Name : Esther Breger / Alias : The New Republic
The movie is capably directed by Gregory Jacobs, Soderbergh's longtime producer and assistant director, who lovingly captures sweaty bodies and glistening beaches and retains the original's loose, relaxed style.

Name : J. R. Jones / Alias : Chicago Reader
The movie is all tease and no release.

Name : Randy Myers / Alias : San Jose Mercury News
What's particularly energizing about "Magic Mike XXL" is how it exuberantly celebrates sexuality, and does so unabashedly and unapologetically. It's something you don't often see in mainstream films.

Name : Wesley Morris / Alias : Grantland
As I sat there laughing, I realized I wasn't only entertained. I was moved and exhilarated. Not since the days of peak Travolta and Dirty Dancing has a film so perfectly nailed something essential about movie lust

Name : Mick LaSalle / Alias : San Francisco Chronicle
This sequel goes beyond disappointment into a sublime realm of embarrassment that's beyond and yet better than merely bad, because it fascinates: What on Earth were they thinking?

Name : Jocelyn Noveck / Alias : Associated Press
Surely "XXL" in the title wasn't meant to indicate the length of the movie, but it rather feels like it. Sometimes a medium is a better fit.

Name : Rebecca Keegan / Alias : Los Angeles Times
Watching it was like opening the wrong gift - that's not my size, and I don't like blue, but thank you, Warner Bros., for even bothering to shop for me. Most of the other studios forgot my birthday.

Name : Ty Burr / Alias : Boston Globe
Matthew McConaughey has wisely opted out of the sequel - his character, stripper-impresario Dallas, has either passed on or moved overseas, it's not entirely clear - and with him goes much of the first film's gonzo spark.

Name : Peter Howell / Alias : Toronto Star
If the suggestive use of spray cream whips you into a froth, boy, do these lads have a movie for you.

Name : A.O. Scott / Alias : New York Times
Rather than trying to replay the first episode and expand on its themes, this installment tosses it all aside like a handyman's tool belt and throws itself headlong into the intoxicating carnality of what is demurely called "male entertainment."

Name : Amy Nicholson / Alias : L.A. Weekly
A topless, sticky-wet movie where almost no one is having sex. The boys aren't even grown up enough to say the word, preferring to ask, "Did you bangy?"

Name : Andrew O'Hehir / Alias : Salon.com
This isn't a perfect movie, but it might be the perfect summer movie for 2015 .

Name : Joe Morgenstern / Alias : Wall Street Journal
However discursive-and repetitive-the movie may be, it delivers the fantasy goods of formidable male bodies in motion, and ups the fantasy ante by making the men as sensitive, self-doubting and nurturing as they are virile.

Name : Moira MacDonald / Alias : Seattle Times
Tatum's dancing (at one point, he exits a room doing a head roll and a suave little twirl) keeps things bright. Somebody needs to cast this guy in a musical - he'd be magic.

Name : Stacey May Fowles / Alias : Globe and Mail
Magic Mike XXL is much more meditative than your average buddy comedy, and the unscripted feel gives the cast the freedom to exploit their subtle comedic talents.

Name : Todd McCarthy / Alias : Hollywood Reporter
Magic Mike XXL is ridiculously entertaining.

Name : Richard Roeper / Alias : Chicago Sun-Times
Tatum has come a long way since his "Step Up" days (he was excellent in last year's "Foxcatcher"), but he makes a number of unfortunate choices here.

Name : Leah Greenblatt / Alias : Entertainment Weekly
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!).

Name : Cath Clarke / Alias : Time Out
Tatum is once again the main attraction, back with his Oscar-worthy dry hump (his acting's not bad either).

Name : Peter Travers / Alias : Rolling Stone
Magic Mike XXL delivers rowdy, raunchy fun, but without McConaughey, it's a long way from "awright, awright, awright."

Name : Linda Holmes / Alias : NPR
The movie . is so infectiously, brazenly pleased about literally everything that happens in it that it's hard not to leave in the same frame of mind.

Name : David Edelstein / Alias : New York Magazine/Vulture
Sure, this is a dumb sequel and everyone's on one level slumming. But they're slumming in style.

Name : Ann Hornaday / Alias : Washington Post
"What do women want?" was a question that even confounded Freud. Despite its admirable intentions, "Magic Mike XXL" hasn't got a clue, either.

Name : Joe Williams / Alias : St. Louis Post-Dispatch
With stingy portions and plenty of filler, "Magic Mike XXL" is the worst sausage party ever.

Name : Lou Lumenick / Alias : New York Post
"Magic Mike XXL" has a plot skimpier than the jockstraps worn by its male strippers with hearts of gold. But not to worry.

Name : Christopher Orr / Alias : The Atlantic
If anything, better than its predecessor: looser, funnier, stranger, and vastly more subversive, a buddy road comedy that unexpectedly evolves into a celebration of female desire.

Name : Peter Rainer / Alias : Christian Science Monitor
Magic Mike XXL targets its audience as relentlessly as a personal trainer targets abs. This sequel to "Magic Mike" mostly dispenses with plot in order to serve up what it does best: showcase male stripper gyrations.

Name : Stephen Whitty / Alias : Newark Star-Ledger
A guiltlessly dumb movie that mostly coasts by on pecs appeal, hip-hop beats and pelvic thrusts. Lots of pelvic thrusts.

Name : Connie Ogle / Alias : Miami Herald
When you use "XXL" in the title of a movie about male strippers, certain promises are made. But if Magic Mike XXL is bulging with anything, it's inane conversation.

Name : Katie Rife / Alias : AV Club
Magic Mike XXL is a piece of arm candy, as shallow as a mud puddle and just as bright. But that doesn't mean it isn't fun to hang out with.

Name : Joe Neumaier / Alias : New York Daily News
Sorry, ladies, but the biggest bulge in "Magic Mike XXL" is the one in the movie's finely developed heart muscle.

Name : Michael Phillips / Alias : Chicago Tribune
This time the jokes are heavier, more on-the-nose, though a surprising percentage of them work anyway.

Name : Preston Jones / Alias : Fort Worth Star-Telegram/DFW.com
Delivered with all the subtlety of a crotch to the face, Magic Mike XXL is one of the most cynical, shallow sequels in recent memory.

Name : Rafer Guzman / Alias : Newsday
This rambling, plotless sequel might have passed muster with more dancing. The stilted dialogue is no substitute.

Name : James Berardinelli / Alias : ReelViews
Too many elements that made the first film an enjoyable experience are missing.

Name : Kristin Tillotson / Alias : Minneapolis Star Tribune
By trying to appeal to young women, middle-aged moms, gay men and spring-break bros at the same time, the movie spreads itself too thin, filling time better spent on manly moves with too much talk and obvious demographic pandering.

Name : Alonso Duralde / Alias : TheWrap
Too often this movie feels like an overlong finale episode of a long-running TV series, one that assumes that we're really invested in these characters and their desire to hang up their thongs after putting on one last great showcase.

Name : Rex Reed / Alias : New York Observer
Except for the admirable testosterone on display that represents hours in the gym instead of the acting class, the rest of Magic Mike XXL is seriously stupid.

Name : Christy Lemire / Alias : ChristyLemire.com
If you're not a fireman or a police officer or a cowboy beneath those breakaway pants, then who are you, really? This is the central question of Magic Mike XXL.

Name : Barbara VanDenburgh / Alias : Arizona Republic
To the film's credit, it knows it's ridiculous. It's aiming for ridiculous, and it hits the mark as precisely as the strippers groove half-naked to their beats.