It’s great when a movie understands exactly what it is. ‘Magic Mike’ was an intelligently made Steven Soderbergh movie about life in Great Recession America. But it became a huge surprise hit in the summer of 2012—grossing $167 million worldwide against a budget of just $7 million—because it had Channing Tatum, Matthew McConaughey, and an assortment of the finest man-candy in Hollywood bumping and grinding with their shirts off. The marketing for ‘Magic Mike XXL’ seems to have an innate sense of this. The first poster is a picture of Tatum with his shirt off, pointing at his crotch where the word “Coming” is suggestively placed. And this teaser trailer is basically Channing Tatum (and the rest of his team of shredded male strippers) dancing, stripping, and then dancing with their shirts off. I smell box-office gold. Wait, no, that’s baby oil and Muscle Milk. But those things smell a lot like box-office gold when they’re in ‘Magic Mike XXL.’

Soderbergh’s relinquished the director’s chair for this sequel (though he did photograph it for his long-time A.D.-turned-director Gregory Jacobs) and McConaughey’s off somewhere delivering a soliloquy in a Lincoln (R.I.P. Dallas and “Ladies of Tampa”). But let’s face it: The audience doesn’t care about that. Is Channing Tatum grinding? Is he T-shirt impaired? Yes and yes? Done and done. ‘Magic Mike XXL’ comes to theaters on July 1.’

More From KKTX FM