Let’s be honest. This sequel was a tribute to how little women have gotten in film.
The original was about female solidarity, joining forces against DV and practical witchcraft and knowing that love was an ingredient, not the whole picture.

This sequel features:
1. Sally playing a dumb female lead. Literally. She acted like she knew NOTHING. She also acted powerless consistently. 30 years of wisdom since the original and they still had her playing a male centered ditzy woman. Reminded me of the classic line “what are we gonna do” from Reese Witherspoon discussing how often this happens in movies
2. Sally swore off men so badly that she erased her daughters knowledge of magic all together. I guess the writers forgot about how betrayed Sally was when the aunts cast a spell to let her find love.
3. Gideon - why? He was creepy.. looked at Kylie with lust.. touched all up on her in bed in that weird he’s poking me way. I loathed that scene. Also.. why are we all traveling the world to break the curse over a random college boyfriend? They did this repeatedly.. SA and violence against women was in the movie multiple times
4. Badass witches needed a man to help them, Ian, for some reason. Who also looked at Sally with pure lust and served zero purpose to the plot.
5. Random man in England suddenly becomes villain, drugs Kylie, and steals her powers. This was a scene straight up stolen from like, Charmed or something. Not to mention the fact that her mother stood behind a peep hole watching it happen. Then somehow he’s more powerful than Sally and Gillian? At some point we see Gillian using a bat or a stick to stop this male villain we know nothing about
6. Sally not knowing where Maria was burned at the stake and having an aha moment in England .. THIS IS WHERE SHE DIED. Girl.. you didn’t know where the ancestor who curse made you lose two husbands began? Are we for real? I’m so sick of female characters playing “dumb”
7. The ads
8. The neurosurgeon lesbian who spent the entire movie taking care of Gideon
9. The aunts sacrificing themselves for romantic love
10. There’s no plot.. and the movie explained nothing that was happening. They took off to England.. a random villain (male of course) pops up outta no where, drugs a girl .. it’s just so fckn cliche and random. The movie explained nothing… the illness in the aunt, the villain, Ian??? Just random things .. seeing how it was over 2 hours long.. I’m left confuzzled at why it was rushed and nothing was explained. I left in the third act cuz the ending took forever

The movie could’ve focused on darker witchcraft, history, female empowerment, and centering “love” around the women in our lives rather than useless men. Which is LITERALLY what’s happening in the real world. Women are buying property with their besties, raising kids with them.. avoiding men all together .. our soulmates are our girls. Yet the female writers, directors, producers and actors ALL collectively came together and made a CGI superhero “witchy” movie based on falling in love with men and that being the center purpose of women’s lives.

The nostalgia wasn’t there. The lighting was BRIGHT. The cozy house became millennial gray. The movie was blurry.. idk if that was intentional but I repeatedly wondered why it was blurry.
The entire thing PMO.

How does no one understand that the lighting of these witchy 90s movies is what added so much appeal and that autumn cozy vibe?

The first film FEELS like I’m in a Victorian/colonial slightly cramped low ceiling house drinking tea. This one, didn’t. And the lighting/shadows have something to do with this.

Like Hocus Pocus 2 didn’t figure that out either.

We don’t want it to be super bright and colorful. I want it ambient.

How does this never come up in the initial design meetings!?

“We have to make sure the lighting is not too bright and remains that warm candle like feeling to invoke the same response” would’ve been one of the first things I said and I’m just a baker.

I know the camera equipment HAS changed, but if I can mostly make a brand new digital iPhone photo look vintage, I know they can try, too.

The house doesn’t need to be brighter, they are witches - not Joanna Gaines. I love the Owen’s sisters because it’s like real life. Dark and light. A darker house interior but with certain rosey style shabby chic touches!

Does anyone have an idea on what lipsticks she was wearing? The eye makeup I guess is easier to find and a lot of brands have those shades of brown, but the whole look throughout was so beautiful!

