Apparently I blinked and the 1998 chick flick “Practical Magic” developed a huge cult following. The film, about witch sisters Sally (Sandra Bullock) and Gillian (Nicole Kidman) Owens, came out 28 years ago, made only $40 million at the domestic box office, scored a mere 31% on Rotten Tomatoes, and I can’t recall ever hearing anyone speak affectionately about it. And yet not only was there a call for a sequel in 2026, the resulting film was the first to win a weekend over “Spider-Man: Brand New Day” (okay, only “after” a six-week run of dominance, but still…). What kind of spell has this franchise cast on the moviegoing public?

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The Owens sisters, along with their kooky aunts Franny (Stockard Channing) and Jet (Dianne Wiest), come from a long line of witches that love extending their bloodline, but hate… love. Or at least romantic love, as a jilted long-ago relative cursed the women of the family to lose their male partners. As a result, Sally’s children, Kylie (Joey King) and Antonia (Maisie Williams), have lost both their father and the stepfather that Sally found for them at the end of the first movie. Sally wiped their memories as children so they would never know the temptations of practicing magic, but the curse still applies. Now Kylie has a boyfriend, Gideon (Xolo Maridueña), and Sally can’t figure out a tactful way to tell her daughter that, for his own good, she can’t love him.

Sally waits too long and tragedy befalls Gideon, though there’s a sliver of hope that he can be saved. Kylie finally learns of her heritage and the curse, falls out with her mother, and storms off to England, home of her ancestors, to see if she can break the curse with the help of local escort Tom (Solly McLeod). Sally tries to track her down, also travelling to England and taking Gillian along, ostensibly because she needs help but really because the movie needs Bullock and Kidman together so they can squabble for comic effect. They enlist the help of a professor (Lee Pace) who may or may not have ulterior motives and who may or may not be a potential third husband for Sally if that pesky curse can be broken for real.

The movie is, in its best moments, agreeable and little more. I’m not saying that the appeal of Bullock and Kidman playing witches who share the ins and outs of sisterhood is completely lost on me. The two have good chemistry and some genuinely funny and touching moments. And when they’re sharing the screen with wily veterans Channing and Wiest, those genuine moments are amplified. I get why people like the low-stakes scenes of these four just playing off one another, with magic thrown in for flavor. The problem is that these movies can’t “just” be about these women enjoying happy hour.

Like its predecessor, “Practical Magic 2” falters when it tries to deliver more than the laughs and tears that people expect. In other words, it doesn’t work as a thriller. The first movie really lost its balance once murder entered the picture, and this one similarly topples with all the mystery surrounding the curse and an evil scheme to burn one of the family at the stake. There’s so much lore and so many secrets that have to be uncovered that the film is over two hours long. I was chanting, “Just end already” like an incantation by the time the credits rolled. By taking up so much time, this movie offers up too much of even the stuff that does work, and goes far overboard with the stuff that doesn’t.

Grade: C

“Practical Magic 2” is rated PG-13 for some violence, intense thematic elements and sensuality. Its running time is 130 minutes.

Contact Bob Garver at rrg251@nyu.edu.