THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SOME SPOILERS. PLEASE KEEP IN MIND IF YOU HAVEN’T YET WATCHED THE MOVIE. I TRY TO AVOID THEM BUT I CANT ALWAYS.
Summary: Three young women accidentally bring back the Sanderson Sisters to modern day Salem and must figure out how to stop the child-hungry witches from wreaking havoc on the world.
Title: Hocus Pocus 2
Rating: PG
Runtime: 1 Hour 43 Minutes
Cast: Bette Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker, Kathy Najimy, Whitney Peak, Belissa Escobedo, Lilia Buckingham, Froy Gutierrez, Sam Richardson, Doug Jones, Tony Hale, Taylor Henderson, Nina Kitchen, JuJu Journey Brener and Hannah Waddingham.
Director: Anne Fletcher
Writers: Jen D’Angelo, David Kirschner, Blake Harris and Mick Garris
Review:
A dismal, not funny and unfortunate let down of a sequel.
I love the original and watch it every year and even rewatched it before this one. I was so excited that we were getting a second movie I honestly couldn’t see how it would be made wrong or anything but they showed me exactly how in this movie. What a shame as my hopes were high with this, I expected so much more.
So the problems I found quickly were the lead witches back for the sequel and what a mess they were they couldn’t step back into their roles at all and brought no spark, comedy or talent with them. They were really not good at replicating the hilarious Sanderson sisters I loved from the original. There were glimpses with Sarah and Winnifred but only glimpses and Mary well what a mess, she didn’t resemble the character at all, wasn’t funny in the slightest and couldn’t even get the mouth droop on the correct side. I know that is a tedious comment but to me it distracted and bugged me the whole movie. They were such a huge let down honestly, they are supposed to be the sole of the movie but they weren’t at all.
The new characters brought into this were so uninteresting and couldn’t grasp my attention. I honestly don’t have much to say as they didn’t give me anything exciting, their story didn’t really go anywhere and other than bringing the sisters back and having to learn a bit of magic to send them back they served very little purpose to the movie.
The storyline following the teenagers attempt at being witches was just boring and dull. The utterly irritating magic shop seller that tricked them into bringing the witches back for what reason exactly? I don’t really know. The best friends that weren’t best friends anymore and then were again and whatever. Them attempting to use magic and modern things to distract the witches was really pointless. I just was so uninterested in the whole storyline and the characters.
I seriously had a hard time enjoying this movie, the characters were dull, there was zero comedy factors included and it was boring. It didn’t feel like the original, it didn’t have the magic touch, we didn’t get any cameos from original cast members, they didn’t sing I put a spell on you again which they should have done. It just didn’t connect to the original for me at all.
I did like Billy Butcherson getting a bigger role he was interesting seeing him interacting with the world as though he belonged there. Book was quirky being animated with personality and having emotions. I liked the new black cat he was suspicious to me and would have loved to have known who he was previously and more about them in general, there was something there. They were small parts I liked, but there was one major storyline I did love in this movie.
The one part of this movie I actually liked and loved was the beginning with young Winnie, Sarah and Mary. These young girls were remarkably talented and captured the characters to perfection, they knew every tiny detail of the characters from the facial expressions, to movements, to even voice tones. These girls blew me away with their talent.
I could have watched a whole movie telling us the prequel story of who the girls were in Salem before being witches, to becoming witches and growing, learning and living in that time. These talented girls could have held and carried an entire movie they were that talented. I really loved seeing the world they used to live in come alive for the short time we were given it.
The movie then literally stopped being good there as we go to modern times with the wanna be witches and her friends and bringing the sisters back and letting them wreak havoc in Salem once more.
I’m so sad that this was a huge let down I was so excited to see it that I watched it instantly on the release day, it honestly breaks my heart that it wasn’t good. It let me down so much and I was bored with it for most of the movie. I wish we had of gotten more when they were younger those actresses were so talented and could have carried the whole movie sharing the history of the sisters in more detail. Alas we only got a snippet of that and it was the only highlight in the movie.
What a shame that this movie couldn’t capture the wonderful magic and feel, and comedy of the original. I’m sure some people will still love it but I didn’t at all and it breaks my heart that I didn’t.
apapergirlapapertown 