When I was young, I remember watching
The Addams Family on tv. I’m pretty sure that I was seeing the reruns. The show had some very unique characters and I enjoyed it. A movie based on the tv show was made in 1989. I didn’t see the movie in the theater, but I saw it on video later. I really enjoyed the movie version of
The Addams Family.
Gomez and
Morticia Addams were happily married. They and their children,
Wednesday and
Pugsley, were a bit strange. Everyone dressed all in black. One member of the family,
Thing, was just a hand. Gomez had a brother,
Fester, that he hadn’t seen in years. The brothers had a disagreement, Fester left and then disappeared in the Bermuda Triangle. Gomez was depressed. It was coming up on the anniversary of Fester’s disappearance.
The Addams family lived in a huge mansion that had secret tunnels and a vault full of gold underneath it.
Judge Womack, one of the neighbors, hated the Addams family.
Tully Alford was the lawyer for the family. Once a month he met with Gomez and collected a large amount of gold for the accounts. Tully owed a lot of money to
Abigail Craven and her son
Gordon. They discovered the gold and were unhappy. Tully realized that Gordon greatly resembled the missing Fester. The Cravens and Tully came up with a plan to get their hands on the gold.
Gordon pretended to be Fester. His mother pretended to be
Dr. Greta Punder Schloss. She said that Fester had been found washed up on a beach. He’d lost his memory. Greta/Abigail said that she had worked with Fester to discover who he was. Gomez was thrilled to have his brother back, but he had some doubts a few days later. He talked to Greta and was convinced that his brother had really come home. Wednesday was very suspicious of Fester/Gordon.
Gomez took Fester/Gordon down to the vault once. After that Gordon tried to find his way back, but he kept failing. Morticia noticed that he was up to something and had a talk with him one night. Abigail was very impatient to get the gold and she never missed an opportunity to yell at Gordon about it. Tully learned something about the family that gave Gordon and Abigail more opportunity to hunt for the gold.
CAST
Anjelica Houston - Morticia Addams
Raul Julia - Gomez Addams
Christopher Lloyd - Gordon Craven/Fester Addams
Elizabeth Wilson - Abigail Craven/Dr. Greta Punder Schloss
Christina Ricci - Wednesday Addams
Judith Malina - Grandma
Dan Hedaya - Tully Alford
Carel Struycken - Lurch
Paul Benedict - Judge Womack
Christopher Hart - Thing
Dana Ivey - Margaret Alford
Jimmy Workman - Pugsley
John Franklin - Cousin Itt
Barry Sonnefield - Director
The Addams Family was rated
PG-13 and 103 minutes long. The movie was based on The Addams Family tv show. The movie is available on VHS and DVD. I have the DVD. It is in widescreen. The only extras on the DVD were trailers for the movie. The picture and sound quality were excellent. There were a few things that could be upsetting to some children. I don’t think that young children should see this movie.
I did enjoy
The Addams Family. The movie was very entertaining. I don’t remember too much from the tv show, so I don’t know how true the movie was to the original show. The movie did have the same main characters. There really wasn’t any action in the movie, but it wasn’t boring. Enough was going on to keep me interested in it.
The Addams Family was a comedy, though there were some dark moments in the movie as well. There were a lot of little things that happened that I thought were funny, like Thing. He was just a hand running around doing all kinds of things and he was an important member of the family. That was funny to me. I also thought Cousin Itt was funny. Different things that the characters did or said were funny at different times. The movie wasn’t hilarious, but it was funny.
The Addams Family wasn’t scary, but there were some things that happened that were a little disturbing. At one time, Pugsley and Wednesday were performing a scene for a school production. They were fencing and had done something to make it look like blood was gushing from different body parts. The audience was hit with whatever was used for blood. That scene could be disturbing to some people, especially younger children. The family isn’t normal, and they do some strange things at times. Wednesday and Pugsley were playing with an electric chair once. There wasn’t any real violence in the movie, but a few scenes had a few elements that could be considered violent.
