Hocus Pocus (1993)

Wonderful character development!

The movie is made so realistic it has a lot of that WoW feeling at the right moments and never tooo over the top. the suspense is done so well and the emotion is felt. Very well put together with the music and all.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

Amazing worth wacthing. So good. Biased but well made with many good points.

This movie features one of the best Binx(ks) in all of cinema. THe cat. I love cats. It made my nephew really sad the MULTIPLE times the cat dies in this movie. Be warned parents!!! Not for the faint of heart. Anyway, it wouldn't be hard to beat that other binks, JAR JAR...you know who ;) This is a great family film, despite all the cat death. WAtch it with your nephews when hes 8+ is what I learned. Also some parts with the BREASTS may be innaprorpriate. This is an alarmingly sexual film.

In the years since its release in 1993, thanks to annual showings on television, Hocus Pocus has become something of a Halloween classic. I didn't grow up with the movie, and I don't think it is an especially well-crafted work, so I can't necessarily vouch for Hocus Pocus' "classic" status, but what I can vouch for is the movie's wholesome family spirit. This is a lovable little movie, the kind that renders any faults moot by the sheer charm of the production. I guess it's not a very good film, but its black magic worked on me.I'll keep the summary short. Three witches (Bette Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker, and Kathy Najimy) are resurrected in Salem, Massachusetts and they wreak havoc on Halloween night. A small band of kids try to stop them. That's really all the plot you need to know. What's important to consider is that the movie takes place on Halloween, and it makes the most of that setting. I've always had a soft spot for Halloween and Halloween-related accoutrement: Monsters, ghouls, jack-o-lanterns, and the like. So Hocus Pocus appeals to me on the basis of simply being about the holiday, and relishing in the spirit of Halloween. It is also one of the few Halloween movies to capture that specific "spooky, but not scary" feeling Halloween night had as a kid. For someone who has long outgrown trick-or-treating, it's an inviting bit of nostalgia.Let's talk about the cast. Has there ever been a more likable bunch of actresses than the three witches here? Midler, Parker, and Najimy show no pretenses. They are just out there goofing around and having fun. Their performances aren't anything special, of course, but you can't tell me they didn't add more than their share of cute energy to the proceedings. Speaking of cute energy, I have to give a special shoutout to Thora Birch as the young sister, who gushes with charm. She's the heart of the movie, she's got screen presence, and she's a good little actress.Not everyone will see Hocus Pocus the way I do. I have a pesky habit of rooting for movies because they are silly and innocent, rather than in spite of. Others find that sort of thing unbearable. In this case, Hocus Pocus has two things that distract me from its formulaic, kids- save-the-day plot: A lovable cast, and Halloween spirit. As dumb as it is, I still get the urge to revisit it every October. You could say I fell under its spell.66/100

I didn't like this movie at all. It felt more like an episode of Power Rangers than a Halloween classic. One problem I have with most of the Disney Channel movies is that they follow a very small group of characters around, trying to deal with whatever problem for just long enough to fill a feature length running time. They end up feeling very insular and formulaic, like the Hardy Boys mysteries that all had about the same number of pages in them. Hocus Pocus had a few good ideas, but no one was interested in developing the story further than a basic repetitive chase sequence. The performances were terrible. The three leads--the witch sisters-- should have been fun, over-the-top characters, but without the right direction, they didn't find the right tone. It's too embarrassingly silly for anyone over 8, but also a little scary and graphic for very young children--and did they have to mention that the protagonist was a virgin so many times? You make a movie that's too stupid for almost any age, then throw in concepts that are inappropriate for your already limited audience? Disney's main feature studios are extremely good at developing scripts that can be enjoyed by all ages, but the other arms of the company just seem to churn out junk like this quickly.

After seeing this the only thing I can think of Kathy Najimy's stomach turning pervy act. She didn't do or say anything that was funny. Sarah Jessica Parker acted like she had suffered from a severe brain injury and Bette Midler……tired, tired, tired.And another thing, the constant elbow in the stomach act? Please. That is so Love American Style or Tim Conway from Carol Burnett Show. Really? That was supposed to be funny?The only positives from this film were the sets and the lighting. The only truly clever act was perhaps the corpse that comes back to live and dances around the graveyard but then, suddenly this isn't a film for kids. Horrible. Just horrible.