The Addams Family

Plot synopsis:
Gomez Addams laments the 25-year absence of his brother Fester, who disappeared after the two had a falling-out. Gomez's lawyer Tully Alford owes money to loan shark Abigail Craven, and notices that her son Gordon closely resembles Fester. Tully proposes that Gordon pose as Fester to infiltrate the Addams household and find the hidden vault where they keep their vast riches. Tully and his wife Margaret attend a séance at the Addams home led by Grandmama in which the family tries to contact Fester's spirit. Gordon arrives, posing as Fester, while Abigail poses as psychiatrist Dr. Pinder-Schloss and tells the family that Fester had been lost in the Bermuda Triangle for the past 25 years.
Gomez, overjoyed to have Fester back, takes him to the family vault to view home movies from their childhood. Gordon learns the reason for the brothers' falling-out: Gomez was jealous of Fester's success with women, and wooed the conjoined twins Flora and Fauna Amor away from him out of envy. Gomez starts to suspect that "Fester" is an impostor when he is unable to recall important details about their past. Gordon attempts to return to the vault, but is unable to get past a booby trap. Gomez's wife Morticia reminds "Fester" of the importance of family amongst the Addamses and of their vengeance against those who cross them. Fearing that the family is getting wise to their con, Abigail (under the guise of Dr. Pinder-Schloss) convinces Gomez that his suspicions are due to displacement.
Gordon grows closer to the Addams family, particularly the children Wednesday and Pugsley, whom he helps to prepare a swordplay sequence for a school play. The Addamses throw a large party with their extended family and friends to celebrate Fester's return, during which Abigail plans to break into the vault. Wednesday overhears Abigail and Gordon discussing their scheme, and escapes them by hiding in the family cemetery. Tully learns that Fester, as the eldest brother, is the executor of the Addams estate and therefore technically owns the entire property. With the help of the Addamses' neighbor Judge George Womack, who Gomez has repeatedly angered by hitting golf balls at his house, Tully procures a restraining order against the family, banning them from the estate. Gomez attempts to fight the order in court, but Judge Womack rules against him out of spite.
While Abigail, Gordon, and Tully try repeatedly and unsuccessfully to get past the booby trap blocking access to the vault, the Addams family is forced to move into a motel and find jobs. Morticia tries her hand as a preschool teacher, Wednesday and Pugsley sell toxic lemonade, and Thing—the family's animate disembodied hand—becomes a courier. Gomez, despondent, sinks into depression and lethargy.
Morticia returns to the Addams home to confront Fester and is captured by Abigail and Tully, who torture her in an attempt to learn how to access the vault. Thing observes this and informs Gomez using Morse code, who gathers the family and rushes to Morticia's rescue. Abigail threatens Morticia's life if Gomez does not surrender the family fortune. Fed up with his mother's behavior and constant berating, Gordon turns against Abigail. Using a magical book which projects its contents into reality, he unleashes a hurricane in the house, which strikes his own head with lightning and launches Tully and Abigail out of a window and into open graves dug for them by Wednesday and Pugsley.
Gordon turns out to actually have been Fester all along, having suffered amnesia after being lost in the Bermuda Triangle and turning up in Miami, where Abigail had taken him in. The lightning strike has restored his memory and he is enthusiastically welcomed back into the Addams household. With the family whole again, Morticia informs Gomez that she is pregnant.

Tags: comedy, gothic, paranormal, cult, horror, psychedelic

Review:
The kind who has the right look, the perfect comedic timing, and the ability to deliver lines so deadpan it almost hurts.Raul Julia, Anjelica Huston, and a young Christina Ricci somehow ALL manage to deliver.
In this case, Morticia (Anjelica Huston) and Gomez (Raul Julia) are raising their family, when long lost Uncle Fester (Christopher Lloyd) rejoins the family.
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.
However Gomez's joy at his return is gradually marred by a sneaking feeling that Fester is not himself  meanwhile Wednesday has no such doubts at all and is out to expose the impostor.One of the few remakes that actually works, The Addams Family takes the Gothic humour of the TV series and makes it feel fresh and entertaining.
Angelica Huston certainly didn't match Carolyn Jones' beauty but she, along with Raul Julia, Christopher Lloyd and Christinia Ricci all were entertaining to watch.There certainly were no end to the colorful imagines, unique scenes and dialog, special-effects and - for those with a surround system, good sound.
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.
