What a beautiful movie!

Stylish but barely mediocre overall

good back-story, and good acting

Expected more

Addams Family Values is much better than the first Addams family film. I gave the original a 3/10 rating because to be honest it wasn't good at all, very disappointing in my opinion. This sequel is funnier, more entertaining, and all around better made. The cast does well with the material, especially Joan Cusack, I adored her as Debbie Jellinsky. Cusack plays the gold digging murderous nanny who seduces uncle Fester. That's mainly what this film focuses on, that and the children being sent away to a summer camp. That aspect of the movie makes for some great comedy because the leaders of this summer camp are the very upbeat happy type that wants the kids to join in on all the fun, and Of course the Addams kids aren't about to do that. The script is written well and it is chock full of dark humor. I would really suggest you skip the first Addams family film and just watch this sequel. It really is miles better that the first and it's genuinely funny. 8/10 for Addams Family Values.

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

The movie does get a little slow at times, but I call "Addams Family Values" very funny. First, with the kids trying to torture and kill the new born baby, then when they hire the nanny to secure the kids (which tortures them in positive ways).My favorite part is when the crazy nanny sends Wednesday and Pugsley Addams to summer camp. Right there is when the movie gets really funny and very amusing. First with the Addams kids negative affections, smart mouthing, and annoying the camp's employees and kids that enjoy the camp. Their experience in the camp's Harmony Hut was something I thought was especially amusing. I also liked it when the Addams help take down the whole place with other miserable camp members.The only thing I didn't like was that they didn't get the Indian/Native-American concept right in the camp's play. Although this could have been meant to be incorrect, simply because in the beginning of the thanksgiving play's scene Wednesday Addams gives a rather nice speech about what will happen to and be taken from the natives in the coming future.Other than a little confusion in here, I think the "Addams Family Values" is quite amusing, and even better than the first movie "The Addams Family" that was made.