Female Chauvinist Movie Review: Magic Mike XXL
Man-candy: 11
Hurt-the-pretty: 0
Feminismishness: 3
-all scores out of 5-
Yes... oh yes... YES. YES!
You might recall that I gave a pretty tepid review to the original Magic Mike. It was a movie aimed at a male audience. (What were they THINKING?) This time, they got it right - this movie is aimed squarely at the ladies.
A scene in the original movie that peeved me was one in which an overweight woman is used as a joke - the stripper throws his back out lifting her after having not shown a single woman heavier than size 2 all movie, and never doing so again - clearly overweight women only exist to be made fun of. Not so in XXL. We have a MUCH larger woman being picked up and tossed around like NOTHING. And what are we thinking in the audience? "DAMN he can do that to me any time he wants!"
I'm not saying they put that in as a direct nod/apology - buuuut that's how it felt to me.
Some people have said the plot is not great. I say: PLOT? *blink* There's some ham-fisted dialog waving away why characters not back for this movie aren't here. (Quite frankly, anyone turning down Channing Tatum is a bit of a disbelief-breaker for me.) But who cares? We're not here for PLOT. We're here to see extremely gorgeous men be gorgeous and talk about how women don't appreciate how beautiful they are and gosh they're here to HELP.
... And get showered with dollar bills in the process, but hey, I'm all right with that. They deserve it.
Man Candy? Do I have to enumerate the man candy? GIIIIRRRRL. Stephen Boss is an exquisite master of dancing prowess and I don't think he ever puts a shirt on. Channing? *le sigh* Joe Manganiello? F YEAH. I mean... they have all this powerful chest on screen and they throw in extra shirtless guys in the background! As all movies should!
Feminismishness? Oh darling. We have Jada Pinkett Smith as the owner/operator of an exclusive Ladies' club ordering around all the hunkiest hunks of man there are. (Including QUITE the power play with dear Mike.) We have Andie MacDowell as a self-assured woman nabbing Big Dick Richie all for herself. (I have never rooted so hard for a fictional hookup. But then, I'd do some awful, bad things to get close to Joe Manganiello, myself, and I adored her in "Four Weddings".)
Hurt the pretty ... meh. This is not a movie with pain in it, not really. It's about joy. Particularly women's joy. Men, your enjoyment comes after you get your date home all hot and bothered. ;)
Hurt-the-pretty: 0
Feminismishness: 3
-all scores out of 5-
Yes... oh yes... YES. YES!
You might recall that I gave a pretty tepid review to the original Magic Mike. It was a movie aimed at a male audience. (What were they THINKING?) This time, they got it right - this movie is aimed squarely at the ladies.
A scene in the original movie that peeved me was one in which an overweight woman is used as a joke - the stripper throws his back out lifting her after having not shown a single woman heavier than size 2 all movie, and never doing so again - clearly overweight women only exist to be made fun of. Not so in XXL. We have a MUCH larger woman being picked up and tossed around like NOTHING. And what are we thinking in the audience? "DAMN he can do that to me any time he wants!"
I'm not saying they put that in as a direct nod/apology - buuuut that's how it felt to me.
Some people have said the plot is not great. I say: PLOT? *blink* There's some ham-fisted dialog waving away why characters not back for this movie aren't here. (Quite frankly, anyone turning down Channing Tatum is a bit of a disbelief-breaker for me.) But who cares? We're not here for PLOT. We're here to see extremely gorgeous men be gorgeous and talk about how women don't appreciate how beautiful they are and gosh they're here to HELP.
... And get showered with dollar bills in the process, but hey, I'm all right with that. They deserve it.
Man Candy? Do I have to enumerate the man candy? GIIIIRRRRL. Stephen Boss is an exquisite master of dancing prowess and I don't think he ever puts a shirt on. Channing? *le sigh* Joe Manganiello? F YEAH. I mean... they have all this powerful chest on screen and they throw in extra shirtless guys in the background! As all movies should!
Feminismishness? Oh darling. We have Jada Pinkett Smith as the owner/operator of an exclusive Ladies' club ordering around all the hunkiest hunks of man there are. (Including QUITE the power play with dear Mike.) We have Andie MacDowell as a self-assured woman nabbing Big Dick Richie all for herself. (I have never rooted so hard for a fictional hookup. But then, I'd do some awful, bad things to get close to Joe Manganiello, myself, and I adored her in "Four Weddings".)
Hurt the pretty ... meh. This is not a movie with pain in it, not really. It's about joy. Particularly women's joy. Men, your enjoyment comes after you get your date home all hot and bothered. ;)