Is Practical Magic 2 Cursed?

It’s going to take a lot of margaritas to ease this pain. Critics are cursing Practical Magic 2, the legasequel of the 1998 cult film. And Griffin Dunne can’t blame this one on a real witch. What people liked about the first film was the hangout vibes between Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman as sister witches. Compared to the first movie, Vulture’s Angelica Jade Bastién writes, PM2 is “has none of that same joy, only the overly calculated machinations of studio executives and actors who won’t let their characters grow. Sally is back to where she started emotionally in the first film, wary and resentful of her great power in the wake of her husband’s death. Meanwhile, Gillian is now merely comic relief, with little to do in this belabored and pointless follow-up.”

The film is Bullock’s first in four years, and critics are ever-so-faintly praising her return to the big screen. “If the jokes seem a bit more exaggerated this time and their bond much less complex, the palpable affection coursing between Kidman and Bullock remains as sturdy a foundation as ever,” writes The Hollywood Reporter’s Angie Han. Despite bad reviews, Warner Bros. is pushing the film hard. Bullock and Kidman have been doing the talk shows, the junkets, and even Therapuss. The reviews below haven’t yet put a damper on a rumored Practical Magic 3. But before there’s a threeqel, read on to see why critics aren’t loving the sequel.

“Rather than imagine the ways these characters might have evolved over nearly 30 years, the script by Akiva Goldsman, Georgia Pritchett, and Kelly Marcel regresses the women in order to retread many of the beats of the original film. In effect, this sequel argues that heteronormative romance is the most important thing in a woman’s life, despite all its hand waving toward sisterhood and familial bonds.” —Angelica Jade Bastién, Vulture

“Back in 1998, Practical Magic stood out from its competition by focusing as much or more on its female bonds than its romantic relationships. Looking back at it now, however, it’s a meandering, disjointed film that glosses over complexities and reduces insights to feelgood platitudes. Had its stars (and shrewd producers) kept the running time down, Practical Magic 2 could have been an improvement on its predecessor. Instead, this late sequel delivers a retread of the signposts that made the original a beloved fixture for certain moviegoers, while failing to correct the flaws that made everyone else all but forget it for three decades.” — Todd Gilchrist, Variety

“Even if Practical Magic was a beloved part of your childhood, it’s hard to see what would excite you about this sequel. Bier’s addition to the franchise is as bizarrely paced as the original and significantly less charming. “We’re all pallbearers of our ancestor’s pain,” explains Pace’s character in a needless piece of exposition. But this sentiment feels applicable to the kind of moviegoing that Practical Magic 2 typifies. Audiences are asked to carry a neverending load of subpar sequels, haunted by characters and worlds which never needed to be resurrected, all in service of bearing the weight of someone else’s nostalgia.” — Anna McKibbin, AV Club

“I, too, thought Magic was in my past. But no. In order to meet 2026’s nostalgia quota, here’s a 28-years-later followup to the cult flop about margarita-loving sister witches starring Bullock and Nicole Kidman. By the pricking of my thumbs, something wretched this way comes!” — Johnny Oleksinski, NY Post

“But if the relentless momentum makes the film breeze by somewhat faster than its 130-minute run time, it also precludes the sort of complex, nuanced storytelling required to lend the narrative any emotional heft. We’re given hardly a moment to mourn Sally’s estrangement from her supernatural gifts before she’s taken full possession of them again; we get only the vaguest glimpse of Sally and Kylie’s relationship before it’s ruptured and then repaired again.” — Angie Han, The Hollywood Reporter