If you break down the audience demographics for every movie that ever earned more than $100 million US, I’m betting that 2012’s Magic Mike attracted a smaller percentage of heterosexual males than any of the others. Sure, I can think of additional contenders - Sex and the City, My Big Fat Greek Wedding, Twilight - but all of those had more appeal to straight guys than Mike. Face it: a movie about male strippers is going to be a difficult sell for that group.

That said, Mike did boast one element that may have helped it a little with hetero guys: the presence of Steven Soderbergh in the director’s chair. I saw Mike theatrically solely due to my respect for Soderbergh. I don’t think many other straight males joined me, but at least Soderbergh became part of the appeal.

With 2015’s Magic Mike XXL, Soderbergh hands over the directorial reins to Gregory Jacobs. Set three years after the first film, XXL finds Mike Lane (Channing Tatum) as the head of his own moderately successful home design business. He left the male stripping business behind him, but this life revisits him when he learns that former colleague Dallas has died.

Or maybe not. When Mike goes to the wake, he finds out that Tarzan (Kevin Nash) lied to him. Dallas bailed on a lucrative trip to a stripper convention and Mike’s old pals want to recruit him to come back to the game one more time for a trip to Myrtle Beach. There they plan to blow the doors off the convention as one final fling.

XXL made barely half of the first film’s total. With a low budget of less than $15 million, it turned a profit, but I can’t imagine those involved feel all that enthusiastic about a continuation of the series.

Somehow I suspect better financial returns would’ve prompted a third Mike film, as it’s clear XXL exists for monetary reasons alone. While I don’t think Magic Mike was an especially good movie, at least it offered a real story and developed characters. It told an actual narrative with A to Z progression along the way.

On the other hand, XXL presents no purpose other than to generate revenue. I’m hesitant to call it a bad movie because I’m not sure I consider it to be an actual movie. It’s a collection of dance scenes connected by random character moments, without the vaguest development or cohesion along the way.

I like Tatum, but he does nothing to redeem this film. He sleepwalks through XXL, and none of his co-stars can add any pep. We get some talent here, with new cast members like Jada Pinkett Smith, Andie McDowell and Elizabeth Banks, but they do nothing to elevate the material.

Not that I blame the actors, as the morass of a script leaves them out in the cold. I can’t overstate the emptiness of this “story”, as XXL has nothing to say. We don’t see growth in the characters and we don’t care about them. We’re just stuck with endless scenes that show stripping and/or attempts at female empowerment.

And I do mean endless. The first movie stretched a little thin at 110 minutes - mainly due to the many dance scenes – but at least it gave us a story along the way.

Without a real tale to tell, XXL just plods along forever and ever. I don’t know how many times I checked the timer on my Blu-ray player, but I did so frequently, and I always felt stunned at how much movie remained. XXL includes about 10 minutes of story that it stretches to almost two hours – two slow, painful hours.

One or two scenes offer minor charm, but between the one-dimensional characters, the negligible narrative and the pandering “all women should be treated like queens” moments, I can barely remember any positives. XXL offers a thoroughly awful movie that does nothing other than taint the first film’s legacy.

Magic Mike XXL appears in an aspect ratio of approximately 2.40:1 on this Blu-Ray Disc. If you saw the first movie, you’ll know what to expect from this good but erratic transfer.

Sharpness was usually good. Like the prior flick, interior shots could be tentative, but most of the movie displayed nice clarity and accuracy. No jagged edges or shimmering occurred, and edge haloes remained absent. Print flaws also failed to mar the presentation.

Colors followed the same template as the original movie. That meant stylized hues, with an emphasis on teal, yellow, red and purple. The hues seemed well-rendered within those choices. Blacks were fairly deep and shadows offered fine delineation. Nothing here excelled, but the image seemed positive.

Don’t expect a lot from the film’s acceptable DTS-HD MA 5.1 soundtrack. Music and dialogue dominated the soundscape, so don’t expect a killer mix. The score used the speakers well, and the effects fleshed out the environment in a positive manner.

Material tended toward the environmental side of the street, as livelier sequences popped up infrequently. Still, the mix offered a good sense of place, and the occasional semi-dynamic sequence – usually at clubs – worked better.

Audio quality was always solid. Music sounded warm and full, while effects were clear and accurate. When necessary, the track featured tight low-end response. Speech sounded natural and distinctive. This was a perfectly decent soundtrack; it just didn’t do anything especially impressive.

As was the case with the first film’s Blu-ray, XXL skimps on extras. The Moves of Magic Mike XXL runs eight minutes, 35 seconds and includes notes from producer/actor Channing Tatum, choreographer Alison Faulk, assistant choreographer Teresa Espinosa, director Gregory Jacobs, producer Reid Carolin and actors Kevin Nash, Adam Rodriguez, Matt Bomer, Stephen “Twitch” Boss and Joe Manganiello. As implied by the title, “Moves” looks at the film’s dance scenes. It delivers a moderately interesting look at the topic.

An Extended Malik Dance Scene goes for three minutes, 42 seconds. To the surprise of no one, this shows an extended dance scene with the Malik character. Fans might like it, but it did nothing for me.

Finally, Georgia lasts two minutes, nine seconds. It offers some notes from Jacobs, Carolin, Rodriguez, production designer Howard Cummings and DP/executive producer Steven Soderbergh. We get quick notes about sets and locations. A smattering of decent notes emerge, but this mostly feels like an ad for Savannah.

A second platter provides a DVD Copy of XXL. It lacks the extended dance scene but offers the other two components.

After the relative charms of the first film, Magic Mike XXL provides a meandering mess. Devoid of any form of character or story development, the movie becomes a long, tedious ride. The Blu-ray provides mostly good picture and audio but lacks notable supplements. Too long and too boring, XXL fizzles.