Pretty Good

Memorable, crazy movie

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

Blistering performances.

"A girl, sent by her parents to live with her two eccentric aunts and attend a new high school, finds out on her sixteenth birthday that she is a witch". This premise sets up Sabrina the Teenage Witch (1996) to be a blend of "Bewitched" and "Mean Girls".This teen movie belongs to the "high-school-queen-bee-gets-her-comeuppance" sub-genre of which there are endless examples. Apparently there is a huge viewing demographic who on some basic level repeatedly get off erotically or emotionally on this humiliation dynamic. The friendship and coming-of-age elements are almost incidental to the story.More central for your thinking viewer are the moral dilemma and ethical considerations raised by the story. Sabrina competes with other girls in track and field events; winning several of them by using her powers to cheat. Little effort is made to show her in any sort of quandary over her decision to cheat. The story hedges a bit on this issue, as her magic is mostly used in response to unwarranted attacks by her rival; but in several of the track & field events her cheating makes losers out of all the other participants and no attempt is made at rationalization or justification.The problem with casting someone like Melissa Joan Hart as your good girl love interest is the absence of even a hint of physical sizzle. Which means that to stay remotely credible with viewers, the bad girl she plays off has to be several erotic levels below Megan Fox; hence Tori Spelling lookalike Lalainia Lindbjerg as Katy Lemore (apparently a play on L'Amore). And Hart's rival Libby in the 1996-2003 series would be played by the even less sizzling Jenna Leigh Green. Which makes their inevitable comeuppances almost sterile. And since Katy does not rank especially high on the queen bee badness scale Sabrina's extreme revenge is way out of proportion. To appreciate the missed opportunity just check out Samantha's inspired abuse of rival Sheila Sommers (played by gorgeous Nancy Kovack) in several episodes of "Bewitched".But the producers should get some credit for a glammed up Katy in the "Zapped" (1982) inspired final comeuppance scene. Although Sabina has tortured Katy throughout the movie she saves the most extreme for the end, reducing her rival to a disheveled and whimpering wreck. With this "Sabrina the Teenage Witch" sets a new standard in teen movie queen bee degradation, if that is your idea of a turn on or a good time. Going any further with this sort of thing would cross into "Carrie" territory and that is an entirely different genre.Sabina's bad boy hunk Seth is played by sleepy looking Ryan Reynolds, he is relatively harmless and almost cluelessly disengaged. Reynolds would play an almost identical character three years later in "Dick". "Dead Like Me's" Daisy - Laura Harris - plays one of Katy's friends and has a lot of what the main actresses are missing.Then again, what do I know? I'm only a child.

I myself grew up watching the Sabrina the Teenage Witch episodes. If you are a big fan of Melissa Joan Hart or love the series then you will definitely love this movie. The movie takes place at the beginning when Sabrina just discovers that she is a witch. It is very interesting to see how she copes with it and what she goes through. However not all of the main characters in the show make it to the movie since the movie was created first. The voice of Salem you can also tell is off. But, it is a great started movie to the series. I loved watching it. If you like Sabrina, then watch this movie. It will amaze you. It is magical.

Freaking registration! Finally! Anyway, I loved it! I didn't know about it until after watching the series. I didn't have "DirecTV' then, and I don't have it anymore. I never had cable. I watched it on regular TV as a Disney movie, then rented it to see what was censored and what I missed. Simply put, the movie is sexier. Those of you who are spoiled may not get it. The aunts were better looking than the TV show version, no hard feelings to them! Sabrina got to do sexier activities too. (At least in the movie she never farted! I hate fart jokes!) Salem was a familiar rather than a male witch under a cat sentence. I only came here to see what her movie version's last name was. Now I know. I also had to reply, because I hate people who watch a movie just to hate it and give it bad reviews. I intend to buy the DVD of the movie now that "Columbia DVD" is offering it. I'll get the series too. Too bad MJCH is a smoker though. That is a big disappointment! :-(

This may have not been the greatest show ever on television, but it wasn't the worst either. The funniest character was probably the cat, but everyone played a good part. So, although it was lame at times, it was OK if nothing else was on.