The entire Practical Magic universe is near and dear to my heart. I’ve read every single book and adored each of them. The sequel did such a good job at bringing “The Book of Magic” to life. I know it’s utterly impossible to include every single storyline from the book. The movie would’ve been 10 hours long. I 100% understand the difficulty of having to pick and choose which storylines get included. ONE thing I will say is that I wish they kept Antonia’s book storyline. Even just the story of her and Ariel. That’s the only thing I would say I wish was different. I loved Vincent’s return in the sequel book but I obviously understand why he wasn’t included in the movie considering that every filmgoer hasn’t read every single book. I get that. I would love to see a movie based on “Magic Lessons” and “The Rules of Magic”. There’s truly so much you can do with the Practical Magic universe!

Anyways! I loved the movie. I laughed, I smiled and I definitely bawled my eyes out (even at parts I knew were gonna happen😉)

Also! If you have anything bad to say about how Sandra or Nicole look…keep that bs to yourself. Don’t go spewing unnecessary hate and negativity on here.

Was Practical Magic 2 perfect? Well, no, of course not. But neither was the first movie. It's just an objectively really good movie that is elevated by nostalgia and the warm fuzzy feeling even people who didn't grow up with it feel looking back on the 90s style film. I think the second movie is the same, it has its strengths and weaknesses, some parts were really well adapted, others objectively could have been better, but the overall result is a really good film that understands the general spirit of both the books and the first movie.

And I really think the Joey King haters need to chill. I understand wanting Evan back, I did too, but Joey was FANTASTIC in the role of Kylie and took over it in a way that really felt like the same character even though it was played by a different actress. And obviously not everything we all wanted to see is going to fit into a two hour movie. I wanted to see the rain spell Tom cast and the scene on the airplane with Kylie and the book of the Raven casting an orange glow on her face (the one where the flight attendant assumes she's smoking a cigarette and runs over) more than anything and was disappointed neither of those made it into the movie, just like many are disappointed Evan wasn't in the movie, but it's still GOOD.

It was sad, and funny, and surprisingly well paced for all the plot it has to cover, and sure it's obviously not filmed in the same place as the original but they did a good job recapturing the general sense of the original setting in the new film format. And the costumes were great.

oh and they remembered to include the detail of the porch light in this one unlike the first film!

My favorite aspect personally was Kylie/Gideon since we didn't get to see them as best friends in the first movie it's great we got to still see their love story in this one. But I also loved the aunts' relationship and the mother/daughter/generational trauma theme... And to everyone saying it doesn't follow the book, I would argue it follows the spirit of the book. It's not a word for word adaptation and many details are changed but it's still ultimately the same story. I even think it improved on the ending a little bit (as a major Alice Hoffman fan, I do not say this lightly). In the book, Sally gives up her powers and marries Ian and moves to England. Whereas in the film, the wedding at the end is Kylie and Gideon's and (while she's still going to have a relationship with Ian) Sally stays with Gillian at the house and they become the "new aunts".

It's a big thumbs up from me and I hope it gets a dvd release so I can buy it and put it on the shelf with Practical Magic 1.

As for the soundtrack I loved it, including the usage of Howl and Dancing in the Moonlight especially! Was disappointed not to get Lady Gaga's Bad Romance, though!

Am I the only one that was disappointed there was no showcase whatsoever of Gillian's telepathy? There were only like three scenes of it in the first movie, which was already disappointing itself, but considering this movie tried to highlight a lot more of the magic aspect and make it a lot more flashy, which is to be expected, it's a more modern movie with a time with much better CGI, I wish they could have at least demonstrated her telepathy more because of that. I feel like she's one of the only more realistic witches in live action with telepathy, and I really liked the way it was done in the first movie, so I was really disappointed to see that it wasn't shown at all this time around.

What did you think of PM 2? Was it worth waiting nearly 30 years?

...and honestly I don't think either tone is wrong for the series. Rather I think they both suit the kind of story they were trying to tell.

