The Addams Family - Film Series Retrospective

There are a lot of ways that one could describe the characters who are the focus of today’s retrospective. Some might call them “creepy” and “kooky”. Others might say they’re “mysterious” and “spooky”. And yet, most would agree that “they’re altogether ooky”. Yes, folks, today we’re celebrating the classic franchise that is The Addams Family. It all began in 1938 when cartoonist Charles Addams first published a series of cartoons for The New Yorker which introduced audiences to the titular family of Morticia, Gomez, Wednesday, Pugsley, Uncle Fester, Grandmama, Thing, Lurch the butler, and Cousin Itt. The cartoons served as a satire of the all-American family by having the Addams Family fully embrace their macabre lifestyle without any regard for those who find their antics disturbing. Suffice it to say, they were a huge hit, resulting in the characters transitioning into other forms of media. Arguably their most famous spin-off is the classic TV series starring Carolyn Jones and John Astin as Morticia and Gomez that ran from 1964 to 1966. Aside from that, there were also a few animated series made by Hanna-Barbera (with one of them notably featuring a then 11-year-old Jodie Foster as Pugsley) and more recent works such as a Broadway musical in 2010. But for the purpose of today’s retrospective, we’ll be focusing on the characters’ appearances in feature films which, since the ’90s, have primarily consisted of two major cinematic incarnations. First, there’s the 1991 live-action adaptation that was followed by a sequel in 1993, resulting in a pair of films that have very much become staples of the Halloween programming blocks for networks like Freeform. Then, there’s the franchise’s recent animated outing that came out last year and is set to get a sequel sometime next year (you know, unless COVID-19 subjects it to the same issues that have plagued countless other upcoming releases). And so, without further ado, prepare to snap your fingers to Vic Mizzy’s iconic theme song as we look at the Addams Family films.

THE ADDAMS FAMILY (1991)

We begin with the first live-action film adaptation of The Addams Family, which was released in 1991 and was directed by Barry Sonnenfeld. Before he went on to direct films like the original Men in Black trilogy, this film served as his directorial debut after starting out in the industry as a cinematographer on many of the Coen brothers’ early films like Blood Simple and Raising Arizona and other classics such as Big and Misery. Unfortunately for him, though, the film’s production was consistently plagued with problems such as health issues for multiple members of the cast and crew, a change in cinematographers that even forced Sonnenfeld to step in and do it himself for a stretch of time and, most infamously, a change in the distributor. Originally handled by Orion Pictures, the studio ended up selling the film to Paramount out of fear that it would be another commercial flop for them at a time when they were struggling financially (sure enough, they would ultimately end up filing for bankruptcy that year). But upon its release, the film did quite well at the box-office as it grossed over $191 million worldwide on its relatively modest $30 million budget, and while its overall critical reception was mixed at best, it’s clear that it managed to be a hit with audiences and it’s easy to see why. Overall, the film does a great job of capturing the madcap atmosphere of the original show and the delightfully dark and twisted visual style of Charles Addams’ original cartoons right down to some spot-on recreations of key moments from the latter. Plus, it’s all bolstered by an excellent ensemble headlined by Raul Julia, who is delightfully theatrical as Gomez, and Angelica Huston, who’s a practically pitch-perfect fit for the role of Morticia. This makes up for what is easily the film’s biggest shortcoming in that anything that doesn’t directly involve the Addams family (namely, everything regarding the main antagonist, a loan shark who tries to disguise her adopted son as  the long-lost Uncle Fester to steal the Addams’ fortune) is a lot weaker by comparison. Ultimately, though, the film still manages to be a solidly entertaining (albeit far from perfect) romp that, at the end of the day, ends up being one of the better adaptations of an old television sitcom from the ’60s, a subgenre that notably trended in the ’90s as evident from other TV-to-film adaptations such as The Flintstones, The Beverly Hillbillies, and Dennis the Menace.

Rating: 3.5/5

ADDAMS FAMILY VALUES (1993)

