Customer Reviews

Tha Addams Family [VHS]

5 star:		(46)
4 star:		(18)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

A treat for all fans of the popular sixties sitcom. This new cast (all but John Astin who played Gomez are now deceased) featuring Angelica Huston, Christopher Lloyd, and the late Raul Julia do the film and the Addams characters great justice. As the song says: "They're creepy and they're kooky, mysterious and spooky, they're all together hooky, the Addams family." It's very funny entertainment not just for Halloween, but all year long!

After so many years, "The Addams Family" is still one of the best comedies of all time. You can't watch this movie and not laugh, there are so many things are that just really that funny. The stunts and effects of the film are amazing. From small things like the fire on the candle painting of Uncle Fester going out to Thing walking around, this movie is really a feast for the eyes and was ahead of it's time in many areas.

Raul Julia and Anjelica Huston made this movie really work because their chemistry works so well on screen. You can see the character's emotions brilliantly portrayed by these two talanted actors. But not forgetting the rest, Christopher Lloyd was made a great Fester. This is a movie that has to be seen if you haven't.

The chractors are brought back to live by Raul Julia and Anjelica Huston in a manner I did not think possible. I loved this movie.
I would buy this movie at twice the price and still feel like I had gotten a bargin.

This is a real Tim Burton style comedy, even though he had nothing what so ever to do with this movie. See this, you'll like it.

A Short and Crappy Review by dylan.

Plot mechanics muddle everything in this so-so big screen version of the entertaining 60's t.v. show based on the famous New Yorker cartoons. The screenwriters have altered the original family and given us a rather ordinary predictable plot that involves an Uncle Fester imposter (Christopher Lloyd) which alters the chemistry of the well-known family. It's called fixing something that wasn't broken. They spend too much time setting up and positioning the characters.

The casting is quite good, and there are some funny moments and extremely inventive camera-work, but the script isn't sharp enough and instead of being dark, campy and clever, it's often strained and stupid.

Tops are the perfectly cast Angelica Huston, and Christini Ricci with Raul Julia being an acceptable Gomez.

The sequel Addams Family Value is much better.

Chris Jarmick, Author of The Glass Cocoon with Serena F. Holder....

A recent re-run of the Addams Family movies on cable convinced me. They have now wormed their way into my permanent DVD collection. (if you'll pardon the pun.)

Why? It's one of the few occasions when the modern movie revival of a TV series is actually better than the original.

The casting and performances are exquisite. The male actors chew the scenery, and they do it wonderfully, especially in the case of Raoul Julia. But the women steal the show with their--pardon the pun again--deadpan delivery.

Anjelica Huston was born for the role of Morticia--and has since made something of a specialty of macabre women, playing the villainess in Roald Dahl's "The Witches", a British kids' film. And even as a child, Christina Ricci proves that she has creepy down to a fine art.

I was a little disappointed in Lurch, though. Perfect physical casting, but the actor (whom I suspect doesn't speak English as his native language) was never given the opportunity for Ted Cassidy's notorious double-takes from the TV series. Or those curious noisdes Lurch made, which were kind of a cross between a groan, a moan, an uh-huh, or a yeah, maybe. Call me an Addams purist, but never did I hear him say the famous "Yes, Mr. Addams".

Thing makes up for it, in part. Freed from his box, he is the source of sight gags galore. Though I do kind of miss the cleverness of where Thing popped up in the TV series...

By the way, Ted Cassidy (who played Lurch in the TV series) had such big, gracious hands that he also played Thing. In scenes where they appeared together, apparently Thing was a hand in. Gosh, that's the third pun for which I need to apologise...

The original series was a shock to the world of 1960's family sitcoms, full of saccharine kids and sexless married couples. Every time Gomez uttered "'Tish, that's French", middle America was treated to its only taste of genuine televised passion. And when the outside world threatened to close in, Addams family solidarity closed ranks--real family values.

In the aerobicised, tooth-capped, greed-is-good world of the '90s, when the movie was made, it served the same purpose. Maybe it still does today.

I wouldn't have bet that anyone could pull it off. The original series had such a unique and whimsical voice, I assumed that a movie maker would either overplay the feel of the film or just miss the point entirely.

But Barry Sonnenfeld gets it! And the cast is top-notch. Christina Ricci is more menacing than words can express. The late Raul Julia nails the character of Gomez.

Wonderful in its humor and its overall feel, this one is a keeper to enjoy over and over again.

Even though this is not a laugh out loud film, it is an excellent example of sarcastic humor. The theme of good vs evil is evident. What isn't so easily discerned is who is good and who is evil. In this film perception truely is everything.
Gomez(Raul Julia) and Moricia(Anjelica Huston) Addams are not your typical people next door. They do, however have an extended family to make them somewhat like a typical modern family. Daughter Wednesday(Christina Ricci), son Pugsley(Jimmy Workman), Grandma(Judith Malina) and Lurch, the butler(Carel Struycken) help fill the hideous family mansion with life and after-life.
The Addams' have family values they try to pass on to the children, though they are quite different from most value.
The trouble starts when so called normal people enter the picture. The family lawyer(Don Hedaya), Abigail Craven(Elizabeth Wilson) and her son(Christopher Lloyd) plot to steal the Addams family fortune. Using deciet and trechary, the son masquerades as Uncle Festor, Gomez's long lost brother. The schemes they hatch and the obsticales they encounter make for interest and entertainment. The family home is well worth a look. It is filled with props and devices that are a perfect compliment to this unsual family. The characters are protrayed with such skill, it makes them perfectly believable. In fact is is hard at times to tell who the main characters are for the entire cast moves in and out of the spot light to first take the lead than support each other as the story unflolds. A twist at the end makes the finish as unique and unsual as the rest of the picture. This is a great change of pace film fitting neatly between the hilarious and the riduclous.

A great version of the Addams Family. Wonderful cast and great sets. A definite for an Adams collector.

There are a ton of terrible movie adaptions of television shows out there. This ISN'T one of them. Raul Julia was superb in the role of Gomez, the rest of the cast is excellent as well, add a fresh script that stays close to the TV show, and you have the ingredients for an excellent film!