PRACTICAL MAGIC 2-Pragmatic Source of Sisterly Sorcery

The Sandra Bullock, Nicole Kidman film PRACTICAL MAGIC ("PM") came out in 1998 and was practically panned by critics. Nevertheless, PM has become a cult hit thanks to its bedazzled fan base.  The new PRACTICAL MAGIC 2 ("PM2") has received overwhelmingly underwhelming reviews too.  PM2 is not trying to do too much heavy lifting in the drama department. The heavy lifting comes in the face-lifts of its starlets. Reprising their bewitching roles are Nicole Kidman and Sandra Bullocks, a.k.a. Jillian (Jilli) and Sally Owens, the witch sisters. Jilli has remained happily single, ready to mingle but not fall in love. Sally loves her two now grown daughters. Sally raised her girls to be unaware of their wizardly gifts. Jill was sworn to be complicit in this duplicitous ruse. How Sally's girls were kept in the dark regarding their magical attributes is a mystery. Just go with it! The incoherent plot is marred in nebulous logic. How could it not? The major premise from PM was coping with the curse put on the Owen women by a great-great-yaddah-yaddah ancestor with the misguided reasoning she would be protecting her progeny from future heartbreak by killing and any man whom her future female family-line fell in love with. The same hauntingly beautiful home and homey looking-coastal town are used for PM2, too. Best of all, Stockard Channing and Diane Wiest re-appear as Jilli and Sally's dear, dodering aunts who raised them after they were orphaned. Sally's 2 girls now grown (although if you do the math; they magically shed some years.) But, aging-well is all smoke and mirrors and sutures so stay with me, here. Maisie Williams ("Game of Thrones") plays Antonia, Sally's older daughter and a medical resident. Joey King ("The Kissing Booth") is the younger daughter, Kylie who falls in love with the unlucky bloke who promptly falls into a coma after falling from his bike. To simplify an already simplistic, unrealistic plot, Owen girl gets boy, girl loses boy to curse, girl tires to cure the curse to get boy back to the world of the living. For good measure, mother of said daughter gets her own hunky warlock. There's some macabre transitions in this doe-eyed melodrama. After all the elderly aunts aren't getting younger. It's time to take some perilous leaps to make room for the next generation. It was a crying shame to loose Wiest, the wacky witch early in the film. But, the pairing and caring between sisters and the multi-generational love fest within the female family bloodline was the hokey-hocus focus, magical glue, with lime and coconut in this enchanting concoction that keeps us coming back for more. There's no magic stronger than sisterhood or sisterly love for spiritual support. Of course, margaritas don't hurt, either.