In ADDAMS FAMILY VALUES, Barry Sonnenfeld has performed the remarkable feat of making a sequel even more entertaining than its predecessor. The charmingly creepy Addams family (based on characters originally created by the morbid Charles Addams) have two new additions, mustachioed baby Pubert and sunny nanny Debbie Jellinsky. .. Read more
| Starring | Anjelica Huston, Raul Julia, Christopher Lloyd, Christina Ricci |
|---|---|
| Director | Barry Sonnenfeld |
| Genres | Comedy, Family |
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In ADDAMS FAMILY VALUES, Barry Sonnenfeld has performed the remarkable feat of making a sequel even more entertaining than its predecessor. The charmingly creepy Addams family (based on characters originally created by the morbid Charles Addams) have two new additions, mustachioed baby Pubert and sunny nanny Debbie Jellinsky. While Debbie (wonderfully played by Joan Cusack) charms the adults of the family, particularly Uncle Fester, the children discover that she is actually a serial killer called the Black Widow. The children are soon shipped off to summer camp as part of nanny dearest's diabolical plot. It's at Camp Chippewa that some of the funniest scenes occur, particularly one in which Wednesday tells genuinely terrifying ghost stories to the other campers and another that features both Addams children being sent the Harmony Hut as punishment for trying to escape. Sonnenfeld and production designer Ken Adams (no relation) make sure that each minute is a pleasure to look at by creating a feast of dark visions and macabre sight gags. ADDAMS FAMILY VALUES will be most enjoyed by those with a taste for flip gallows humor.
| Starring | Anjelica Huston, Raul Julia, Christopher Lloyd, Christina Ricci, Jimmy Workman, Joan Cusack, Carol Kane, Carel Struycken, Chris Ellis, Kaitlyn Hooper & Kristen, David Krumholtz |
|---|---|
| Director | Barry Sonnenfeld |
| Studio | PARAMOUNT HOME ENTERTAINMENT |
| Run time | DVD: 1 hr 30 mins |
| Certificate | |
| Genres | Comedy, Family |
| Language | DVD: English |
| Dubbed | Czech, German, Hungarian |
| Hearing-impaired | English |
| Subtitles | DVD: Arabic, Bulgarian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Icelandic, Italian, Norwegian, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish |
| Released | DVD: 01 Oct 2001 Production year: 1993 |
| Format | DVD |
A delightful follow-up to The Addams Family, with a more expansive plot and blessed with an even blacker vein of humour than the original. This time, Gomez and Morticia (Raul Julia and Anjelica Huston) have a new baby, much to the displeasure of their other children, while Fester has fallen under the spell of the youngster's new black widow nanny (Joan Cusack). Once again, the playing is faultless, but it is Christina Ricci who effortlessly steals the show, whether trying to bump off her new sibling or creating havoc at an all-American summer camp. The sets are wonderful, the cinematography exquisite and Barry Sonnenfeld's direction exhilarating. The perfect antidote to more traditional, sentimental family fare.
This is less a movie and more a sequence of gags set in an elongated sit-com, of which few are inspired and most too ordinary to amuse, but it has its moments.
'Addams Family Values' is that rare thing, a sequel that is the equal of the first film.
The performances from the leads - Angelica Huston, Raul Julia et al - are uniformly excellent but the standout for me is, and ever shall be, Joan Cusack's jaw dropping turn as Debbie, wife and psychopath.
Breaking the family up, by packing the kids off to summer camp and sending Fester on honeymoon, is an inspired touch that gives everyone a bit of room to shine.
Great film wonderfully played and realised. Full of laughs, spills and elaborate gags.
My 8 year old daughter loved the original Addams Family and both films are very well done.
However much of the plot in Family Values revolves around Fester being seduced... and prompted a series of questions along the lines of 'what's a virgin?' and such like... Which caught me off-guard somewhat, and meant some of the comedy went straight over my daughter's head.