Fueled by the first film’s success at the box-office, Paramount quickly developed a sequel, Addams Family Values, which hit theaters in 1993 and saw the return of both director Barry Sonnenfeld and most of the main cast from the previous film (save for Judith Malina, who was replaced in the role of Grandmama by Carol Kane). The film also took on a much different tone compared to its predecessor as it was more reliant on its macabre humor rather than its efforts to replicate the zany antics of the TV series, which is ultimately the catalyst behind it being one of the rare cases of a genuinely superior sequel. Yes, thanks to this pivotal change in direction, Family Values is a lot more consistent with its humor and, really, is just a better-made film, for the most part. Much of this has to do with it having a far superior villain than its predecessor thanks to Joan Cusack’s delightfully campy turn as Debbie, a gold-digging femme fatale who marries Uncle Fester with the intent of killing him to collect the inheritance. The only real downside, though, is that, because the film is largely focused on Fester and Debbie’s relationship, it results in Raul Julia and Angelica Huston not getting as much to do this time around as Gomez and Morticia. But at the very least, the film makes up for this by simultaneously giving Christina Ricci a larger role as the precociously cynical Wednesday. Ricci had already made a great impression in the role back in the first film, but thanks to this film’s subplot in which Wednesday and Pugsley are sent away to an overly chipper summer camp and, naturally, cause a whole bunch of chaos there, she’s far and away its biggest standout. With all this in mind, I can safely say that if you were among those who found to be the first live-action Addams Family film to be a bit underwhelming, I believe that you’ll probably get a lot more out of this one. It truly is a great example of a sequel that managed to improve upon its predecessor in almost every possible way and I wouldn’t be surprised if this was the film that was largely responsible for the positive reputation that this duology has maintained over the years.

Rating: 4.5/5

THE ADDAMS FAMILY (2019)

And finally, we cut to nearly three decades later when the Addams Family made their return to the big screen in a new animated feature, which served as the second outing for the directing duo of Conrad Vernon and Greg Tiernan after the smash hit that was 2016’s Sausage Party. Obviously, these two films are quite different from each other when it comes to both their target audiences and their overall sense of humor, but in this case, Vernon and Tiernan do manage to maintain much of the consistent humor that we saw from Sausage Party. Yes, there are quite a lot of modern references (as is admittedly the case with a lot of modern adaptations of older bits of source material), but for the most part, they don’t completely overtake the film to the point where they overshadow anything that made this franchise so popular in the first place. In other words, this new film does just as great of a job as the live-action films did when it comes to capturing the zany and macabre nature of the titular family, especially when it comes to its overall visual style. While there was some… to be perfectly blunt, rather hyperbolic backlash towards the Addams family’s character designs (which seemingly only stemmed from most folks’ fondness for the live-action films), these designs brilliantly match the look of Charles Addams’ original cartoons. And just like the live-action films, they’re brought to life by a terrific ensemble, from Oscar Isaac and Charlize Theron as Gomez and Morticia to Chloe Grace Moretz and Finn Wolfhard as Wednesday and Pugsley. Really, the only ‘negative’ thing that I can say about this film is that the main plot is your standard ‘fish out of water’ story with some blatantly obvious payoffs. Despite this, though, this new take on The Addams Family does manage to be a solidly entertaining family flick, and while I didn’t end up seeing this when it first came out exactly one year ago, I’m certainly interested in seeing what will come from next year’s sequel.

Rating: 4/5

*Snap Snap*

Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising (2016) review

Summer 2014 had quite a couple of really good comedies, including one of the rare cases of a great comedy sequel in the form of 22 Jump Street. Another excellent comedy from that year was director Nicholas Stoller’s Neighbors, which starred Seth Rogen and Rose Byrne as a couple with a newborn daughter who find themselves having to deal with the very rowdy fraternity that ends up moving in next door, led by their president played by Zac Efron. What followed was an epic prank war between the two sides that was full of sabotages, betrayals, and a whole lot of airbags. But one of the best things about the film was that even though the fraternity in the film was technically the ‘antagonist’ to Rogen and Byrne’s characters, the film didn’t try to demonize them too much. And as I can at least certify thanks to my pal Matthew Goudreau, who is an alumnus of Sigma Chi’s URI chapter, the film also did a really nice job in portraying the brotherhood of fraternities, which I think definitely helped the film find a really nice audience at the box office ($270 million, to be precise). So now we have Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising. Stoller returns to direct and most of the first film’s cast return to reprise their roles in a film that basically follows a plotline that is ‘almost’ exactly similar to its predecessor. Except this time, Rogen and Byrne’s characters instead find themselves having to deal with a sorority, which brings up a whole new set of problems for them. But the question now is whether or not this ends up being a ‘good’ comedy sequel, something that is obviously very rare for the genre. So does it? Well… yes and no…

