Addams Family Values
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| Addams Family Values | |
 The one-sheet promotional poster. |
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| Directed by | Barry Sonnenfeld |
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| Produced by | Scott Rudin |
| Written by | Charles Addams(characters) Paul Rudnick |
| Starring | Anjelica Huston Raúl Juliá Christopher Lloyd Peter MacNicol Joan Cusack Christina Ricci Carol Kane Jimmy Workman Kaitlyn and Kristen Hooper Carel Struycken |
| Music by | Marc Shaiman Ralph Sall |
| Cinematography | Donald Peterman |
| Editing by | Jim Miller Arthur Schmidt |
| Distributed by | Paramount Pictures |
| Release date(s) | November 19, 1993 |
| Running time | 94 min. |
| Country |  United States |
| Language | English |
| Gross revenue | $48,919,043 (domestic)[1] |
| Preceded by | The Addams Family |
| Followed by | Addams Family Reunion |
Addams Family Values is a 1993 Academy Award and Golden Globe-nominated sequel to the 1991 comedy The Addams Family. The movie was written by Paul Rudnick and directed by Barry Sonnenfeld, and many cast members from the original returned for the sequel, including Raul Julia, Anjelica Huston and Christina Ricci. Compared to its predecessor, which retained something of the madcap approach of the 1960s sitcom, Values is played more for macabre laughs. As a result, the film was met with more critical praise, earning a 76% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, as opposed to its predecessor's 58%.
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[edit] Plot
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The plot summary in this article is too long or detailed compared to the rest of the content. Please edit the article to focus on discussing the work rather than merely reiterating the plot. (January 2008) |
The movie opens as Morticia calmly gives birth to a baby boy, Pubert; the older children, Wednesday and Pugsley, immediately develop an extreme case of sibling rivalry as well as go by a tradition that "when a new baby is born, one of the other children has to die." So they make numerous attempts to kill the baby. When Gomez and Morticia try to hire a nanny, the children frighten them all away. The last applicant, Debbie Jellinsky, seems to be made of sterner stuff; however, she's also a serial killer known as "The Black Widow," who's set her sights on Uncle Fester and the vast Addams fortune. On television's "America's Most Disgusting Unsolved Crimes" it is revealed that Debbie has been traveling in disguise for quite some time, marrying rich men just to kill them and claim their fortunes. When Wednesday becomes suspicious of Debbie's interest in Fester's money, Debbie persuades Gomez and Morticia to send the older children to Camp Chippewa, a summer camp for privileged children. The parents seem horrified at the thought of doing so, but take them anyways as Debbie tells them to just take them even though she's sure that they'll deny everything.
After a romantic dinner at the Addams' favorite bistro, Fester and Debbie walk in the graveyard behind the mansion. Debbie then lies to Fester by saying she is a virgin and wishes she had a man for herself. Fester, believing she really loves him, becomes engaged to her. Debbie marries Fester, then promptly tries to kill him on their Hawaiian honeymoon by electrocuting him in the jacuzzi; however, Fester is an Addams (and hence practically indestructible as he is practically indulged to death and suffering) and he mistakes her murderous actions for ordinary affection. At her wits' end, Debbie denies him sex until he promises never to see his family again; in anguish, he agrees. The newlyweds couple then move to a garish McMansion in the suburbs, Debbie driving them there from the airport in her Lincoln Town Car. Several weeks later, Gomez, Morticia, Granny, and Lurch come to the mansion in hopes to be able to visit Fester. They fail to do so as Debbie threatens to lock them up if they try to visit again. After the Addamses fail to get the police to arrest Debbie, Debbie renews her passport, telling the clerk that she will be traveling alone because "she'll be a widow."
With Fester gone, brother Gomez goes into a depression and Pubert becomes "possessed," causing him to become blonde, rosy and cheerful. Meanwhile, at Camp Chippewa, Wednesday and Pugsley don't fit in with the rest of the wealthy mean-spirited campers. During the lifesaving activity, Wednesday intentionally lets her partner drown in the lake. At night, during the ghost story, when it is Wednesday's turn to continue the story, she tells of the ghost undoing all of the camper's nose jobs overnight, which causes her fellow campers to scream in terror. The Addams children try to escape at night when they receive word of Uncle Fester's marriage to Debbie, but are caught by the other campers. The camp's golden girl Amanda Buckman (played by Mercedes McNab), and the rest of the campers suggest that the Addams kids be punished for their escape attempt, but the camp counselors Gary and Becky, would prefer to inspire them by singing Kumbaya which makes Wednesday and Pugsley cringe. Meanwhile, Wednesday encounters a soul mate (of sorts) in the person of Joel Glicker, an introverted boy plagued by allergies. He confirms her suspicions that Debbie is the "Black Widow" and Fester is her next target.
Meanwhile, at Fester and Debbie's house, Debbie has indeed come up with a new plan to kill Fester for his fortune. For their "3 week anniversary", she wraps up a time bomb in a gift box and tells Fester not to open it until she comes back with some champagne. Thing is seen watching through the window as Debbie says "she'll be right back" even though she is seen carrying two suitcases out to her car. Fester, excited about everything, returns to the kitchen to finish cooking their dinner with the time bomb ticking away on the dining room table.