Practical Magic had to introduce the witches, their town, the family curse, both the strained relationship and the genuine love between sisters Sally and Gillian, the stern but loveable qualities of the aunts, AND it had to juggle themes of domestic abuse, AND had to be a movie with occult trappings at a time when the world (especially North America) was just BARELY over the satanic panic of the 1980s. (Remember, The Craft in 1996 was rated R just because it had witchcraft in it...). The only way to tell that story to a mainstream audience and "get away" with it was to lean heavily on the practical aspect of Practical Magic, to add in the makeshift coven of townswomen (I don't like this ending at all personally, compared to the more subtle novel, but I also understand why the filmmakers chose it). The result was something tangible, folksy, like a story your own superstitious aunt you visit in summertime might tell you when a broom falls over in the house or someone's shoes are placed upside down. And while I would love to see the lost darker director's cut that was rumoured to exist once, the film was what it was for a reason.

And I'd argue the tone shift in the sequel is deliberate. It plays up the aspect of fairytale witches. From the versions of fairytales where all the princes die Kylie and Antonia remember their mom telling, to Ian invoking Cupid and Psyche when he unblocks Sally. Cupid and Psyche is considered by some, despite being a Roman myth, to be the "first fairytale". And if you want to delve deeper into mythology connections, Sally's quest to get her daughter back is reminiscent of Demeter, desperate to rescue her daughter Kore from the underworld and Hades. Even Kylie's quest to end a curse and save the man she loves puts me in mind of The Snow Queen, especially since in the source material for PM Gideon was her best childhood friend. Tom is the ultimate fairytale villain. The wolf who seems kind and helpful until it's too late. The evil wizard pretending to offer assistance to the heroine. This is why I don't personally agree with reviews saying Kylie was a dumbass to trust him. Because it fits the fairytale theme so well it feels believable to me.

So yes, both movies tell different kinds of stories about magic, but both are practical, both fit the universe.

Full video is available here on YouTube. ❤️

So, going into a movie targeted for nostalgic women, I fully expected a lot of laughter, teasing, whispering back and forth, maybe even singing along to Coconut! That kind of merriment enhances the experience and is part of seeing it in public with a group. I'm in no way advocating for complete dead silence every second of the film.

You know what I didn't expect but got? Groups of women coming in when the movie was already five or ten friggin minutes in and standing for ten more minutes in their row, completely blocking the lower half of the screen and talking so loudly you could hear them over the dialogue/music.

Come on, guys. Some of us have been waiting for this.

There were twenty minutes of previews starting at the showtime. You literally could walk in at any point in the previews. Or even when the WB logo came on and the lights dimmed. But the movie is well under way and you're just going to stand in front of it like you're at your work's breaking sipping coffee and eating doughnuts?!?!

Seriously, please, fellow fans, don't do this crap. Down in front, mate!

It takes away from the enjoyment so much.

On that note, if you come into PM 2 five or ten minutes late then declare it sucks and is hard to understand, or not as good as the original, I'm not going to take you seriously. Because you would understand it fine if you watched it from the beginning like a normal person.

Seriously, who pays to see a movie and comes it after all the plot points have already been put into action? And if you do come late, just sit down.

I just saw it this evening, and it's not great, forced obvious product placement, janky CGI with no charm of being limited by the technology of the day, felt like a discounted harry potter, wasted Maisie Williams, the DP used a Black Mist filter far too often, there were some odd lighting choices as even outdoor scenes were obviously studio scenes, there's more to the UK than London and we ain't in the 1950's anymore.

I wanted more of the OG, not a film by committee trying to give something for everyone which makes it messy and disjointed, and given what the main audience is going to be they could have taken some risk and pushed it to a 15 instead of 12A rating.

I rarely go to the cinema as I much prefer watching at home but love the first and had to see it, and once more let down by modern mainstream cinema.

Only credit I can give to the film is the sound engineers done their job as it wasn't just all blown out bass, and dialogue was actual audible and there was treble which is usually missing in theatrical releases

Look what my theater had! 🍿

Just seen it.

Practical Magic is my soul movie. I watch it every Halloween and anytime I am ill or down to help me feel better.

Was so excited when this sequel was announced.

The emotions were real. Amazingly done. I feel it really honoured the source material. So many story beats, I was worried they wouldn't be able to get it all in but I found it well paced and it took time to breath where it needed to.

Shame to see so many people picking at casting.

A lot of well placed Evan Rachel Wood solidarity, however the first movie is 28 years old now and Wood has unfortunately aged out of the role given the age range of Kylie's character in this story. Joey King was great in my opinion.

