There’s one kind of review that I absolutely hate writing. You know the one… it’s a nostalgic fave. There’s lots of love for it in the theater. Heck, people are in cosplay… and they’re all “getting it” far more than I am. 

Friends, this was my experience watching Practical Magic 2. 

The 1998 first film, admittedly, wasn’t my nostalgic favorite. I remember seeing it in theaters, but something about it just didn’t land with 12-year-old me. It wasn’t bad; I just… didn’t remember it. 

I didn’t revisit Practical Magic again until much later, two or three years ago. As a moony thirty-something? Kids, I understood the heck out of that film. This might be generational bias, but in 2026 we struggle to equal the delight of 1990s romance movies. When Sally (Sandra Bullock) walks down the street to find Michael (Mark Feuerstein), and Faith Hill’s “This Kiss” blares unapologetically over the score? Cinema. 

This brings me to Practical Magic 2…

Fans, take note. I liked this movie a heck of a lot less than the theater audience around me. There were laughs. There were excited titters. There was hooting and hollering. I, meanwhile, was befuddled. Do with that what you will.

We join our characters 15 (ish) years after the first film. It turns out the curse is still “a thing.” Not a spoiler, by the way. Overcome with grief, Sally brainwashes her daughters. There will be no witchcraft in this house. Unfortunately, as the girls reach their twenties, there’s one thing she can’t protect them from… love. 

Practical Magic 2 struggled to capitalize on one thing that felt so special in the first film: the world. It was a fall film in all its pumpkin-spiced, Salem-coded glory. It oozed from every pore. 

Director Susanne Bier struggles to set the iconic scene. It’s difficult to even find moments where we can appreciate the film’s iconic house in a single wide shot.  I found myself trying to guess if shots were filmed in actual locations or on fully digital soundstages. If IMDb is to be believed, the film was shot entirely in London… which provides us an answer. A glittery haze hangs over the film that, forty years ago, I would have blamed on Vaseline on the lens. Today, I wonder if the film can’t hone in on the world because this world doesn’t exist anymore. 

The film’s choice to invalidate the final act of the last film also has the effect of erasing the beautiful and vibrant sense of community in the first film. Practical Magic was deeper than the two leads… heck, Chloe Webb and Margo Martindale alone bring memorable portrayals that shine out from the depths of the ensemble. 

Looking at the ensemble, the second film wasn’t as lucky. Maisie Williams is wasted as Antonia. While she has some sweet scenes with Joey King, much of her purpose is to sit around in scrubs looking sad. We know Maisie Williams has power. Use it. Lee Pace (whom I love!) is unforgivably miscast as a British academic with witchy tendencies. Xolo Maridueña brings a sweet chemistry with little screen time, and Solly McLeod brings a fascinating take as a primary antagonist… who doesn’t enter the film until the final act. 

Shockingly, the script even lets Sandra Bullock down. The actress spends most of the movie jumping between a shrill and unlikable stick-in-the-mud and a slapstick performance harkening back to someone like Melissa McCarthy. There are rare moments where she brings forward the humanity we know she can portray. It’s unfortunate, though, that she can’t find the joy Nicole Kidman is tapping into this time around. 

All in all, Practical Magic 2 is a movie that wants to be so much more than it is, and there are certainly stories here to tell. Like so many other nostalgia sequels and needless reboots, though, it basks in the memory of the superior first film, but is ultimately yet another warmed-over work that can’t quite find the old magic. 

Practical Magic 2 is now playing in theaters around the country.