I haven't watched Addams Family Values in well over a decade. My girlfriend Emma was getting some clips from it while browsing Tik Tok yesterday and that made us want to watch it. In Norway the only streaming service that had the movie was Amazon Prime Video. The other option was to rent it, but at double the price of a month of Prime Video.
In the end it was an easy choice. I re-subbed to Prime Video which wasn't so bad seeing as I've been meaning to watch season 2 of The Boys and there was a new special of The Grand Tour out as well. I'll just have to make the most out of the subscription.
Meet the Addams
For those who don't know Addams Family Values is a dark comedy from 1993. A follow up to The Addams Family from 1991. The films are based on characters created by cartoonist Charles Addams and the TV-series from 1964.
The characters are often described as dark and macabre, very much matching the humor used in the movies. This coupled with their aristocratic lifestyle has made them into fan favorites. If you've ever been to a Halloween party there's a large chance you might have met someone dressed up as Wednesday. If you haven't yet I can almost promise you that you will.
Dark humor
The main appeal, alongside the amazing characters, has always been the dark humor. At least to me. It's not something unique but it just functions so well alongside the dark and macabre cast.
What I found to be extra great during this re-watch was all the jokes I had obviously missed as a kid. As an example, early on in the movie the head of the Addams Family, Gomez is talking to his brother Fester. Festers talks about his loneliness and how he wishes he had someone to be intimate with. Gomez brings up Festers relationship with Thing, which was hilarious to me seeing as Thing is literally a hand. If this isn't a joke meant for grown ups then I'll be damned. I never reacted to this as a kid.
More grown-up jokes from the different Addams Family movies can be found here, including the one I mentioned above.
I found this great. Not only could I laugh at all of the jokes I laughed at as a kid but I could laugh at even more! This definitely enhanced the experience of watching this movie again almost 20 years later.
Outcasts rule the world
This section contains spoilers starting from the second paragraph.
I have a weak point for movies that pits the outcasts of society as the heroes. That is part of what the Addams Family does. The Addams Family is a family that is quite different from any other family and this is clearly depicted in the movies. They play this up by making them lovable while pitting them against stereotypical "boring" families, if I may be so bold as to use that word.
This is especially strengthened in the sequence from the Chippewa Camp. Here they're really making an effort for the viewers to team up with the outcasts against the normies. This really comes into view during the final parts of this sequence. The thanksgiving play.
Here they take us back hundreds of years to the first thanksgiving. When American settlers were still fighting the Native Americans for territory. The outcasts are chosen to play the Native Americans while the normies are cast as the American settlers.
The play is meant to play out as a scene where the Native Americans are laughed at and degraded. This is strengthened by the audience, the childrens parents, who laughs every time something like that happens.
In the end, instead of taking it and being laughed at the outcasts rise up and burn down the set. Another historical touch that I didn't understand the meaning behind as a kid. Really loved it.
A political commentary
Another thing I learned from this article that I didn't notice myself was a deliberate political point tied into the movies title. Aparently the term "family values" was a term used by the republican party as a way of describing and deciding what was normal or what should be right in America. Disagreeing that there is a right or wrong in what is normal this phrase was used in the movie title. Addams Family Values.
I think this is a great touch seeing as the whole Addams Family is so different from what would be considered a normal family. It goes to show that any family, no matter how they look or behave, has family values. It's for everyone to decide what their own values are. Great touch and detail!
Final verdict
Addams Family Values really is a movie that holds it's own even to this day. Pushing almost 30 years this movie hasn't aged one bit in my opinion. The cast and characters are great. The humor is dark and hilarious. The moral of the story is ageless.
If you haven't watched this already, or if it's been a long time, I would recommend you watch it. There's so many small and hidden details throughout the movie that I could watch it 10 times more without probably finding them all.
I have no idea what rating I would have given this as a kid, but as a grown up I'm giving this one a solid 8/10. It's missing out on two points from full pot due to losing my attention a couple of times throughout. That could have been all on me, but I choose to believe that if a movie didn't keep my eyes glued to the TV for the whole 90 minutes then it could have been just a tad better.
8/10
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Man I need to re-watch!
Love the Addams Family, the mystery of it all, the fantastic world that is theirs. Totally unique!
Nice write up!
Thank you! The movies really are something special. Need to find a service to watch the predecessor from 1991 as well. I got the cravings for more.
I love this movie and I come back to it a lot🙂
Great to hear that! :D
I loved this movie back in the day, I loved the whole dark vibe and the black humor that these crazy people have hahaha, supposedly there will be another movie of them which will be starring johnny depp, I hope it's true, I love all the movies of this actor.
I can see Johnny Depp playing the role of Gomez quite well. He has that same quirky style to his acting that Raul Julia had. Exciting stuff!
I am very excited brother
Wow. I feel old remembering this movie. Interesting all those details you say, that when you were a kid you didn't understand them. Are you from Norway? from that country, the last movie I saw was 22 July, very good and based on a real tragedy. I'm always looking for nordic movies or series to watch, and I prefer the ones with a criminal plot.
Yes, I'm from Norway. This movie is actually as old as me. One thing I just realized and didn't mention in the article is that I probably watched the movie dubbed back in the day. A lot of the jokes likely evaporated in the translation.
I haven't watched anything on the 22 July yet. Everything that happened that day is still to fresh in my memory. I can't bring myself to do it. I remember everything that happened that day, minute for minute.
I don't know much about Nordic movies or series available elsewhere. Unless I'm reading into this the wrong way and you're not from outside of Scandinavia? I know of "The Bridge" that's an American adaption of the Norwegian crime series "Broen". If I think of something else I'll let you know!
Bron /Boren is one of my favorite series. I have it in my list of best series, soon I will publish a second part of that post I made and it is included. I watched the American, British and French remake, but none of them match the original series. Saga Norén great character.
I understand that you don't want to see that movie of the terrorist, it is very painful, it had a big impact on me.
I recently saw Druk, the Danish movie with Mads Mikkelsen. I loved it.
I am from Latin America, but when I get movies or series from that part of Europe, I watch it, I like to see and read about those cultures.
Greetings!
That's cool to hear! I'll keep an eye out for that list. In need of some new shows to watch.
I just thought of Exit, a Norwegian show that you might like. It's about the lives of some financial tops and a lot of crazy stuff that's going on on the inside of the business. Based on real stories from real people. Drugs, violence, sex, inside trading. I've no idea if it's available with English subtitles or anything, but it's one to keep an eye out for. It was huge in Norway when it dropped and season 2 has just arried.
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