The Addams Family is one of the better movies based on a television series. It has a great cast with fine direction by Barry Sonnenfeld before he started making crap.
The late great Raul Julia makes a fun Gomaz Addams.While Anjelica Huston was also really good as his wife. Christina Ricci was a fantastic as well. It's Christopher Lloyd who I was the most impressed with though as Uncle Fester. He's a very under-rated actor who's very good at disappearing into a character, especially a strange one like Fester.
A lot of fun is had by all in this film telling the story of the madcap family. Brilliant performances by Raul Julia, Angelica Huston, Christopher Lloyd and a young Christina Ricci and outstanding special effects (especially Thing) make this an enjoyable ride for the family.
WHAT A CAST! Sonnenfeld never disappoints me with his style & skills. I love sick & twisted comedy. If you share my taste, see this film. Raul Julia, wherever you are, we miss you!
One of the few TV-to-movie adaptations that really, really works. This is a supremely creative, humorous, and faithful portrayal of the Addams Family, with masterful performances by all, especially Raul Julia as Gomez and Christopher Lloyd as Fester.
this film is really funny, and sleazy if you were a wee kid watching this you probally you not get half the joke or inuendos but for us young adults it made me laugh !!!
It took decades to finally bring a worthy film version of Charles Addams' eerie cartoon family to the screen, but here it is. First-time director Sonnenfeld (previously the director of photography on such films as Misery, Miller's Crossing, and Throw Momma from the Train) wisely chose to steer clear of the morass presented by the old Addams sitcom, and instead has taken much, if not all, of his inspiration directly from the original Charles Addams cartoons which ran in The New Yorker magazine for decades. Be thankful, because in doing so, he has managed to maintain the dark, vital integrity that the TV series so sorely lacked. As might be expected from a movie that uses a group of one-shot cartoons as its source, The Addams Family offers little along the lines of a ?plot.? Sonnenfeld presents us with the odd goings-on following the sudden reappearance of Uncle Fester (Lloyd, so perfectly cast, it's as though Jackie Coogan never existed) after a 25-year absence from the Addams' ancestral mansion. Is he or is he not who he appears to be? Thankfully Sonnenfeld has imbued the remainder of the film with dozens of delightfully macabre touches. As Morticia and Gomez Addams, Huston and Julia are perfect, far more on-target than TV's Carolyn Jones and John Astin ever were. The characters of butler Lurch and son Pugsley are likewise true to the original Addams' ouevre, but it's young daughter Wednesday (Ricci) -- all solemnity and black-clad innocence -- who rings truest. With her toy guillotine and collection of (naturally) headless dolls, she is the youthful heart of this strangely endearing brood. The rest of the Addams menage is here as well: aged Granny, the shaggy and libidinous Cousin It, and everyone's favorite disembodied hand, Thing (no longer confined to that tiny wooden cigar box thanks to nineties special effects). Taken together, these characters successfully resurrect the ghoulish spirit of the old cartoons and, one hopes, usher in a new generation of Addams fans (and fanatics). It's interesting to note, too, that as we enter the last decade of the 20th century, it is the Addams family that appears as being the screen's most loving, nurturing, and above all, the sanest of American film families, eccentric though they may be. Truthfully, it's hard to imagine a better screen adaptation of this queer household. Addams would have been proud.
Ah, delightful. I had been dying to see it for a few days. Don't know why, just got an inkling. So I rented it and liked it a lot. Very funny, very weird. Great.
They're creepy and they're cookie, mysterious and spooky.....it's the Addams family of course! The TV family are brought to life through a very dry script but staying firm to the old habits of the TV series.
The "Addams family" are, shall I say a "unique" family. They live in a rundown, old house which might remind you of the house in the classic movie Psycho. The head of the household is "Gomez" (the late Raul Julia), his wife, whom he loves passionately, is "Morticia" (Anjelica Houston). Their children, who love to torture each other (literally), are "Wednesday" (Christina Ricci) and "Pugsley" (Jimmy Workman). Living with them are "Granny" (Judith Malina), the family butler "Lurch" (Carel Struycken) and the disembodied hand known as "Thing" (the hand of Christopher Hart).
When he was younger, he had a fight with his brother "Fester" (Christopher Lloyd) and "Fester" ran away to the Bermuda Triangle. For 25 years, "Gomez" has been awaiting for his brother's return.
