Magic Mike XXL - Blu-ray

Content: Three years ago now, Mike (Channing Tatum) bid farewell to his career as a stripper with a furious show. He has since settled down and built a small business for himself. Now that Dallas and Adam have also left the Kings of Tampa, the remaining dancers also see the time for a change has come. They want to disband the troupe for good after one last performance in Myrtle Beach. For Mike, that's a good reason to break out of retirement one last time, hit the country with the boys and drive the women crazy with his moves. But of course the farewell should be absolutely spectacular. So Mike convinces his buddies to rehearse a whole new choreography especially for this last performance, which will not only be remembered by the audience, but also by them for a long time.

After Steven Soderbergh's Magic Mike managed to gross well over $160 million worldwide on a budget of just $7 million, the decision to direct a sequel wasn't a particularly difficult one for those in charge. However, after Soderbergh announced his retirement from the cinema, Matthew McConaughey was no longer available for the sequel and Alex Pettyfer had fallen out with Channing Tatum and others involved on the set to such an extent that he would definitely not be back, it was clear that a second part would probably not be able to quite match the success of the first. However, in order to attract as wide an audience as possible, Magic Mike XXL was tailored to the well-built bodies of the crew around Channing Tatum.

The slightly satirical undertone of the original is just as little left as the unvarnished look at the dark side of life as a stripper. True, even Part 1 could have been considerably more profound here. But in direct comparison, the sequel directed by Gregory Jacobs (The Icy Death) is an extremely superficial meat show for girls' nights with lots of Prosecco. That doesn't make the film bad, of course. Only in direct comparison with the first part, the XXL version does not perform particularly well.

But otherwise Magic Mike XXL has enough entertainment potential to delight its target audience. The dance / strip interludes are - this must be acknowledged even as a man without envy - first-class staged and performed by the actors believable and very professional. In addition, there are also some very amusing scenes - such as when Big Dick Richie (Joe Manganiello) wants to prove in a gas station supermarket that he can make the bored cashier smile with spontaneous dance interludes or also at the first meeting of Mike and Zoe (Amber Heard). Also a few quieter buddy moments and the here and there flashing touch of self-irony save the work from insignificance.

Even if Magic Mike XXL is more for the (female) eye than for the intellect and the quality of the predecessor is not reached, the film offers its audience exactly what it promises: entertaining entertainment - no more, but also no less. And for that there is then also a slowly defoliating at the end: Worth seeing!

Picture + Sound: The Blu-ray presents the film in good picture and sound quality. The visuals are pleasing with a high level of image sharpness and a powerful blend of colors. The matching of contrasts and black levels is also on a good level and support the overall positive impression throughout. The audio is available in the original English in a fairly lively DTS-HD Master Audio mix, with decent surround effects every now and then to keep things moving in the multichannel realm. The German soundtrack offers only a Dolby Digital 5.1Mix, which comes along a bit weaker, but can convince especially during the dance interludes with decent bass and a satisfactory use of the multichannel area. Good!

Extras: The offer is unfortunately a bit meager. Aside from a standard making of (approx. 8:10 mins), there is only an extended dance sequence (approx. 3:35 mins). That's about it.

Conclusion: Magic Mike XXL unfortunately lacks the witty wit and interesting character drawing of the original. However, if you just want to watch some handsome guys dance and strip and see a fairly entertaining road movie, you'll be quite well served here. The Blu-ray offers a good conversion of picture and sound. Only the bonus material, which is just over 10 minutes long, is a real disappointment. But the bottom line is that all this is still enough for a satisfied: recommendable!

An article by Frankfurt-Tipp