Addams Family Values is a 1993 sequel to the 1991 comedy The Addams Family. The film was written by Paul Rudnick and directed by Barry Sonnenfeld, and many cast members from the original returned for the sequel, including Raúl Juliá, Anjelica Huston, Christopher Lloyd, and Christina Ricci. Compared to its predecessor, which retained something of the madcap approach of the 1960s sitcom, Values is played more for macabre laughs. As a result, the film was met with more critical praise, earning a 76% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
This was Raúl Juliá's last theatrical film to be released while he was still alive.
Plot
The film opens with Morticia calmly giving birth to a baby boy, Pubert; the other children, Wednesday and Pugsley, immediately develop an extreme case of sibling rivalry and make numerous attempts to kill the baby. When Gomez and Morticia try to hire a nanny, the children frighten them all away. The last applicant, Debbie Jellinsky, seems to be made of sterner stuff. Unbeknownst to the Addamses, she is also the serial killer known as "The Black Widow". On television's America's Most Disgusting Unsolved Crimes, it is revealed that Debbie has been traveling in disguise for quite some time, marrying rich men and killing them for their fortunes. Now she has set her sights on Uncle Fester and the vast Addams fortune. When Wednesday becomes suspicious of Debbie's interest in Fester's money, Debbie advises Gomez and Morticia to send the children to Camp Chippewa, a summer camp for privileged children. The parents are horrified at the thought, but are talked into it.
With the kids out of the way, Debbie marries Fester, then promptly tries to kill him on their Hawaiian honeymoon by electrocuting him in the jacuzzi; however, Fester is an Addams and mistakes her murderous actions for ordinary affection. At her wits' end, Debbie denies him sex until he promises never to see his family again; in anguish, he agrees. The couple then move into a garish McMansion in the suburbs.
With Fester gone, brother Gomez goes into a depression and Pubert becomes "possessed", turning blonde, rosy and cheerful. Meanwhile, at Camp Chippewa, Wednesday and Pugsley do not fit in with the rest of the wealthy mean-spirited campers. During lifesaving training, Wednesday intentionally lets her partner drown in the lake. At night, during the telling of ghost stories, Wednesday tells of the ghost undoing all of the campers' nose jobs overnight, which causes her fellow campers to scream in terror. The Addams children try to escape at night when they receive word of Uncle Fester's marriage to Debbie, but are caught. The camp's golden girl Amanda Buckman (Mercedes McNab), and the rest of the campers suggest that the Addams kids be punished, but the camp counselors Gary and Becky, would prefer to inspire them by singing Kumbaya, which makes Wednesday and Pugsley cringe. Meanwhile, Wednesday encounters a soul mate (of sorts) in the person of Joel Glicker, an introverted boy plagued by allergies. He confirms her suspicions that Debbie is the "Black Widow" and Fester is her next target.
At the end of the summer, the campers stage a play about "The First Thanksgiving" with the "good" kids cast as the pilgrims and the social outcasts as Chippewa natives, with Wednesday as Pocahontas. When Wednesday, Pugsley and Joel refuse to participate in the play, all three are locked in the "Harmony Hut" and forced to watch movies and TV shows ranging from Bambi to Lassie Come Home, The Little Mermaid, The Sound of Music, The Brady Bunch and Annie. When the three come out, they pretend that they have changed from gloomy to cheerful (Wednesday even going so far as to smile). During the performance, however, Wednesday breaks out of character and rants about how the American colonists will later exploit the Native Americans in the future and leads the other outcasts in revolt, destroying the set and tying Amanda up to be burned at the stake. Afterward, the Addams siblings flee for home.
Meanwhile, Debbie has come up with a new plan to kill Fester. For their "three week anniversary", she wraps up a time bomb in a gift box and tells Fester not to open it until she comes back with some champagne. However, the bomb only succeeds in blowing up the house. When a frustrated Debbie snarls, "I want you dead, and I want your money!", Fester realizes the truth and flees with Thing's help to the Addams mansion, with Debbie in hot pursuit.
An ailing Gomez tells Fester that he is "Mr. Debbie!" but Fester declares, "I AM AN ADDAMS!" Gomez is instantly cured hearing this, and the baby reverts back to his dark, gloomy self. Pugsley and Wednesday return as well.
Then, an angry Debbie bursts into the room with one intent: kill all the Addamses and take the money. She straps everyone except Pubert to electric chairs and uses slides to tell how she killed her parents as a child on her tenth birthday because they did not buy her the Barbie doll she wanted. She killed her first husband, a heart surgeon, with an axe because he was too busy to dine with her, and ran over her second husband, a senator, with her car because he would not buy her a new Mercedes-Benz. Fester begs Debbie to just kill him and spare the others, but she rejects his offer. Pubert short-circuits the wiring, causing Debbie to electrocute herself.
In the epilogue, Gomez and Morticia throw a birthday party for Pubert. Joel, dressed like Gomez, sneaks off to the graveyard with Wednesday, where they talk briefly about Debbie. Remarking that Debbie's methods were "sloppy," Wednesday says that if she wanted to kill a man and not be caught, she would scare him to death. As Joel lays flowers on Debbie's grave, a hand breaks the surface and grabs his arm; Wednesday looks on, satisfied with Joel's screams.
Cast
Returning from the first film:
Dana Ivey's character, Margaret Addams (Alford in the original film; now married to Cousin Itt), also makes a return appearance.
Additional cast:
Supporting roles:
Cameo roles:
Critical response
Janet Maslin of The New York Times wondered if "the making of this sequel was sheer drudgery for all concerned", then answered herself by writing, "There's simply too much glee on the screen, thanks to a cast and visual conception that were perfect in the first place, and a screenplay by Paul Rudnick that specializes in delightfully arch, subversive humor."[2] Leonard Klady was slightly less enthusiastic in his Variety review, noting, "It remains perilously slim in the story department, but glides over the thin ice with technical razzle-dazzle and an exceptionally winning cast."[3]
However, in his Time review, Richard Schickel called it "an essentially lazy movie, too often settling for easy gags and special effects that don't come to any really funny point."[4]
Alternate versions
When Joel first enters the Harmony Hut to join Wednesday and Pugsley, after Gary takes his book away, he shrieks in horror upon seeing a poster of Michael Jackson on the far wall. This part has been removed from some TV broadcasts.
DVD release
The film has been released on DVD with the following special features:
- Theatrical Trailer 1
- Theatrical Trailer 2
See also
References
External links
