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Addams Family Values
That rarest of cinematic animals...a sequel that stands up proudly to its predecessor, 1993's Addams Family Values hits a home run thanks to an intelligent and funny screenplay, atmospheric direction, superb production values, and a pair of knock out performances by actresses who bring more to their roles through their performances than the screenplay really allows.
As this sequel to the 1991 film opens, Gomez (the late Raul Julia) and Morticia (Anjelica Huston) have just given birth to a baby boy named Pubert. They hire a nanny named Debbie Jelinski (Joan Cusack) to care for the baby since Pugsley (Jimmy Workman) and Wednesday (Christina Ricci) keep trying to murder him. It's soon revealed that Debbie is a venomous black widow who has killed multiple husbands for their money and has now set her cap on Uncle Fester (Christopher Lloyld). When Wednesday starts catching onto what Debbie doing, Debbie manipulates Gomez and Morticia into sending Pugsley and Wednesday to summer camp to keep them out of her hair.
Screenwriter Paul Ruydnik really scores with a screenplay that stays true to the characters established in the first film but gives them a perfect blending of two very different stories that allow the characters to be fleshed out even further than they were in the first film. The demented Uncle Fester is a perfect target for black widow Debbie, even if it might take him a little longer than it should have for him to catch on to her. This story is perfectly balanced with the fish out of water story of Pugsley and Wednesday taken out of the gothic world of their family and placed in the middle of an endlessly cheery summer camp where even the demented Wednesday actually finds romance.
This comedy is jam packed with one outrageous scene after another that provide consistent laughs throughout. The numerous attempts by Pugsley and Wednesday to murder their baby brother and the delicious comic tango by Gomez and Morticia made even more hysterical thanks to some first rate visual effects are just a few of the highlights. And of course Debbie's futile attempts to take out Uncle Fester defy logic and produce huge giggles.
As mentioned, the production values are a great asset in pulling of this bizarre comic tale as they were in the first film. What were used as tools of exposition in the first film become atmospheric servants of the story being presented. Jim Miller and Arthur Schmidt's film editing and the Oscar-nominated art direction/set direction by William J. Durell Jr. and Marvin March are huge assets, all under the under the watchful eye of director Sonnenfield, a former film editor, and you can definitely see the influence his work as an editor has had on his direction.
Despite all of this, the best thing about this movie are the performances by Joan Cusack as Debbie and Christina Ricci as Wednesday. Cusack is comic gold here, creating a classic comic villainess that you can't help but revel in. She has two separate scenes where she is privately rehearsing how to be a grieving widow and her final explanation to the family regarding why she turned out the way she is had me on the floor. Sonnenfield also recognized the laughs that Christina Ricci's Wednesday got in the first film and capitalized on them as well. Ricci steals every scene she's in here, causing major havoc at the summer camp. Though one of her funniest moments is after time in the "Harmony Hut", she tries to smile for the first time. Peter MacNichol and Christine Baranski also garner laughs as the eternally cheery camp counselors, but what makes this film work is the work of Cusack, Ricci, and the razor sharp directorial eye of Barry Sonnenfield.
That rarest of cinematic animals...a sequel that stands up proudly to its predecessor, 1993's Addams Family Values hits a home run thanks to an intelligent and funny screenplay, atmospheric direction, superb production values, and a pair of knock out performances by actresses who bring more to their roles through their performances than the screenplay really allows.
As this sequel to the 1991 film opens, Gomez (the late Raul Julia) and Morticia (Anjelica Huston) have just given birth to a baby boy named Pubert. They hire a nanny named Debbie Jelinski (Joan Cusack) to care for the baby since Pugsley (Jimmy Workman) and Wednesday (Christina Ricci) keep trying to murder him. It's soon revealed that Debbie is a venomous black widow who has killed multiple husbands for their money and has now set her cap on Uncle Fester (Christopher Lloyld). When Wednesday starts catching onto what Debbie doing, Debbie manipulates Gomez and Morticia into sending Pugsley and Wednesday to summer camp to keep them out of her hair.
Screenwriter Paul Ruydnik really scores with a screenplay that stays true to the characters established in the first film but gives them a perfect blending of two very different stories that allow the characters to be fleshed out even further than they were in the first film. The demented Uncle Fester is a perfect target for black widow Debbie, even if it might take him a little longer than it should have for him to catch on to her. This story is perfectly balanced with the fish out of water story of Pugsley and Wednesday taken out of the gothic world of their family and placed in the middle of an endlessly cheery summer camp where even the demented Wednesday actually finds romance.
This comedy is jam packed with one outrageous scene after another that provide consistent laughs throughout. The numerous attempts by Pugsley and Wednesday to murder their baby brother and the delicious comic tango by Gomez and Morticia made even more hysterical thanks to some first rate visual effects are just a few of the highlights. And of course Debbie's futile attempts to take out Uncle Fester defy logic and produce huge giggles.
As mentioned, the production values are a great asset in pulling of this bizarre comic tale as they were in the first film. What were used as tools of exposition in the first film become atmospheric servants of the story being presented. Jim Miller and Arthur Schmidt's film editing and the Oscar-nominated art direction/set direction by William J. Durell Jr. and Marvin March are huge assets, all under the under the watchful eye of director Sonnenfield, a former film editor, and you can definitely see the influence his work as an editor has had on his direction.
Despite all of this, the best thing about this movie are the performances by Joan Cusack as Debbie and Christina Ricci as Wednesday. Cusack is comic gold here, creating a classic comic villainess that you can't help but revel in. She has two separate scenes where she is privately rehearsing how to be a grieving widow and her final explanation to the family regarding why she turned out the way she is had me on the floor. Sonnenfield also recognized the laughs that Christina Ricci's Wednesday got in the first film and capitalized on them as well. Ricci steals every scene she's in here, causing major havoc at the summer camp. Though one of her funniest moments is after time in the "Harmony Hut", she tries to smile for the first time. Peter MacNichol and Christine Baranski also garner laughs as the eternally cheery camp counselors, but what makes this film work is the work of Cusack, Ricci, and the razor sharp directorial eye of Barry Sonnenfield.