Since the events of the previous film, Mac (Seth Rogen) and Kelly (Rose Byrne) Radner have been living a peaceful life with their daughter Stella. With another baby on the way, the two decide to sell their house. While they do end up attracting a potential buyer, they learn that their house will be on ‘escrow’ status for 30 days, meaning that the deal won’t be finalized until that time and the buyers could back out of it if they find anything wrong with the place (e.g. another fraternity ends up moving in next door). And unfortunately for Mac and Kelly, yet another college Greek group does end up moving in next door to them. This time around, however, the group in question is the newly formed sorority Kappa Nu, led by Shelby (Chloe Grace Moretz) and her friends Beth (Kiersey Clemons) and Nora (Beanie Feldstein), who formed the sorority after learning that in the U.S., sororities are not allowed to throw parties while fraternities can. With the sale of their house on the line, Mac and Kelly once again find themselves getting into a major prank war in the hopes of getting rid of Kappa Nu. Thankfully this time around they get some extra help from their old ‘nemesis’, former Delta Psi president Teddy Sanders (Zac Efron), who joins their side after initially helping the Kappa Nu squad get set up, and was then ‘dumped’ by them for being ‘too old’, so that he could feel ‘valuable’ to someone.

Neighbors 2 is definitely one of those cases of a comedy sequel where the plot is almost identical to the one in the first film save for a few cosmetic changes. And like the original Neighbors, this film does have a bit of a slow start before it really starts to get into the humor. However, I didn’t really find this one to be ‘as funny’ as the original. Now don’t get me wrong there are plenty of funny moments in the film which, like the original, mainly stem from all of the pranks that both sides do to each other. However, I can’t really say that there were as many ‘laugh out loud’ moments compared to those in the first one, to the point where quite a few funny scenes from the trailer didn’t even appear in the film (e.g. LL Cool J’s cameo as Beth’s father). Case in point, this film ends on a much simpler note compared to the first film and while I do like the message that the ending conveys in regards to the strength of Kappa Nu’s sisterhood, it’s still rather disappointing that the film doesn’t end on a note similar to how the first film did with its epically hilarious fight between Mac and Teddy. But at the same time, this film can also be very much commended for its feminist themes, which of course are mainly exemplified through Shelby and her Kappa Nu sisters and their efforts in challenging ‘the sexist system’. But while the film’s feminist themes are genuinely well-handled, sometimes they admittedly come off a bit heavy-handed. By that I mean the film does kind of drill in the whole ‘sexist system’ thing to the point where it keeps doing so even after it already got its point across early on in the film.

One of the great things about the original Neighbors was that even though Mac and Kelly were the ‘main protagonists’, the film didn’t vilify Teddy and his Delta Psi brothers. For one thing, Mac and Kelly didn’t always make good decisions, especially in regards to raising their daughter, so it’s not like we sided with them all the time. Sometimes we really could sympathize with Teddy and his struggles in coping with the inevitability of graduation and moving on to ‘real life’, which was one of the main themes of the film; how one handles the idea of getting older. In the case of Neighbors 2 the same idea applies. We do root for Mac and Kelly, especially considering there’s more at stake for them this time around given that they’ve already bought another house and are highly dependent on the sale of their old house, but can also side with Shelby and her Kappa Nu sisters for their efforts in combatting the sexism directed towards sororities like theirs. Chloe Grace Moretz does a very solid job taking on the same kind of role that Zac Efron had in the first film, especially when she’s working off of her ‘sisters’ Beth and Nora. Their trio serves as a great foil to Kelly and Mac while also managing to be very sympathetic in regards to their aspirations to beat ‘the system’. Returning members of the cast are great once again; Seth Rogen and Rose Byrne continue to have solid chemistry and the two work off of Zac Efron incredibly well. And as for Efron, once again he proves to be a major standout thanks to his excellent comedic timing, as Teddy finds himself in yet another, as the film puts it, ‘quarter-life crisis’.

While Neighbors 2 hasn’t really gotten the same amount of positive reception that its predecessor did, I have actually seen a few people argue that this film was better than the first, mainly in regards to this one having more depth to it. And while I do understand where they are coming from, ultimately I do think that the first film was better. The sequel definitely does have its moments and once again benefits from an excellent cast. Plus, this film does do a nice job in terms of handling its feminist themes. However, this time around the jokes ended up being a bit more hit and miss. And as great as its feminist angle is, sometimes it’s a little bit too on the nose with it. So in short, Neighbors 2 was a bit of a mixed bag for me, which was rather disappointing because I really liked the original Neighbors. As far as comedy sequels go, I do think that it’s at least one of the better ones but I wouldn’t say that it was one of the ‘absolute best’ either. At the very least I can say that, like the original Neighbors, this film is worthy of becoming a new essential college flick. Because the great thing about both films is that they make a lot of effort to appeal to the college Greek community and while I may not be a member of any fraternity, both of these films do a nice job in conveying the brotherly/sisterly bonds of fraternities and sororities, respectively.

Rating: 2.5/5