Watch Addams Family Values For Free

As Good As It Gets

Absolutely Fantastic

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

Envious of their parents' newborn baby, the Addams children repeatedly try to kill it before being sent away to summer camp by their scheming new nanny in this sequel to 'The Addams Family'. Often cited as superior to its predecessor, 'Addams Family Values' benefits from delving into the plot quicker with less time spent introducing the characters. What really raises the quality of the film though is the focus on Christina Ricci as Wednesday Addams, who receives the most screen time here after Christopher Lloyd. Her deadpan line delivery and emotionless facial reactions are better than ever, and a bit where she slowly forces a smile after being forced to watch Disney films is a real testament to her talents. Another big plus is Joan Cusack's ever-so-slightly demented performance as the nanny who seduces Lloyd for his money; her repeated failed attempts to kill him are even funnier than the kids failing to kill the baby early on. Witty and funny as the script often is though, the screenplay is not airtight; the transition between the film being about the children trying to kill the baby and the nanny trying to fleece their uncle is quite jarring. The experiences of Ricci at camp - where she encounters the same Girl Scout who tried to sell her cookies in the first film - are also far more interesting than Lloyd and Cusack having it out. This is an enjoyable film through and through, however, with all concerned really in top form. Whether this is truly superior to the first film may be debatable, but it is certainly a very good effort as far as sequels tend to go.

I said about the first film that Barry Levinson understood the Addams, not the audience. The look was there but the plot involving Uncle Fester's introduction to the Family to serve some malevolent business scheme didn't exploit the comedic potential of the Family to its fullest, and for a simple reason: the undercover uncle was as weird and wacky as everyone else and once we get immersed in the Addams' inner circle, no matter how bizarrely sinister it gets, we become immune to the effect of surprise and mildly smirk when we should be laughing.Now, this is a critic I can't formulate about the 1993 sequel "The Addams Family's Values", I think it's fair to say that Barry Levinson understood the audience… this time. Naturally, one glimpse at the poster, the cast and the first frames give us an idea. Everybody's there and the two-year gap between didn't affect anyone physically but there are significant newcomers, a baby and a bride, and these are not benign events in any family history. So the film remarkably confronts the Addams to the real world through real-life situations and instead of relying on a one-joke "Addams vs. Reality" note, it takes all the characters out of their zone of comfort and center their preoccupations on the basis of three story lines: we have the new baby, Fester's courtship, marriage and deadly honeymoon and the summer camp.But let's get to the film. It opens in a very straightforward way, Morticia Addams (Anjelica Huston) feels the sudden urge to go to the hospital as she will have a baby… we've seen more passionate displays of starting labors, but hey, this is Morticia. And the labor is as hard and painful as it can get, and you can tell because she enjoys every minute of it. Then comes the baby, and when asked about, a joyful Gomez (Raul Julia) proudly shouts "it's an Addams" and seeing is believing: the baby is the spitting image of his father, as if he was designed by a doll maker... with the obligatory pencil-mustache. Of course, he needs a name, and if you ask yourself what can be worse than Wednesday or Pugsley, well, let's just say parents were sued for lesser names than… Pubert.But here's where the film starts to show signs of improvements over the original: while the baby's birth could have been the inspiration for a few sight gags (there are some reminiscences of the first film with Wednesday and Pugsley trying to kill him), this is only a set-up, one thing leading to another, the baby brings the second newcomer, inevitably, a nanny Debbie (Joan Cusack), a beautiful blonde too fond on Pubert not to raise any suspicion. It is even fishier that she gets infatuated with Fester, and then we remember that he's a rich man and she seems to carry all the symptoms of the Black Widow. But here's the plot thickens, in order to keep on her 'nanny' cover, she needs get rid of the kids and convince the parents to take them to summer camp so they can repress their homicidal impulses.The film isn't funny all the time but you the dynamics work and makes it exciting to follow, it follows the rule that a good story with a few gags is better than a disjointed plot that tries too hard to be funny. And it dares not to focus on the Addams, Fester has never been my favorite character but his interactions with a woman he genuinely loves and who pretends to be attracted to him gives him a touch of vulnerability, and it enriches his relationship with Gomez and Morticia too, who still remain the romantic pillar of the Family. But just when you get too much on Fester, the film quickly jumps to the other subplot. And both are actually similar, you have a seemingly normal person who must pretend to love an Addams, while the Addams kids must adapt to the normal world, the worst, one that advocates such values as friendship, love and solidarity. Ugh!And this is why my favorite part is the Chipawe summer camp. Indeed, with the syrupy leaders played by Peter MacNicol and Christine Baranski and the perfect little Daddy and Mommy's little girl, the Addams kids discover a real world which is do diametrically opposed to theirs that it is scary in its own joyful way, a bit like Debbie can be creepy behind her angelic smile. In the camp, there's another outsider Joel Glicker, a Jewish nerd allergic to everything (before it would become a cliché) and somewhat, the story manages to make the chemistry work between Joel and Wednesday, and their surrender to the saccharine tyranny believable (who can resists hours of "Sound of Music"?). There's also a very clever part showing all the kids who couldn't make it in the Pocahontas play, and the way their ethnic backgrounds play is a delight of politically incorrect humor.The power of the first two acts is to consolidate the Addams' status as outcasts no matter how hard they try to fit. And it all comes to a point where we want the Addams to be back to their 'normal' abnormal lifestyle, (or form for one of them), like the title says, the Addams have values, twisted and weird, but values nonetheless. The only sad aspect is to see Raul Julia in such energy and enthusiasm in a movie made one year before its untimely passing. And it's so sweet to see a young Cristina Ricci with her creepy smile closing the film, illustrating this bizarre mix of macabre and humor.The movie ends in the perfect note except maybe for the dreadful ending son, one that manages to get more horrific than the first one. Since the script transcended the sitcom format, how about a little nod with the usual da-da-da, and the two finger snaps.

The one gripe (if you can even call it that) I have with "Addams Family Values" is the end credits song. Tag Team doesn't work anywhere near as well as MC Hammer did. But everything else here works wonderfully.More than the first, this is the epitome of a real-life cartoon, not to mention a refined one-liner assembly line. And the perfect casting extends to the supporting players (Joan Cusack and deranged Christine Baranski). But, for me, Christina Ricci owns this movie (this from a pretty big Raúl Juliá fan) with little more than facial expressions, from annoyance and disgust to unbalanced perkiness. Ricci's working with a much more experienced group of players, which really emphasizes her talent here. She's mastered this character. Her sabotaging the Summer camp pageant is the best part of the whole thing, and I'll be damned if she's not my favorite Pocahontas.This movie's a winner, on par with (if not better than) the original. With a cast like this, it's hard to see it turning out poorly, but refreshing that it's anything but.8/10

Now a perennial broadcast on television every fall, it's difficult to remember that Values did quite poorly at the box office - opening moderately well before having its legs cut off the following week by Mrs Doubtfire. Paul Rudnick who did an uncredited rewrite on the first film, fills his script with hilarious one liners and macabre wit throughout and while the film is basically episodic, the comedic set pieces always work. The casting is perfection and the leads elevate the simplest joke with their committed and fantastic performances. New addition Joan Cusack is hysterical as the black widow with her lethal sights on Fester. The visuals and art direction are great and the film has energy to burn. With the exception of an embarrassingly bad end credits song, Addams Family Values is the rare sequel that works better than its predecessor.