There were some special effects in
The Addams Family, but there weren’t that many. I am fairly sure that Thing was created with effects of some kind. I was thinking that a blue screen was used and then the hand was added to the other footage later, but I’m not sure. There were some unique things in the house, including some strange books. When one book was opened, it caused hurricane force winds and lightening inside the library. That book was opened a few times during the movie. One time the book was held open longer, which caused people to fly around the room. That was well done, especially for when the movie was made, but I could tell that a blue screen had been used in that scene.
Until I watched
The Addams Family again recently, I had forgotten that Barry Sonnefield had directed the movie. He has made some other movies with strange and unique characters, like
Men in Black and
Men in Black II. I’ve seen both of those and have enjoyed them, though they were different. The quality of the effects that Sonnefield has used in his movies has continued to improve with each one.
The Addams Family was full of strange characters that had some unique characteristics. Everyone in the family was different and unique in some way. Gomez got all worked up with Morticia spoke French around him. Both of them also seemed to enjoy things that other people would consider painful. Wednesday was a very somber and serious child. She seemed to be fascinated by dangerous things. She and her brother enjoyed playing dangerous games.
The acting in
The Addams Family was good. The actors were believable in their strange roles. Raul Julia was very good as Gomez. His character was a bit over the top, but that was Gomez. He really came to life. Raul Julia played a very different sort of role in
Tequila Sunrise. Anjelicia Houston was good as Morticia. I haven’t seen that many of her movies, but Morticia is different from the other parts I have seen her play. Christina Ricci was good as Wednesday. She wasn’t annoying like some child actors can be. I think this was her first role, and she has gone on to make many more movies, like
Casper, the new version of
That Darned Cat, and
Sleepy Hollow. I will always think of Dan Hedaya as being Nick, Carla’s bumbling ex-husband on
Cheers. He has been in many movies, but every time I see him the first thing I think is there’s Nick. I’ve seen him in movies like
Clueless and
Swimfan. He was very good as Tully. There were a few things about Tully that reminded me of Nick, like how he was kind of a smarmy character and willing to do anything for a buck like Nick. I have recently seen Dana Ivey in .
Two Weeks Notice and
Legally Blonde 2: Red, White and Blonde. Carel Strucken also had a small role in
Men in Black.
CHARACTERS
Gomez Addams - He loved his wife a lot. He was good at fencing and liked strange things at times. He got worked up when he heard his wife speak French. When he was upset, he played with his model trains. He was a very emotional man.
Morticia Addams - Gomez’s wife. She tried to keep her husband from going over the edge after certain things happened. She was calm and composed. She seemed to like speaking French around Gomez. She had some suspicions about Fester.
Wednesday and Pugsley - Gomez and Morticia’s children. They fought at times and liked to play dangerous games. Wednesday seemed to be smarter than her brother. She was suspicious of Fester.
Gordon - Gordon was the son of a load shark, Abigail, and he worked with her roughing up people who owed her money. He was controlled by his mother. He agreed to go along with his mother’s plan, though he seemed to have second thoughts at times. He seemed to genuinely enjoy spending time with Wednesday and Pugsley.
Abigail - She was a loan shark and Gordon’s mother. She was vicious as far as her work went. She was obsessed with finding the gold, and she kept after Gordon and belittled him when she didn’t think he was doing enough. She treated him horribly and threw things she had done for him back in his face when she was mad at him.
Lurch - He was the butler for the Addams family. He was very tall and didn’t say a lot, but he was loyal to the family.
Thing - He was just a hand. He was a member of the family. He managed to run around and do a lot of things even though he was only a hand.
I really enjoyed
The Addams Family. The movie was different, but fun and entertaining. It is worth watching.
Related Reviews
Tequila Sunrise ~
Two Weeks Notice ~
Legally Blonde 2: Red, White and Blonde ~
Barry Sonnefield Movies
Men in Black ~
Men in Black II ~
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