Review: Practical Magic 2

Image courtesy of Warner Bros.

A lot of old movies and TV shows are getting recycled to cash in on nostalgia, some of which are welcome while others are, perhaps, unnecessary.

“Practical Magic 2” is a case of the latter. The original 1998 film was a modestly amusing dramedy about two sisters named Sally (Sandra Bullock) and Gillian Owens (Nicole Kidman) who lived with their spinster aunts, Jet (Dianne Weist) and Franny (Stockard Channing), all of whom happened to be witches.

The women in the family were victims of a centuries-spanning curse that ensured anyone they fell in love with would die. The picture – and its sequel – are based on novels by Alice Hoffman and could probably play on a triple feature with “The Witches of Eastwick” and “Bell, Book and Candle.”

In this sequel, Sally has long been living in a sort of denial of her witchy powers – especially after her husband (Aidan Quinn, not present here) died – while Gillian remains a free spirit and a heavy influence on Sally’s now-grown daughters, Kylie (Joey King) and Antonia (Maisie Williams).

Kylie has been sneaking around with a young man (Xolo Mariduena) and, as it turns out, has told him that she loves him, which leads to an accident that lands him in a coma. Distraught and angry at her family that she has been left in the dark regarding the family’s curse, she travels to England to break the curse. Why England? That’s apparently where the woman who started the curse was born, although the details are a bit confusing.

Sally and Gillian, who frequently bicker, follow Kylie across the pond to protect her and, in the process, Sally meets a professor (Lee Pace) on whom she develops a crush, but keeps it at bay for obvious reasons.

On the one hand, the film has a cast of great actresses – Kidman, Weist, Bullock, and Channing, so it’s a shame to see them all forced to go through the motions of a mostly middling sequel to a movie that’s now 28 years old.

Kidman gets to shine a little as the wilder sister, but it’s a primarily by-the-numbers sequel. Mostly, the cast revisits the same character beats from the 1998 picture.

The film has its moments – there are a few legitimate laughs to be had – but “Practical Magic 2” joins “Masters of the Universe,” “Scary Movie 6,” and “Mortal Kombat II” are further proof that not all existing IP must continue to be revisited.