Raul Julia in the performance of his career, and Christopher Lloyd in a very offebeat role even for him.This was a breakout performance for Christina Ricci (playing Wednesday Addams).
but it's darned entertaining and is a great riff on a classic piece of source material.The very creepy and kooky Addams Family is getting along fine, though Gomez Addams (the late and great Raul Julia) still laments the disappearance of his brother Fester 25 years earlier.
Though the more time he spends with the devilish family, the more he grows attached to them, and the more he doubts he'll be able to go through with the plan...The peculiar thing about both this film and it's immediate follow-up "Addams Family Values" is that in many ways, they come across more as a series of clever but only tenuously connected vignettes than as singular, cohesive narratives...
This film is very good.The late,great Raul Julia,Anjelica Huston,and Christopher Lloyd performed well.Even though there is a sequel this film is one of a kind.In My opinion this is a good dark comedy for everybody!.
That said, a few more good gags mightn't have come amiss; Caroline Thompson (here as in Tim Burton's 'The Nightmare Before Christmas') is stronger on the feel than the actual words.The story is perfectly strong enough - better in some ways than the sequel's, because it doesn't dissipate its energies between different plotlines - and of the actors, only Christina Ricci was to improve on her performance here.
Raul Julia, quite wonderful as a dashingly romantic, athletic, terribly vulnerable Gomez, and Christopher Lloyd in surprisinglycontrolled form as Fester, give performances here that are understated compared with their work in the (more sharply-written) sequel, and much the better for it; Angelica Huston's Morticia has just the same chiselled perfection.
Also excellent is Elizabeth Wilson as the phony doctor and and equally phony mother Alison Craven (aka Dr Pinder-Schloss, the name she eventually takes to her grave: in the Addams family, as in all classic American fantasies, you can become who you want to be).Perhaps having Dan Hedaya's oddly sympathetic lawyer villain lose his wife to the, umm, hirsute Cousin It is a bit too much icing on the cake, but it must be said that this film is a lot bolder than its sequel in evoking an unexpected degree of sympathy for all weirdos, good-for-nothings and all-round bad sorts, even lawyers.
I love this movie based simply on its macabre sense of humor and across-the-board perfect cast; Christopher Lloyd's physical comedy, the unbelievable chemistry between Raúl Juliá and Anjelica Huston, and Christina Ricci's just adorable.But there's an undeniable charm here, some twisted wholesomeness to this family.
Entertaining film version of the 60's television series with Julia and Huston beautifully in sync as Gomez and Morticia, while Lloyd is a hammy riot as Uncle Fester.
Available on Blu-ray Disc (Region B)USA 1991 English (Colour); Comedy/Horror/Fantasy (Paramount); 100 minutes (PG certificate)Crew includes: Barry Sonnenfeld (Director); Caroline Thompson, Larry Wilson (Screenwriters, from Characters created by Charles Addams); Scott Rudin (Producer); Graham Place (Executive Producer); Owen Roizman (Cinematographer); Richard MacDonald (Production Designer); Dede Allen, Jim Miller (Editors); Marc Shaiman (Composer)Cast includes: Anjelica Huston (Morticia Addams), Raul Julia (Gomez Addams), Christopher Lloyd (Uncle Fester Addams), Dan Hedaya (Tully Alford), Elizabeth Wilson (Abigail Craven), Judith Malina (Grandmama), Carel Struycken (Lurch), Dana Ivey (Margaret Alford), Paul Benedict (Judge Womack), Christina Ricci (Wednesday Addams), Jimmy Workman (Pugsley Addams), Christopher Hart (Thing)Academy Award nomination: Costume Design (Ruth Myers); BAFTA nominations (2): Production Design, Makeup; Golden Globe nomination: Actress - Musical/Comedy (Huston)"Weird is relative."A suitably freakish impostor (Lloyd) - or is he?
- infiltrates the spooky residence of a ghoulish yet loving family, headed by an elegant, vampirish matriarch (Huston) and her debonair, devoted husband (Julia), in an attempt to get his hands on their substantial wealth.Spot-on costumes, sets and casting (precocious little horror Ricci is particularly memorable) are highlights of an extremely successful comic strip adaptation, but not for Orion Pictures, whose fiscal woes compelled them to sell off their anticipated triumph to a no doubt grateful Paramount.A just-as-enjoyable sequel, likewise helmed by noted cinematographer Sonnenfeld (this big-budget effort, though an exhausting experience, opportunely being his directorial début), appeared two years later.Blu-ray Extras: Trailers.