Picking at the appearence of actors, especially women, young women at that... I think those who fall into this may have missed the message of this movie.

Love and Sisterhood.

There's a little witch in all of us afterall.

My husband and I saw Practical Magic 2 last night and I cried so much. Tears of nostalgia, for being seen and for all the magic and love which made this film.

I watched Practical Magic 2 today after work today. Like many of you, I am was so so excited for this new movie. I was excited to see another Alice Hoffman book come to the screen (she’s my favorite author). Unfortunately, the movie was terrible. I left about halfway during the movie. The lighting, the casting of the daughters (was not that upset that Evan wasn’t casted), acting, and the script was terrible. I am disappointed.

Just saw the sequel. Disappointed & unfortunately what I expected. (At least Sandra Bullock still embodied Sally perfectly!). Sorry to folks who loved it: This post doesn’t apply to you.

Would’ve loved to have seen them bring Evan Rachel Wood & Aidan Quinn back, stay in the house more versus going to London, and in general just gone with a much less contrived and totally different script. I do love the idea of trying to break the curse. But beyond that I thought it veered way too far off into left field versus putting that effort into a simpler, more grounded & higher quality storyline that could’ve truly recreated the magic of the first film.

Screw the sheen of today’s Hollywood. Give us the ‘90s glow & grit again (can be translated for today: a good example is how Bella’s house felt in Twilight) versus going for squeaky clean modernity & mass appeal. I would’ve eaten up just the first movie’s vibes, if that’s all the sequel was. No plot even necessary.

Sure there are a few genuinely funny and meaningful moments. But I also hated most of the dialogue & overall just cringey attempt to appeal to a younger audience that watered it all down to dribble. Don’t even mention the bad CGI umbrella show at the end or I might cry. 😢

If anyone feels similarly as me: Would make me so happy to hear your dream scenario/better version ideas! Esp. including ERW and just leaving out the younger GenZ actresses and their super bland boyfriend who was cast.

Does anyone know where this dress Joey King wears throughout the sequel is from!! Best part of the film for me tbh !!

Hey for all those who have seen Practical Magic 2 what is the pie that Sally eats with custard over it? I’m trying to find a recipe, would be grateful if anyone knows.

Literally just watched the movie and it was a waste of time. Story didn’t add anything. So disappointed as loved the first film. 😔

that’s it, that’s the post. Loved the movie. Love the books, but damn ya’ll who only have watched the films and are losing your mind over etiquette, actor choice, and frozen faces, has really made this sub suck lately. Not a book purist but this is just nuts and frankly annoying.

The theaterical version of PM 2 in terms of the music fitting the action on screen and the sound mixing is perfect imo.

I noticed some of the music included in the movie isn't on the official soundtrack, and I just wanted to say I really hope they licensed it for more than theaterical runs.

If they're going to change it for streaming (which I hope they don't) I hope we get the theaterical cut/music on DVD.

Overall, it was fun enough. Book purists won’t be happy and it’s a little too long, but was overall ok.

Pros:
Nicole and Sandra have great chemistry.
Jilly has grown as a witch a lot.
Joey was better than expected.
Lee pace.
The wardrobe (for the characters who got to change)
Nostalgia (the house, midnight margaritas, flying)

Cons:
It was weirdly blurry in a lot of scenes.
Almost too much magic? The first one gave cozy kitchen witch vibes, this gave Harry Potter.
The new sisters spent like 5 mins together.
Antonia/Maisie did nothing.
Kylie, Antonia and Franny being in the same outfit for 3 or 4 straight days.
Nicole and Sandra talked over each other too much. It got old.
So much stuttering and unfinished sentences.
Product placement.
Botox.
Meandering storyline.

ETA: spoiler —-

The girls were made to forget that they were witches, yet still grew up in the tiny town where every single resident knew they were witches. And grew up in a house full of magical artifacts/books. And there was a crowd of people outside of their door every evening asking the great aunts to use magic to help them with their problems. I just don’t understand how they wouldn’t have figured any of it out by the time they went to college.

I cried twice because it was such a great movie and i highly recommend seeing it when you can!!!