Written by Paul Rudnick
Directed by Barry Sonnenfeld
Morticia: "You have gone too far. You have married Fester, you have destroyed his spirit, you have taken him from us. All that I could forgive. But, Debbie..."
Debbie Jellinsky: "What?"
Morticia: "...pastels?"
And the superior film would be the sequel. Not financially of course as this movie sadly bombed but in terms of pure enjoyment and really capturing the quirkiness of the Addams, this sequel more than delivered on that front, even improving on certain things from the first movie.
The biggest improvement would be of course the choice of villain. Black widow serial killer turned nanny, Debbie Jellinsky has got to be one of the best and most camp of movie villains and Joan Cusack clearly seems to be having the time of her life in playing such an over the top menace terrorising the family and in particular, Fester, who really does seem to have a habit of letting domineering women influence him.
Fester starts the movie somewhat envious of Morticia and Gomez's great love and it doesn't take long for Debbie to work her charms on him, get married and of course separate him from his beloved family. It's the bit where trying to kill Fester that Debbie seems to have great difficulty in, though it's not a lack of effort on her part.
Of course when electricity and house bombs don't work, Debbie takes the entire family captive, gives a strong delivery on her villainous path before being bested by the latest addition of the clan - baby Pubert, whose arrival did initially see both Wednesday and Pugsley take the term sibling rivalry to more extreme measures.
Speaking of Wednesday and Pugsley, Debbie did manage to take them out of a good portion of the story by having them sent to Camp Chippewa, managed by the doubly Gary (Peter MacNicol) and Becky Granger (Christine Baranski) and the bratty Amanda (Mercedes McNab). All three however soon come afoul of Wednesday and Pugsley as well as Joel (David Krumholtz) during a Thanksgiving play that no-one will likely forget any time soon.
Of course it's the theme of family that is prominent in this sequel with the Addams always being a stronger unit when together and we see that as they band together over Debbie being a thorn to their side and also towards the end when gathered for Pubert becoming a year old. There's also a nice subplot with Wednesday and Joel getting close to one another before that last moment at the graveyard.
- Director Barry Sonnenfeld and Julie Halston played Joel's parents for a few scenes in this movie. There's a few familiar faces to keep an eye out.
- Carol Kane replaced Judith Malina for the role of Grandmama while Margeret and Cousin Itt had a baby too between movies.
- This was one of the final film roles for Raul Julia who died a year after this film's release.
- Chronology: Several months since the events of the first movie with a year passing by the end of this one.
Addams Family Values definitely is the superior movie of the two we got with this cast. It's a pity that it underperformed because it takes everything that worked well enough with the first movie and massively improves on it while also feeling a lot crazier in the best way possible. Not to mention a sublime villain with Debbie and some of the most pithy dialogue on offer.
Rating: 9 out of 10
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