Magic Mike XXL

This is a sad day. We should all wear black arm bands.

As expected, the Fourth of July holiday weekend saw a lot of people heading to the theater. Unfortunately for the new releases, those people gravitated toward films that have already been in theaters for a few weeks. Once again, Jurassic World and Inside Out dominated the top 10, leaving newcomers like Terminator Genisys and Magic Mike XXL out in the cold.

Too often in film, sex is portrayed through the eyes of a man. It’s their pleasure the film is concerned with, aided by leering shots of naked women. This encourages murky social ideas about who sex is really for, and instead of considering both parties equally, movies tend to reinforce the retrograde thinking that women don’t actually enjoy sex and that we merely exist for the pleasure of man. Enter Magic Mike XXL — a film that is ultimately preoccupied with the sexual satisfaction of women, even though no one actually has sex in it (on screen, anyway).

Magic Mike was a movie about strippers trying to make ends meet in the midst of the Great Recession, the difficulty of modern romance, and the dangers of drug use. Magic Mike XXL is a movie about strippers stripping. And not a whole lot else.

There are a lot of highly complicated moves in Magic Mike. But, despite the degree of difficulty, Channing Tatum never once used a stunt double. All those backflips, grinds and spins were all his moves. Not bad, but when you consider Tatum himself used to be a male stripper, it all makes sense. This is just one of the facts packed into the latest episode of You Think You Know Movies, which backs up on ya with Magic Mike.

This is a pretty weird clip to release from Magic Mike XXL — it is apparently the first time we see Elizabeth Banks’ character, who is surprised to see Channing Tatum’s Mike after he’s been out of the stripper game for a while. They appear to be at a convention, and Banks says they need an MC. And, okay, that’s it. But hey, it’s Elizabeth Banks.

The boys of Magic Mike are returning to theaters this summer, and while a couple of their old friends have been left behind, they’re welcoming a handful of new cast members, including Elizabeth Banks, Donald Glover and Andie MacDowell. Warner Bros. has unleashed almost 50 new stills from Magic Mike XXL, featuring old cast members and new, and you can even spot original Magic Mike director Steven Soderbergh hanging out on set.

Move over, Pitch Perfect 2 and Jurassic World — Magic Mike XXL is the sequel event of the summer. Or it might be, if the trailers are any indication, and at the very least, whoever has been cutting those trailers over at Warner Bros. deserves a promotion. A new clip dropped for the upcoming stripper sequel on The Ellen Show today, featuring the introduction of a new character, played by Ellen Show DJ tWitch.

The first teaser for Magic Mike XXL was a glorious thing of hilarious beauty, perfectly deploying Ginuwine’s “Pony” and promising that yes, this is a sequel we want to see. Now the first full trailer has landed online, and it is super pun-heavy, but also pretty charming and funny, as the gang returns with a few new additions for a rowdy road trip adventure.

Temperatures are getting warmer, days are getting longer and the movies are getting bigger. Yep, summer is here and it’s brought with it one of the most jam-packed movie schedules in years. From superhero movies and post-apocalypitc adventures to rom-coms and animated family flicks, the summer of 2015 has something for everyone. In fact, it may have too much of everything for everyone. You are going to be spending a lot of time in movie theaters over the next three months. And with that, these are the 25 movies you have to have on your radar this summer. Read this list. Study it. Watch the trailers. Create a game plan. Oh, and stay hydrated. Living on popcorn is thirsty business.