Back at Camp Chippewa, for the end of the summer, the camp is about to put on a play about "The First Thanksgiving" with the mean "good" kids cast as the pilgrims with Amanda as Sarah Miller, the leading pilgrim, and the social outcasts cast as the Chippewa natives with Wednesday as Pocahantas. When Wednesday, Pugsley and Joel refuse to act in the play, all three outcasts are locked in the "Harmony Hut" and forced to watch movies and TV shows ranging from Bambi to Lassie Come Home, The Little Mermaid, The Sound of Music, The Brady Bunch and Annie. When the three come out, they pretend that they have changed from gloomy to cheerful. During the performance, however, Wednesday breaks out of her character and rants about how the American colonists would exploit the Native Americans in the future and leads the other outcasts in destroying the set, tying up Amanda and placing an apple in her mouth as a gag. Afterwards the Addams siblings flee the camp for home.
Meanwhile, when Debbie fails to kill Fester by blowing up the house, she snarls, "I want you dead, and I want your money!" He flees with Thing's help, going on a high-speed pursuit through the suburban streets in Debbie's Lincoln Town Car. However, Debbie chases them to the Addams mansion in her second car, Mercedes-Benz SL-Class. Gomez is lying in bed dying when Fester arrives to tell them how he is in mysery, when Gomez tells Fester that he belongs to Debbie, Fester boasts "I'M AN ADDAMS!!!". With that said, Gomez is instantly cured, and the baby is back to its dark gloomy self. Pugsley and Wednesday arrive afterwards, at first unhappy because they were made to sing while at camp, but are glad to be back nonetheless. But then an angry Debbie bursts into the room with one intention: Kill the Addamses and take the money. She straps everyone except Pubert to electric chairs and uses slides to tell her story about how she killed her parents as a child on her 10th birthday because they didn't buy her the Barbie doll that she wanted. The Addams Family watches, getting into Debbie's life story as she explains that she killed her first husband, a heart surgeon, with an axe because he was too busy to attend dinner with her. Also, she went on to kill her second husband, a senator, by running over him with her car because he wouldn't buy her a new Mercedes-Benz (as he wanted to "set an example", according to Debbie). Finally, she ends her show on a slide of Fester, him being the only husband unsuccessfully killed. Then she accuses the Addamses of not truly "loving her". Fester begs Debbie to just kill him and take his fortune but spare the others, but Debbie (wanting the whole Addams fortune as opposed to just Fester's portion) has already decided that everyone must go. But Pubert short-circuits the wiring just as she throws the switch; instead of killing the Addamses, she electrocutes herself, her body burns and leaves only her shoes and credit cards in a pile of ashes.
In the epilogue, Gomez and Morticia throw a birthday party for Pubert. Among the guests is a potential new love for Fester, a bald, grotesque nanny named Dementia who works for Itt and Margaret Addams (who have an Itt Jr. named "What"). Joel, dressed like Gomez, also attends and sneaks off to the graveyard with Wednesday, where they talk briefly about Debbie. Remarking that Debbie's methods were "sloppy," Wednesday says that if she wanted to kill a man and not be caught, she'd scare him to death. As Joel lays flowers on Debbie's grave, a hand breaks the surface and grabs his arm (á la Carrie); Wednesday looks on, satisfied with Joel's screams.
[edit] Cast
Returning from the first film:
- Raúl Juliá as Gomez Addams
- Anjelica Huston as Morticia Addams
- Christopher Lloyd as Uncle Fester Addams
- Christina Ricci as Wednesday Addams
- Christopher Hart as Thing
- Carel Struycken as Lurch
- Jimmy Workman as Pugsley Addams
Dana Ivey's character, Margaret Addams (Alford in the original film; now married to Cousin Itt), also makes a return appearance.
Additional cast:
- Carol Kane as Grandmama Addams, replacing Judith Malina
- Joan Cusack as Debbie Jellinsky, professional black widow
- David Krumholtz as Joel Glicker, Wednesday's love interest
Supporting roles:
- Peter MacNicol as Gary Granger; he and his wife Becky are in charge of Camp Chippewa
- Christine Baranski, as Becky Martin Granger
- Mercedes McNab, who appeared as the Girl Scout in the first film, plays Amanda Buckman
Cameo roles:
- Director Barry Sonnenfeld as Mr. Glicker
- Nathan Lane, a police desk sergeant
- David Hyde Pierce, as the delivery room doctor
- Harriet Sansom Harris, as Ellen Buckman
- Sam McMurray, as Don Buckman
- Cynthia Nixon appears as one of the potential nannies.
- Tony Shalhoub, as a patron at a bar
- Peter Graves
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Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Addams Family Values |
[edit] See also
- Addams Family Values: Music from the Motion Picture
- Addams Family Values: The Original Orchestral Score
[edit] References
[edit] External links
| Preceded by The Three Musketeers |
Box office number-one films of 1993 (USA) November 21, 1993 |
Succeeded by Mrs. Doubtfire |
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