Will "Bewitched" cast a spell on summer movie audiences?

The answer lies clearly with the number of Nicole Kidman fans that are willing to see this Oscar-winning Australian beauty play a sweetly naïve dispenser of magic, who would rather not get anything she wants by snapping her fingers or twitching her nose.

Cast as Isobel Bigelow, a real life witch who wants to be "normal" and live in Los Angeles, Kidman exudes plenty of charm and generates some laughs in this light-hearted but problematic reworking of the popular ABC television sit-com that ran 254 episodes from 1964 to 1972.

Kidman previously played a reluctant witch on the big screen opposite Sandra Bullock in the lackluster 1998 release "Practical Magic."

Practically speaking, "Bewitched," as directed by Nora Ephron, is an unruly witches’ brew, where all the ingredients fail to combine to produce the desired result.

Ephron and her co-screenwriter sister Delia have opted to approach making a motion picture about the longest running, fantasy sit-com on television by making a behind-the-scenes movie about the actual re-making of the television series for this millennium.

Enter Will Ferrell as Jack Wyatt, a self-absorbed, insecure and somewhat desperate movie star, so down on his luck he is settling for doing a television series to revive his career. Acting on his agent’s advice, Jack is willing to consider playing harried husband Darrin Stephens in a remake of "Bewitched" only if his screen wife Samantha is played by a total unknown. He would also like the comedic emphasis to be placed on his character.

Jack is overjoyed to personally discover his new co-star twitching her nose in a LA bookstore. Isobel is looking for someone who needs her and Jack is one of the neediest guys on the planet.

On the page, this seems like an ideal match but the lead performers rarely find magic - romantic, comedic or otherwise – in their scenes together. Ferrell’s character is such a boneheaded boor it is nearly impossible to see what Kidman’s character sees in him at all.

Things liven up considerably once the totally innocent Isobel discovers she is being used – on a number of levels- and finally decides to employ some of her supernatural talents to even the score.

Oscar-winner Michael Caine, whose talents are better showcased in "Batman Begins," adds a touch of urbane wit and overall horniness as Isobel’s warlock father Nigel, who never met a pretty woman he wouldn’t like to know better.

In other supporting roles Oscar-winner Shirley MacLaine is under-utilized as Iris Smythson, a hammy veteran actress hired to portray Darrin’s meddling mother-in-law Endora.

Kristin Chenowith, who played Glinda the Good Witch on Broadway in the hit musical "Wicked," however, adds some sparkle as Isobel’s supportive and very human neighbor Maria Kelly who wonders if "Bewitched" was the TV show about the genie.

Scenes from the original series, which starred Elizabeth Montgomery as Samantha, Dick York and Dick Sargent as Darrin and Agnes Moorehead as Endora, are shown as a clueless Isobel studies her role, having been forbidden to watch the popular sit-com by her witch parents while growing up. Like Montgomery, Kidman doesn’t twitch her nose as much as move her upper lip to create the illusion.

The new movie also has fun recreating some scenes from the first episode of "Bewitched," in which a smug, rich former girlfriend of Darrin tries to embarrass Sam until the tables are turned by witchcraft.

Most of the attempts to re-introduce characters from the original sit-com created by Sol Saks into the present "reality" fall a bit flat. Steve Carrell’s impersonation of Uncle Arthur is painfully unfunny, and Carole Shelley’s brief turn as the befuddled Aunt Clara only reminds us this "Wicked" co-star was stepping in for Joan Plowright.

"Bewitched" also allows audiences sufficient time to ponder what

might have been if Jim Carrey had been able play Darrin when offered.

Of course, it might have been even funnier to see both Carrey and Farrell alternate scenes in a salute to the role where one lead actor replaced another without explanation in real life.