The Addams Family / Addams Family Values
2 Movie Collection
review by Bobby Blakey
There have been a lot of classic TV series that have made their way onto the big screen, but few have the content to work in both live action and animation. Before the upcoming animated feature and some straight to video releases in 1998 director Barry Sonnenfeld took on the iconic Addams Family with The Addams Family in 1991 and its sequel Addams Family Values in 1993. With the animated film getting ready to bring the kooky family back what better time to revisit both of these films.
The Addams Family follows long-lost Uncle Fester who reappears after 25 years in the Bermuda Triangle. Gomez and Morticia plan a celebration to wake the dead, but Wednesday barely has time to warm up her electric chair before Thing points out Fester's uncommonly "normal" behavior. Could this Fester be a fake, part of an evil scheme to raid the Addams fortune? I remember seeing this when it came out and was surprised about how fun it was. I haven’t watched it in years, but upon revisiting it I had just as much fun despite it aging a bit. The cast all fully capture the essence of the characters and seem be having fun bringing them to life. The story is silly and over the top as expected but just works. Does it bring much new to the TV series mythology no, but it is fun and does it justice.
The Addams Family Values follows Gomez and Morticia who welcome a new addition to the Addams household -- Pubert, their soft, cuddly,
mustachioed baby boy. As Fester falls hard for voluptuous nanny Debbie Jilinksy, Wednesday and Pugsley discover she's a black-widow murderess who plans to add Fester to her collection of dead husband. Sequels are always hard to capture the same magic of the original film. Thankfully with this film it already had the basis of these great characters to move with so it helped and while there are some great moments and the overall film is fun it struggles a bit to really work for me. All the camp stuff is pretty funny most notably the Thanksgiving play sequence. I love Joan Cusack, but this story with her and Lloyd’s Uncle Fester just fell flat for me. Thankfully the stuff with Pubert and Gomez stressing over his change makes up for a lot of the shortcomings. This sequel doesn’t quite live up to the fun of the original, but still works enough to be a worthy entry in the franchise.
If you are a fan of the franchise on any level then these will no doubt be a necessity for your collection. In addition to this all-new two film collection they have also released both films separately on Blu-ray and DVD available now from Paramount Home Entertainment.