I wasn’t sure if I was going to get away with a girls night out after being away for a few days last week, but luckily for me I have an awesome husband and he was home early, for a Friday (plus I cleaned the house and had dinner ready to go!! It’s all in the prep peeps!!)

So with the home front under control, I was able to walk out the door at 6.45pm and head off to dinner with some old work friends… followed by Magic Mike XXL.

I had seen Magic Mike and could appreciate it’s, erm, storyline the first time around… so I was looking forward to seeing what the second instalment would bring.  Sequels rarely live up to the hype so it was easy to go in with minimal expectations.

And I love it when a movie exceeds my expectations!  And this one certainly did!

Second time around, the storyline (as in the legitimate storyline) was actually much better than the first.  There wasn’t as many dance scenes but those that were there were hot! Channing Tatum in the workshop scene right at the start was the first clue.

I was thrilled to see Gabriel Iglesias AKA Fluffy returning as Tobias and the introduction of Twitch which many people would recognise from the US version of So you think you can Dance and most recently on Ellen.  Even Jada Pinkett Smith knocked it out of the ballpark with her portrayal of Rome.

But for me the stand out had to be Joe Manganiello – how he and Sofia Vegara have not spontaneously combusted in real life I will never ever know.  The scene at the service station was pure pure gold!

The end, which the culminates in all the boys doing their individual routines is amazing and Jada as the MC was awesome.  Channing and Twitch’s routine was the highlight, although Joe’s wedding one was a close second.

If you weren’t planning to go and see Magic Mike XXL, I’d highly recommend that you grab a few gal pals and go and check it out.  It won’t matter if you haven’t seen the first one.  An ogle-fest for sure, MMXXL is actually a lot better than I was expecting and I certainly wasn’t expecting funny.  But I will fess up to the fact that I actually snorted in a few places!

It’s not going to win an oscar but it was highly entertaining, definitely worth it for the perve factor and surprisingly funny.

So to get the ball rolling, here is the official trailer…

Have you seen Magic Mike XXL yet? Of movies that have sequels, do you have a favourite sequel that is better than the original?