Stripping isn’t comic or tragic: it’s just great. But any scruples or worries about the absurdity and banality of male stripping have been ruled out of court from the outset, simply by virtue of Mike’s decision to take a break from his woodworking livelihood. They deride other dancers for doing a Twilight-style vampire act, but then they themselves pull a sub-Christian Grey bondage routine with a giggling woman dragged up on stage and chained to a bed. The male-stripping scenes don’t necessarily look demeaning but certainly toe-curlingly ridiculous, especially as everyone has solemnly resolved to get rid of the consciously comic corniness. We’re always waiting for something important or interesting to happen, but it never really does. The guys have the same reverence for Myrtle Beach as the loveable robbers of the Ocean’s Eleven movies had for Las Vegas, but there’s no narrative pull or jeopardy about anything that happens on screen. So that’s the last we hear about the tiresome business of making furniture. But when his erstwhile buddies slide back into town in a slather of babyoil, on their way to a “male stripper convention” in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, Mike decides he’s bored with the world of carpentry – and impulsively joins them. “Magic” Mike Lane, played by Tatum, is back, quietly getting on with his post-stripping career of creating chairs and dressers to his own super-creative design.
They’ve also junked the do-I-really-wanna-be-a-male-stripper angst which allegedly gave the first film depth, or at any rate some dramatic interest.
His character from the first film has gone, so as far as that prestigious Oscar-winner is concerned, the Magic Mike brand has gone from the McConaissance to the McDarkages. 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.
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