Practical Magic 2 (A PopEntertainment.com Movie Review)
PRACTICAL MAGIC 2 (2026)
Starring Sandra Bullock, Nicole Kidman, Joey King, Lee Pace, Maisie Williams, Xolo Maridueña, Solly McLeod, Dianne Wiest, Stockard Channing, Amy Bowden, Aimée Cassettari, Ema Cavolli, Scarlett Nasrat, Harriett Scott, Logan Truter, Naledi Percival, Roman Anderson, Riley Chung, Teddy Russell, Emma Bown, Rachel Handshaw, Cassie Bradley and Liz Kingsman.
Screenplay by Akiva Goldsman and Georgia Pritchett & Kelly Marcel.
Directed by Susanne Bier.
Distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures. 130 minutes. Rated PG-13.
I’m not going to lie: Practical Magic was one of the last movies I ever expected to see resurrected. When it came out in 1998, the Sandra Bullock/Nicole Kidman witch‑sister dramedy was considered a pretty big box‑office disappointment. As far as I knew, it had quietly faded into the pop‑culture netherworld.
But apparently – much like another ’90s witch‑sister flop, Hocus Pocus – it found a second life through cable, video, and streaming. I’d heard about the cult following for Hocus Pocus. But Practical Magic? That one was news to me.
Now, nearly 30 years later, it’s getting a sequel no one knew was coming and even fewer thought was necessary.
Like most people, I missed Practical Magic during its original run. I finally watched it a week before this screening just to prepare. It’s cute, it’s quirky, it’s less cartoonish than Hocus Pocus, and it spins out of control in the last act.
The biggest surprise was remembering that it was directed by actor Griffin Dunne. It also made me wonder whatever happened to Goran Visnjic, who gained fame on the long-running series ER soon after playing Kidman’s evil boyfriend here. (He dies twice in the original film, so obviously he’s not back for round two.)
Most of the other original cast returns – except for Bullock’s daughters. Those roles have been recast with Joey King and Maisie Williams, both noticeably younger than the actresses they're replacing. Evan Rachel Wood is still working regularly, so her absence is curious. Alexandra Artrip hasn’t acted since the original, so her non‑return makes sense. Still, it’s odd that the daughters have aged only about twenty years while everyone else has aged nearly thirty.
Particularly since, more than the original film, the daughters play a pretty substantial role in this storyline. (Well, at least King’s character of Kylie does, Williams’ Antonia is still somewhat in the background of the action.)
Practical Magic 2 takes the main conflict of the original film – that the women of the Owens family have a curse on them which means that any man they love will die soon after – and brings it into a new generation. Wait a second, wasn’t that curse supposedly solved in the first movie?
What can I say? Practical Magic 2 is cute, it’s quirky, it’s less cartoonish than Hocus Pocus 2, and it spins out of control well before the last act.
In fact, this movie seems to be working so hard to justify its existence that it quickly gets a bit exhausting. The constant comic one-liners are generally not all that funny, the witchcraft scenes tend to lack a sense of magic or wonder, the eventual bad guy isn’t introduced until well into the film and his character is barely given a thumbnail sketch, and the eventual climax seems awfully simple for a curse that bewitched and befuddled a family for 10 generations.
We’ve waited (well, someone has waited) 28 years for this?
It’s kind of a shame really, because both Bullock and Kidman seem to be enjoying returning to this world and still have terrific chemistry. They do often speak over each other’s lines – but I think that is a stylistic choice for the film, since there is more overlapping dialogue here than anywhere this side of an Aaron Sorkin film. It’s particularly nice seeing Bullock in her first film in four years.
Once again, Bullock plays Sally Owens, who has been squelching her witchy powers because she lost both of her husbands to the curse. She also has raised her two daughters without telling them the family secret – that they are all witches – even though that seems to be pretty well-known in their picturesque New England hometown.
Kidman is again Gillian, Sally’s more adventurous and troublesome sister who still uses her powers, but she has agreed to keep the secret from her nieces. Sally still lives with her eccentric aunts Frances and Jet (Stockard Channing and Dianne Wiest). Her girls have moved out and are getting on with their lives – Antonia as a doctor and Kylie as a student.
Kylie has also fallen in love with Gideon (Xolo Maridueña), and of course due to the curse he is in an accident soon after they declare their mutual love, leaving him in a coma. When her mother and aunts tell the daughters that they really are witches and the curse is real, Kylie decides to take it upon herself to break the curse.
So, even though she just found out that she is a witch and has no idea of how to handle her powers, she steals a spell book from Aunt Jet's belongings and flies to England – where the curse began. Sally and Gillian follow her – all while Sally has to remember how to get in touch with her own powers.
The change between New England and England is not just geographical, it is a shift of tone, attitudes and culture – going from the autumnal color and quaint beauty of their hometown to the morose grays and darker, overcast situations in the old country. It doesn’t just change the scenery, it mirrors the film’s slide into heavier, less enchanting territory.
It also adds a potential love interest and a mad villain, both of whom seem a bit random in this scenario.
So, is Practical Magic 2 worth seeing even with its faults? Possibly, and if so, mostly because of the cast. Bullock and Kidman’s movie-star charisma gives the film a comfortable vibe and King and Williams add a burst of youth to the proceedings. Lee Pace even adds a bit of color as the London academic who helps Sally finally come to terms with her powers.
Most of the true feeling and humanity come from Channing and Wiest – although they are not given nearly enough to do here – particularly Wiest. Wiest's Aunt Jet is given a dramatic early exit that sets the film's darker tone, which makes her absence from most of the story all the more frustrating – she's barely in the film before she's gone. But it is lovely to see Channing – who recently described herself as “happy being a recluse” in her quiet London life – back on screen.
It may not be for everyone, but Practical Magic 2 may be just the manifestation that the cult following of the original needed after all these years. Still, let’s hope that we aren’t again surprised by Practical Magic 3 coming down the line sometime around 2054.
Jay S. Jacobs
Copyright ©2026 PopEntertainment.com. All rights reserved. Posted: September 10, 2026.
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