Addams Family Values (1993)
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Addams Family Values Movie Review
Addams Family Values is a 1993 black comedy film directed by Barry Sonnenfeld and starring Anjelica Huston, Raul Julia, Christina Ricci and Joan Cusack. It’s such a fun movie.
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“Wednesday’s at that very special age when a girl
has only one thing on her mind.
Boys?
Homicide“
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This is one of the best and most obvious examples of a sequel trumping its predecessor on all fronts. Whereas ‘The Addams Family’ was just a solid, but highly flawed movie, Addams Family Values is better written, much funnier and much better developed in plot and characters. Consequently, it’s a big family movie winner and it’s a shame that it didn’t get a sequel.
The plot where a serial killer wants to kill Fester and get his inheritance while the family has to stop her is pretty familiar stuff, but it’s well told and superbly used for laughs. I did find the third act indicative of a burnout as it got a bit old in story and the action-packed conclusion was so typical, but the rest of the movie is frequently hilarious and non-stop entertaining delight.
Anjelica Huston was somewhat underutilized here and the same goes for some of the other characters, but Christina Ricci’s Wednesday absolutely steals the show as the funniest character of them all with her constant dark utterances being hilarious. The scene where they made fun of Disney movies was so funny.
Uncle Fester is also well used here and Joan Cusack definitely steals the show as the amusing, obviously after gold serial killer. She’s so charismatic and delightfully evil here in a cartoony, but never excessive manner. Yes, all characters, old and new, are so good here and the second highlight of the film.
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But Addams Family Values is of course the best at its macabre, dark humor. The juxtaposition of dark and light, of normal people and their family and normal kids and the Addams bunch led to many laugh-out-loud, perfectly executed for laughs situations. It’s a movie that is very briskly paced and perfectly aware of the craziness of its premise and this family which the first movie failed to utilize on. It also sounds and looks very good.
With phenomenal humor exemplified by many very amusing, well written and acted macabre jokes and situations and terrific characters, both old and new, Addams Family Values truly is a stupendous sequel that easily beats its much weaker predecessor thanks also in large part to a greatly utilized premise for laughs, brisk pace and memorable performances across the board.
