October 30, 2015

It’d been a long while since I’d seen either of THE ADDAMS FAMILY movies, but with Halloween winding down, I wanted to see something horror themed that was light and fun, and so I broke out both of these movies for a double feature. You have to remember in context that back in 1991 when Barry Sonnenfeld helmed this adaptation of the beloved 60’s TV show, there wasn’t really an uproar there is these days with every single TV or movie remake. It came, was a big hit and turned out to be pretty darned good with a funny script, tight witty dialogue and a spot-on cast consisting of the late, great Raul Julia as Gomez Addams, Anjelica Huston as Morticia, Christopher Lloyd as Uncle Fester and introducing Christina Ricci as Wednesday Addams.

While entertaining, during the course of the first movie, we’re always questioning whether Uncle Fester is really an Addams or not and so we never truly get a full on “Addams Family” movie. That’s why I prefer the sequel ADDAMS FAMILY VALUES, which I consider to be a comedy masterpiece. Bold words I know, but this time around everyone has fully embraced their characters and the story of Debbie (Joan Cusack) infiltrating the family first as their nanny to their new born son Pubert, and then marrying Fester and forcing him to shun his family makes for great comedy fodder. Wednesday and Pugsly are fairly smart kids though and wouldn’t let this sort of thing just happen easily, so they’re shipped off to summer camp at the insistence of Debbie, where Wednesday does what she does best and makes for some of the highlights of the film.

For me, once Fester pushes his family away, Raul Julia absolutely crushes it as the heartbroken brother who absolutely loses it. Check out this one scene from the police precinct, featuring Nathan Lane!

If you’re looking for something really fun, spooky and all together kooky, you can’t go wrong with ADDAMS FAMILY VALUES, my Killer POV pick of the week.