{"link":"/movies/practical-magic-2/","rating":2,"review":"Twenty-eight years after the original, Warner Bros. sends Sally and Gillian Owens back to the old house for another round of curses and family trouble. Susanne Bier takes over from Griffin Dunne. The 1998 film was a slight thing, but it had a loose, warm charm that turned it into a sleepover staple. This sequel has the same house, the same names and the same sisters. It has almost none of that charm. It plays like a studio checking a nostalgia box rather than a story anyone needed to tell.\n\nSandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman slip back into their roles with ease. They still have real chemistry, and their scenes together are the only ones with any spark. The problem is how they look. Both sisters appear to have barely aged in nearly three decades, and the film never acknowledges it. In a movie about witches, that could have been a joke or a plot point. Instead it becomes a distraction. Joey King and Maisie Williams step in as the grown-up Kylie and Antonia, but the script gives them little to do beyond reacting. Lee Pace brings his usual easy charm to a thin role.\n\nThe script is the weak link. It reaches for themes that sit oddly even in a world of curses and midnight margaritas, and it never commits to any of them. Scenes drift from family drama to dark magic to comedy without a clear line between them. Bier gives everything a glossy finish, but the film rarely feels lived in the way the original did. The soundtrack keeps teasing the 1998 album, which was half the reason people loved that movie. It nods at that greatness and never tries to match it.\n\nPractical Magic 2 is not a disaster. It is just flat. Fans will enjoy seeing Bullock and Kidman together again, and that pleasure lasts about as long as the first scene. After that, the film has nothing new to say and no fresh way to say it. The original's magic was in its mood, and this sequel never finds it.","slug":"practical-magic-2","tagline":"A sequel that brings back the Owens sisters and leaves the magic behind. The cast has aged well. Too well, in fact.","title":"Practical Magic 2","year":2026}