Practical Magic 2 is a bit of an unusual cinema release in 2026. The 1998 original was a (somewhat) lightweight hangout movie - plus a crime drama, plus a bunch of other things. These days those films tend to exist on streaming platforms, unless there's a good reason to get fans up off the couch. Maybe fans of the original will bring their daughters along to pass on the torch of midnight dance-drinking?
At the end of the first film it was hoped that the curse hanging over the Owens family - that if any of them fell in love, the object of that love would die - had been broken. Aiden Quinn is not back for this film, so that's a nope.
Sally Owens (Sandra Bullock) remains opposed to the family's magical heritage and has managed to keep her daughters - Kylie (Joey King) and Antonia (Maisie Williams) - from the dark(ish) arts, even as their aunts Francis (Stockard Channing) and Jet (Dianne Wiest) have been using their powers to help out the local community on the small Massachusetts island where they live.
As for Sally's sister Gilly (Nicole Kidman), she's still a free spirit, out for a good time because falling in love will just plant another body in the local graveyard. Unfortunately nobody told Kylie this, and when her boyfriend Gideon (Xolo Mariduena) turns up for Jet's birthday party, bad news is not far behind.
Thanks to a magic book and some extra family turmoil, Kylie is soon heading over to the UK to try and reverse the family curse. Sally and Gilly (and Gilly's luggage) are soon in hot pursuit (Antonia, a medical student, gets stuck watching Gideon's comatose body). But is Professor Ian Wright (Lee Pace) all he seems? Well, he is naked when they find him so he's got nothing to hide there.
It's rare to say a movie's big problem is that it has too much story, but even pushing past two hours this feels like it's skimming over things at more than one point. We should be getting to spend time with some fun characters, not checking off plot points; while Gilly does fairly well as the (mostly) comedy sidekick, Sally rarely gets time to come out of her shell, even once Professor Wright starts to warm things up.
While the three generations of sisters all have magic powers to some extent, the power of sisterhood - you know, hanging out and laughing and dancing and so on - gets at least as much screentime as magically slamming cupboards and shooting force beams out of your hands. Which is to say, not as much as it should.
The older aunts do their best with their limited screen time (Wiest is especially strong), while it's hard not to feel a little sorry for the largely sidelined Antonia - hopefully they're planning a medical-themed magical spin off (why hasn't someone tried to make a medical drama where the doctor has magical powers? Seems like a winner).
It's too drawn out to be a fun hang, and Kidman's bubbly performance overshadows Bullock's more angsty turn, but it doesn't disgrace the original. Which is a pretty low bar, let's be honest, and this does replicate many of the original's problems: a messy story, a haphazard approach to magic (do you need to cast spells? Not really), stop-start pacing, and a lack of awareness of the strengths of the material.
The real magic here is good vibes; no wonder the grumpy bummer bad guy, who keeps prattling on about revenge (so much so that at one stage his big victory monologue is actually faded out so the women can talk) comes off as a real loser.
- Anthony Morris
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