I thought it was just some softcore porn for ladies.

Thats the marketing "hook" and yes of course theres eye candy for the ladies.

But with Soderbergh at the helm, theres something smarter below the surface.

Yep. Not to mention, the original opened with a nekkid Olivia Munn.

Magic Mike was an interesting film. It showed a little bit of the darkness associated with strippers (male and female) but it didn't go dark enough, IMO. I thought that the male actors were very good, with Olivia Munn as awesome as usual, but wow, was Cody Horn unwatchable. Just garbage.

I know her father ran the studio the time but good grief, she had absolutely no business in this film and singlehandedly brought her scenes to a dead halt. She made Hayden Christensen look like Brando in comparison. Just so unbelievable, so wooden and so lame.

I was most impressed by Alex Pettyfer. He's a damn good actor.

I may have mentioned this earlier in this thread, but Magic Mike is a complimentary piece to a film Soderbergh directed a few years prior: The Girlfriend Experience. That one stars Sasha Grey (yes, THAT Sasha Grey) as an escort, and the film is similarly about the American economy in a downturn more than it is about hooking (or, in Magic Mike's case, stripping).

I've tried watching it but I guess I was in the wrong mood.

IIRC, the video quality was poor, which was another turnoff, but I'll check it out again sometime on Amazon Prime or Netflix.