusiastically as they do the groin."

Magic Mike XXL opens in New Zealand cinemas next Thursday.

- nzherald.co.nz