Twenty-eight years later, not a whole lot has changed for the Owens women of “Practical Magic.” Sally (Sandra Bullock) and Gillian (Nicole Kidman) still live with their aunts (Stockard Channing, Dianne Wiest) in a beautiful house on the water; neither seem to work much, but taking care of their abundant hair must consume a lot of their time. Sally’s 20-something daughters Kylie (Joey King) and Antonia (Maisie Williams) are out in the world and neither knows about the Owens Women Curse, which seems highly suspect as there seems to be little else that these women talk about.

Anyway, if you’re up on the “Practical Magic” universe, you can see where this is going: Kylie, at college, falls madly in love with a handsomely bland fellow named Gideon (Xolo Maridueña) — who, because he has the bad luck of falling for an Owens woman, promptly lands in a picturesque coma. Cue the spells!

Based, somewhat loosely, on Alice Hoffman’s “The Book of Magic,” “Practical Magic 2” is one of those sequels that has no particular reason to exist, other than the fact that a lot of us have fond memories of Bullock and Kidman’s funny chemistry in the original, and of the Owens’ glorious Victorian home in a small seaside town. (That town, in the first movie, was played by Coupeville, Washington; alas, the sequel was filmed in the U.K.) The new film, directed by Susanne Bier, gives us plenty of the chemistry, but little else. Even the house gets short shrift, seeing as first Kylie and then Sally and Gillian race off to London and (I think) Yorkshire, for reasons vaguely explained that involve a book of spells, a seriously tattooed magic man (Lee Pace), a villain who seems like an outtake from a Harry Potter film and a very cute village pub.

And yet “Practical Magic 2,” though overlong and obsessed with telling us over and over that nothing matters more than sisterhood, isn’t a great hardship to sit through — which is mainly due to the presence of Bullock, in her first film in four years. Her Sally, perpetually trying to keep the other Owens women in touch with reality, is both sweetly soulful and a delightfully comic creation whose dismissal of a crow as a “Gothic pigeon” made me laugh out loud. (We get only the tiniest taste of Bullock’s gift for physical comedy; a throwaway moment when Sally almost drops a cellphone is priceless.)

But other than Bullock, there just isn’t much here: It’s all pretty cakes and flattering close-ups and people dying to Stevie Nicks songs and Kylie accusing everyone of possibly being a little bit dramatic (which she says very dramatically, while wearing a very dramatic purple scarf). I suspect this is the last we’ll see on screen of the Owens sisters, though I’d rather enjoy seeing Bullock, 28 years on, as a dottily spell-weaving grandma. Magic’s in short supply in this movie, but she has more than her share.

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'PRACTICAL MAGIC 2'

2 stars (out of 4)

MPA rating: PG-13 (for some violent content, suggestive material and brief strong language)

Running time: 2:10

How to watch: Now in theaters

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