Hocus Pocus

Hocus Pocus follows a trio of Salem-era witches (Bette Midler’s Winnie, Kathy Najimy’s Mary, and Sarah Jessica Parker’s Sarah) as they’re executed by angry townspeople but brought back to life in the present day by a clueless teenager (Omri Katz’s Max), with the movie detailing Max’s efforts, along with a pretty classmate (Vinessa Shaw’s Allison) and his younger sister (Thora Birch’s Dani), at preventing the witches from gaining complete immortality. Filmmaker Kenny Ortega kicks Hocus Pocus off with an almost disastrously uninvolving opening stretch, as the initial emphasis on the witches and their evil exploits is hardly as interesting or engrossing as Ortega has obviously intended (and it doesn’t help, certainly, that all three actresses deliver painfully, aggressively broad work). The picture doesn’t begin to improve, then, until the action moves to the present day, with the decision to shift the focus to the aforementioned kids paving the way for an erratic yet generally entertaining midsection – with the caper-fueled narrative heightened by Ortega’s bright, fast-paced directorial choices. And although the movie does run out of steam in its overly frenetic climactic stretch, Hocus Pocus nevertheless, for the most part, comes off as an appealingly old-school Disney comedy.

**1/2 out of ****