Practical Magic 2 Review: An Unfunny, Sloppily Assembled Sequel

Susanne Bier's witchcraft comedy "Practical Magic 2" is a chittering, shabby, directionless margarita vacation. It's a rambling, shabby-chic hang-out movie for divorced Gen-X aunts who own "It's Wine O'Clock Somewhere" t-shirts. The film contains a lot of bromides about the ineffable powers of sisterhood and femalekind's super/natural advantage over their male counterparts, but really the movie is waiting, waiting, waiting to get to the moment when Sally Owens (Sandra Bullock) and her sister Gillian (Nicole Kidman) can wiggle their fingers at a blender, and magically blend up some of their patented "midnight margaritas" while Harry Nilsson's "Coconut" plays on the soundtrack. 

This, of course, is a recreated moment from Griffin Dunne's original "Practical Magic" from 1998, wherein Sally's and Owen's own aunts, Frances and Jet (Stockard Channing and Dianne Wiest), instigated the tradition. It was likely the "Coconut" scene in the original — a prolonged, drunken late-night kitchen dance — that cemented its reputation as a notable sleepover classic. The original, to remind readers, wasn't a huge hit in 1998, but it wormed its way deep into the pop consciousness, developing a cult audience over the years. Here in 2026, the fans of the original are now old enough to buy ankle flasks and take a few hits as they buy tickets for their bored nieces and treat them to another hit of nostalgia. 

The bored nieces, however, will likely not respond to "Practical Magic 2," because it is staggeringly unfunny, and really sloppily assembled. Bier, Bullock, and Kidman have taken a Paul Feig approach to the material, assuming that constant overlapping chatter and awkward, sputtering non-communication are instantly going to be the same as humor and charm. The unfunny yammering is exacerbated by the film's loose, awkward editing. The movie itself had too many margaritas. 

"Practical Magic 2" is bifurcated around the middle, with its first half devoted to the romantic tragedy of the Owens family curse, and the second half being a globe-trekking adventure that climaxes in witches hurling spells at one another over a flaming pentagram. Although tattered and barely sewn together, the first half holds the film's emotional weight, and provides a scant few genuine emotional moments and sororal togetherness. The back half is full-bore idiocy wherein newly introduced characters growl about usurping power, lost lineages, and the fate of a Paper Source version of the Necronomicon. 

The movie is set 25 years after the events of the first "Practical Magic," although somehow the 11-year-old Kylie from the original, once played by Evan Rachel Wood, has only aged into a 27-year-old Joey King. The Owens sisters have long held an intergenerational curse, wherein any man they fall in love with will die prematurely. Sally tried to find love in the first movie, and even had two daughters, Kylie and Antonia, but her husband (the one played by Aidan Quinn) only makes a cameo as a gravestone this time around, so things didn't end well for him. 

Kylie is now old enough to fall in love, and has found a Flawless Rescue Stud in the form of Gideon (Xolo Maridueña), the most dashing man on the planet. As soon as Kylie dares to say "I love you" aloud, Gideon is hit by a car, "Final Destination" style, free to spend the rest of the movie in a coma. 

Despite the plot contrivance, the moment when Kylie says "I love you" by accident is heartfelt and sweet. It's strong enough to convince us that this perfect man is worth saving. It's a gentle moment of romantic authenticity that holds the rest of this shabby-ass movie together.

The posh, gentle setting of "Practical Magic 2" will serve, for some, as first-rate luxury porn. The Owens family lives in a giant seaside home, and the dotty aunts make ends meet by selling love spells to locals. The move begins with a fancy birthday party for Jet, and her cakes and appetizers are being prepared in a kitchen larger than most Los Angeles apartments. It's a WitchKraft Dinner. Half of the fantasy of "Practical Magic 2" is being a powerful witch who can manipulate reality. The other half is being a homeowner who can afford to jet off to England and stay in over-pillowed B&Bs at a moment's notice.

Jet has been hiding the fact that she has been followed by death beetles for about a week. Death beetles chirrup around any witch who is about to kick the bucket, you see. Jet also recently came into possession of her own miniature grimoire that possibly holds the secret to breaking the Owens sisters' curse. Once Gideon has been dispatched, Kylie scoops up the evil book and heads to England, where the curse is said to have originated. Sally and Gillian trek after her, while Frances and Kylie's sister Antonia (Maisie Williams) look over Gideon's body. The scenes of Stockard Channing and Maisie Williams casting spells and riffing on each other is the worst kind of padding, a need for the filmmakers to give these two famous actresses something to do. 

Of course, what the audience wants to see are chattery bonding scenes between Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman, and in this regard, "Practical Magic 2" provides. In the movie's back half, as the sisters are trekking around England, they never stop talking over each other, whining and accusing one another, ad nauseam. Some might find this exciting. I found it unbearably obnoxious. Neither of these characters has wit or humor, so their complaining sounds like, well, complaining. 

Because this film is also a romance, it provides Sally with another Flawless Rescue Stud in the form of Professor Ian Wright, played by Lee Pace in full-blown smolder mode. He knows how to use magic as well, and he will give the bulk of the film's late-stage exposition. Because he's played by Lee Pace, though, we know that he, too, is worth breaking a curse for. 

Overall, the tone is all over the place. It's sappy and sentimental, then features scenes of people being stabbed through the heart with cursed daggers. I suppose this is in-keeping with the scattered tone of the original, which featured midnight margaritas as well as a man being murdered and buried in a shallow grave in a garden. But whereas the first stood on its own two whimsically magical feet, "Practical Magic 2" feels like it can barely get out of its chair. It riffs and shambles it way through the lives of these lovelorn goofballs, pausing often to have sisters say how much they love each other. If you love Sandy and Nic, maybe it will be enough to watch them do anything. I would have preferred a good script as well. 

/Film Rating: 4 out of 10

"Practical Magic 2" opens in theaters on September 10, 2026.