Addams Family Values

ADDAMS FAMILY VALUES

REVIEWED BY CHARITY BISHOP

Our rating: 3 out of 5

Because of: sexual references, morbid humor, children in peril

Rated:

There is a new addition to the Addams Family: Pubert, a darling little dark-haired baby with a mustache just like his daddy's. This bundle of fire-breathing joy have made his parents very proud... and his siblings sincerely jealous. Wednesday (Christina Ricci) has convinced her brother Pugsley (Jimmy Workman) that whenever a new child comes into the family, one of the older children must die -- a practice that is no longer in use. Their mother Morticia (Angelica Huston) is slightly disconcerted that caring for the baby leaves no time for her to pursue hellish activities, and so her husband Gomez (Raul Julia) arranges to have a nanny brought in.

The first three don't last more than an hour. Then the doorbell rings and a winning, cleavage-bearing blonde enters their morbid existence and immediately wins over the shy heart of Uncle Fester (Christopher Lloyd). Little do the Addams Family know that Debbie (Joan Cusack) is a notorious serial killer with a long succession of marrying men for their fortune and then abruptly ending their life on the wedding night. She manages to prevent the children from murdering Pubert on numerous occasions but when Wednesday becomes suspicious of her true intentions, manipulates their parents into sending them off to summer camp. The well-lit, wooded place of "fun and learning" is a nightmare for two brooding, pale children dressed entirely in black, and they conspire to make camp a living hell for its happier occupants while their parents are conflicted by Fester's marriage to Debbie and subsequent shunning of them.

What Debbie forgot is that Addams Family members don't die the first time around. Or the second. Or even the third. What she winds up with is increasing frustration and a very much alive husband! What results is two hours of excessively morbid humor in the tradition of the first film, only this one is a lot more fun. The characters have all gotten to the point where nothing surprises us so much as it delights us, and having mustached little Pubert in the background (including when he becomes ill and sprouts lovely golden locks, much to the suicidal dismay of his parents) only increases the experience. We encounter a little bit of Wednesday's romantic side, revealing that yes, one she may live up to her mother's potential. Everything is very tongue in cheek and meant to inspire laughs, and for the most part there are no serious spiritual issues to contend with. "Grandma" is something of a witch, but aside from handing Debbie a skull and informing her that there's a curse on it, she remains in the background.

More prevalent is the dark humor, which involves numerous attempts by the Addams children to dispatch their baby brother. They try throwing him off the top of the house (his dad happens to open a window and catch him). They place him into a mini guillotine (Pubert stops the blade). They try dropping a cannon ball on him (it misses). Once at summer camp, after being punished for their gloom through the torture of watching musicals and Disney movies all day long, the children turn malicious, setting fire to out buildings, threatening to scalp a girl, and sassing their elders. A woman is electrocuted and turns to dust. There are numerous sly references to torture during lovemaking. When confronted with a wild story of how babies grow in cabbage patches by a kid in the hospital, Wednesday says bluntly that all her parents did was have sex. Debbie makes a big deal out of being a virgin, and has a couple of conversations with Fester about it.

When her attempt to murder him on the honeymoon fails, she's forced to spend the night with him. She climbs on top of him in bed, then proceeds to blackmail him -- he cannot see his family if he intends to sleep with her on a regular basis. She uses this "sexual blackmail" on later occasions. The movie will be a little to dark and morbid for many audiences. Those unfamiliar with the sadistic nature of the Addams Family will be shocked by its morose outlook, but fans of the television show will no doubt be pleased.