The Addams mansion is filled with secret tunnels, and a huge vault filled with the family fortune -- gold dubloons. "Tully Alford" (Dan Hedaya) is the family lawyer who meets with "Gomez" monthly to collect gold for the family account.
"Tully" owes a lot of money to "Abigail Craven" (Elizabeth W. Wilson) and her son "Gordon" (Lloyd). "Tully" realizes that "Gordon" is a dead ringer for the missing "Fester", and the three conspire to get the Addams family gold by having "Gordon" pretend to be the missing Addams.
Posing as her son's doctor, "Abigail" convinces the Addams that he is the long lost "Fester". However, "Gomez" becomes very suspicious when the man posing as his brother is unable to recall many things. "Wednesday" herself had become suspicious since she first met her "Uncle Fester".
The Addams Family, which is based on the 1964-66 National Broadcasting Company sitcom of the same name, is one of the most visually wild movies made to that point. There are lots of on-set special effects and props used for some huge chuckles, if not laughs.
The cast plays up the comedy very well, and are wonderful in their roles. Julia and Houston make you believe that there is strong passion between the two. The rest of the cast, as well as Julia and Houston, take camp and slapstick to new levels. Ricci stands out from her child co-star, and has one of the best poker faces I've ever seen.
The sets, except for the "outside world", are dark and gloomy. The cast makes their characters look quite comfortable in their surroundings.
There is little development in the supporting characters, however there is just enough to get them over with the audience. The supporting cast members are quite good, including Hedaya, who plays his character like every other character he's played.
This movie is not for the very young, but older kids could possibly watch it with their parents. There are a few scenes which are mildly violent, which are used for laughs.
Overall, The Addams Family is an enjoyable movie that should be a good rental, of not one to own.
An all-star cast reinvents the cheesy TV series, Addams Family, in a movie as gothic and darkly funny as it seemed possible. The movie practically typecast Christina Ricci as a morbid moppet.
This movie is about a family who are pretty much witches, and wizzards, and really weird. They meet a long lost Uncle Fester who is really just a con artist in disguise, and there are really funny adventure.s
wow i have not seen this movie in ages but thought that this was a quite funny movie 2 see...this has a good cast of characters throughout the movie...i think that uncle fester is my favourite character in both these movies...i think the 1st 1 is better but they are both so funny movies 2 watch..this is a good movie because its a Horror, Comedy movie because the director keeps you on the edge's of your seats throughout this movie because you never know what 2 expect throughout this movie n its funny as well
This has got to be the most disfunctional family ever. I mean they are hilarious, everything is so upside down in their household and it works thats the funny part. i especially thoguht the part where Huston was cutting off the roses and putting the stems in the vase was really funny. I mean you wouldnt spot it if you arent payin attention. Its the little things that cracked me up.
Great movie. Loved the visuals, love the light hearted and hilarious way that each of the cast members went about fleshing out their roles, and the premise for the film's story was just terrific. Oh, and the musical score of the film was just awesome and really suited the entire movie well and effectively rounded off the movie's whole "character".
Between the sumptuous pseudo-gothic production design, the inspired casting and occasional glimmers of cartoonist Chas. Addams' morbid wit, there's a lot going for this lavish comedy... and you certainly can't fault the lead performers (particularly Julia, Huston and Ricci), who all seem to be having loads of fun with their funeral-parlor-meets-carnival-barker roles. Why then is the film itself so ultimately disappointing? Much of the blame falls on the script, which takes Addams' original characters and shackles them to an uninspired, sitcom-y plot. Also, the groan-inducing M.C. Hammer song at the end sure doesn't help.
Yeah yeah yeah, it wasn't that badly done but I seriously fail to see how this is a horror film. I guess Thing wasn't attached to anyone, and possibly It could use a trip to the dog groomers, other than that? I truthfully never watched the original show regularly so maybe that is a determining factor? I can at least tell that they did a good job with casting, and it's not impossible to get through or anything.
I guess the big problem is that I couldn't care less about this, I guess it's not terrible and most seemed to really like it but I thought it was quite silly and the plot was well lacking. I think this is more something to watch with the kiddies rather than to watch as an adult without kids, maybe I just haven't a sense of humor? I wouldn't put it past me.
A bit rudimentary in the story department, but Raul Julia makes his character highly watchable with every intonation and Christopher Lloyd is priceless.
MCT:October 12, 2008
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