Die Addams Family

"The Adams Family" is a very funny film that is very under rated. With a great all star cast you get just what you expect, a great comedy. The TV show was already funny enough, and then the movie came and I was on the floor laughing. It's fun to see a happy dysfunctional family. No, I'm not talking about "The Osbornes". All the characters are great and you really get into it. If you can tell me that you honestly did not get one laugh from this film, there is something very wrong with you. Because it is a very funny film. I would recommend this to anyone. It's a good watch on any day.

8/10

Extremely enjoyable update to the old t.v. show retains the eccentric spookiness and oddball humor of old, then proceeds to update the warped family familiarity with a rousing sense of decadent glee. The unexpectedly classy affair benefits greatly from the amazing casting that went into choosing all the Addams clan. What is nothing short of ensemble perfection, a sense of fun had by all on set during production remains undeniably infectious throughout, lending the amusing proceedings a distinct level of class.

Directed by easily digestible Barry Sonnenfeld, The Addams Family may be a bit intense for young kids but should stay a delight to all others. A wonderful, gentle perversity that hangs over the entire family might have pushed things a little too far to justify this family film to the younger set, but will stay surprisingly balanced with an outpouring of heart and morality,simply flipped inside out here, for comedic intent.

Wonderful set and prop design mixed with it's politely warped sense of humor would have been enough to make Addams Family the success it became, although it was the brilliant casting which continues to uphold a credibility for this film. Led by the outstanding (and sadly missed) Raul Julia, nearly every single family member wears their role with an unreal amount of dignity, making the fairly standard plot completely memorable.

Charles Addams' dark characters get the film treatment in Barry Sonnenfeld's THE ADDAMS FAMILY, which is something of a cross between the actual New Yorker comics and the 1960s television show. Not trying to lean too far to either, the movie stays at a safe plane, even incorporating a vague plot involving two grifters, Gordon and Abigail Craven, posing as Uncle Fester and a renowned psychiatrist (Christopher Lloyd and Elizabeth Wilson) who are in cahoots to rob the Addams of their fortune and house. The problem arises when Craven seems to go against his take-the-money-and-run attitude and when the Addams themselves appear to enjoy every minute that they're being taken advantage of. It suits the dark humor well, because since the Addams live in an alternative universe of their own creation in which dark is light, repugnant is beautiful, pain equals pleasure, death is life, and chaos equals order, it leaves the door open for many of their Gothic eccentricities to pull the rug over Lloyd and Wilson over and over again. It's clever, although its only problem is the "needing to introduce the characters we all know" setup which like in all movies based on comics or television shows, looks obvious.

But despite this, everyone is uniformly excellent. Raul Julia and Anjelica Huston lend their looks to embody their cartoon counterparts and are the romantics at the heart of this decidedly perverse story. Christopher Lloyd is also great in his representation of Uncle Fester. But hands down: the one who walks away with the entire movie is Christina Ricci who plays Wednesday as if she were living the role day by day. There's a sadistic gleam in her eyes and her voice that not many child actors have and I think that any other actor of the time that this film was made would have been unable to fit into this difficult part. Other than that, the tone of the movie is perfect: as dark as it wants to be, but never letting its Gothic setting drown it in an inescapable mire. On the contrary, we're constantly aware that this is a typical American family who lives upside down and who are happy in being so even when we gawk and cringe at their oddities.

The Addams are an unique wealthy macabre family. Their corrupted lawyer Tully Alford (Dan Hedaya) owns money to a loan shark. Together they plot to inject a fake Uncle Fester Addams (Christopher Lloyd) into the family so he could search for the family treasure of gold Doubloons.

Barry Sonnenfeld has created a well made Gothic Addams world. The family is played by Anjelica Huston, Raul Julia, and Christina Ricci as young Wednesday Addams. This is mostly amusing especially what Wednesday keep doing to Pugsley. All the performers are wonderful. They have all the fun creating these amazing characters. The whole setup is incredibly inventive. The story itself is a bit of a grind. It would be better for the Family to clash more with the 'normal' suburban life. The regular jobs are funny. The kids should wreck havoc on regular school. That's the better sweet spot.

A good, nay great, movie version to the classic 60s series. Raul Julia is great as Gomez, as is Christopher Lloyd as Fester. The story is sound, pretty much better than the sequel. This is a comedy with slightly dark themes, but that doesn't mean the family can not enjoy it. Barry Sonnenfeld is a genius.