Three decades after Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman bewitched audiences in Practical Magic, critics are cursing the highly anticipated sequel.
Practical Magic 2 has earned a 35% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and a 46 score on Metacritic. That’s on par with the original movie’s tallies of 30% and 48, respectively, though Practical Magic‘s audience score at RT was a 73%, proving that the 1998 hit was always a fan favorite, first and foremost.
Reviews for the sequel call out its “wonky script,” while simultaneously praising the Oscar-winning lead actresses for casting “quite the spell” in their encore performances as sister witches Sally Owens (Bullock) and Gillian Owens (Kidman). Susanne Bier directs the project from a screenplay by Akiva Goldsman, Georgia Pritchett, and Kelly Marcel.
Let’s dive into some of the reviews for Practical Magic 2, beginning with:
THE GOOD
Angie Han of The Hollywood Reporter says, “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.”
Adrian Horton of The Guardian adds, “The midnight margarita redux may feel obligatory, but there’s just enough magic here to still, despite everything, cast a peculiar spell.”
“Bier, like Griffin Dunne previously, isn’t afraid to get a little dark and weird with the magic,” claims Brian Truitt of USA Today. “Toss in a smattering of talented actresses [including Joey King as Kylie Owens and Maisie Williams as Antonia Owens] and you’ve got a witches’ brew that’s fairly satisfying.”
THE MIXED
Liz Shannon Miller of Consequence delivers one of the more ho-hum reviews, noting, “Even when cursed with a substandard script, Bullock and Kidman still cast quite the spell.”
Despite being “flawed in new ways from the original,” Amelia Emberwing of The Wrap claims, “Bullock and Kidman don’t miss a beat.” She remarks how Lee Pace, who plays Ian Wright, Sally’s new love interest, is “the hottest he’s ever been.”
Leila Latif of Empire Magazine divulges, “The Owens women remain bewitching company, but this belated sequel trades the original’s unruly feminist magic for something disappointingly conventional. The midnight margaritas are back. The magic, sadly, isn’t.”
THE BAD
Kristen Lopez of The Film Maven criticizes the film’s “wonky script that feels Frankenstein-ed together into an uninspired patchwork of ideas” — ouch. She adds, “It feels like a movie that knows it’s 30 years too late and just tries to make the best of things.”
Todd Gilchrist of Variety complains, “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.”
Alonso Duralde of The Film Verdict actually had issues with both movies, explaining, “The finished product shares many of the original film’s flaws, from careening shifts in tone to not enough screen time for Stockard Channing and Dianne Wiest as Sally and Gillian’s wise, eccentric aunts.”
“The film yearns to be viewed as stylishly earnest,” begins Clarisse Loughrey of The Independent (U.K.). “But no one’s seemingly sat down to properly think through what story deserves to be told about these characters nearly three decades down the line.”
Practical Magic 2 opens in theaters this weekend.