If you like the classic TV show, you're going to enjoy this movie adaptation of the Addams Family, featuring Gomez, Morticia, Uncle Fester, Granny, Wednesday, Pugsley, Lurch and Cousin Itt. It has the same craziness and kookiness as the TV show, but with more serious and darker tones - in this movie, Uncle Fester has been missing for 25 years, leading to an evil doctor to introduce a fake Fester to the family in an attempt to get their money.The make-up was superb in bringing the Addams Family to life and the house was dark, eerie and mysterious, a perfect Halloween-like setting.
There was unbelievable chemistry between these two.Christina Ricci *is* Wednesday Addams- her face pale, blank, and emotionless, as she so cheerfully tries to switch on the electric chair Pugsley is sitting in, or dump a cauldron of boiling oil on unsuspecting door knockers, in a well done reference to Charles Addams' original comic strip.Carel Struyken is another wonderfully, comically, creepy, seven-foot-tall Lurch, quite possibly the most loyal and dedicated butler on Earth.Christopher Lloyd is also a wonderfully nutty Uncle Fester (or is he an impostor?) But the material is sometimes forced: in the original television series, the Addams' just did whatever normal (to them) macabre things they felt like, but here, the screenwriters seemed to go out of their way, on occasion, to make the family seem macabre and outlandish.
I saw The Addams Family movies in the order of Addams Family Reunion (I'll save you the trouble, its crap) and then Addams Family Values (which I thought was pretty funny) and it seems that the ones with Raul Julia as Gomez and Anjelica Houston as Morticia have the same kind of plot, Uncle Fester is forced by his fake mother to steal the Addams family fortune.
Others I like are Christina Ricci as Wednesday (although, take my word for it, her time to shine was the sequel), Christopher Lloyd as Fester, Jimmy Workman as Pugsley and in this film, I actually felt myself warm up more for Anjelica Houston as Morticia.
That moment echoes another scene where Wednesday (Cristina Ricci) asked a Scout girl if the biscuits were made of real children: that kind of humor was severely lacking in "The Addams Family" and the more I think about it, the more I realize it was the only one the film could provide besides the obligatory children-oriented slapstick.The second problem is that they still felt the need to ruin to that "shovel" quote by actually showing them 'waking up the dead' and that kind of on-the-nose humor is a blatant example of the way they ruined the very effect the film could have as a comedy.
Barry Sonnenfeld's adaptation of the iconic cartoon made me realize one thing: he certainly understood the Addams Family and whatever they 'stood for(', but he did not understand the audience.But let's give Sonnenfeld the credit he deserves, his film is marvelously looking, it carries that scary Gothic look where I suspect many trainees made their bones before working later on the Harry Potter' franchise.
Raul Julia makes a perfectly suave and seductive Gomez Adams, and Anjelica Huston has never been so frighteningly sensual, and more than that, both had that unique chemistry going, if I ever think of a dad and mom who love each other to death, well, I guess Gomez and Morticia come to my mind first.Cristina Ricci is more than convincing as Wednesday, whose main occupation consists on tormenting her cooperative brother Pugsley (Jimmy Workman) with many instruments, from a knife to an electric chair.
When Wednesday tortures her brother, it's not funny anymore because he enjoys it, how about she plays hide-and-seek with a 'normal' boy and we'll see what the outcome will be."The Addams Family" isn't totally unfunny, the film makes you smile and is visually entertaining but there were so much room for great laughs, it's a pity the film didn't exploit these eccentricities.
That's the stuff we expect, not a long and continuous exposition leading to a superficial conflict, the only 'conflict' possible is between the 'Addams' and normality, as during a funny school play sequence with an unexpected outburst of blood splattering the audience.The film should have been like its last five minutes, from the way they get rid of the two villains by pushing them in a coffin, "are they dead?" asks Pugsley "does it matter?" replies Wednesday.
As I said, either the normal world comes to Addams, or they come to it, the first comes too rarely, the second too late.The film is still a good Family comedy with cute one-liners, but it really could've been a laugh-riot.
The family is played by Anjelica Huston, Raul Julia, and Christina Ricci as young Wednesday Addams.
a silly kind of funny, and that is exactly how the Addams family is.I really liked the casting of this film.
The Addams Family is a decent movie with an enjoyable story and a cast that match their characters well.Its definitely a very childish film that children will enjoy much more than the parents will,but there are still plenty of jokes that will make an older audience laugh.My favourite part of the movie is without a doubt Christopher Llyod's performance,I really like him as an actor in family films as he is usually the funniest character in the movie (Back to the Future being a perfect example) and he is without a doubt the character that made me laugh the most.My biggest problems with this movie is that they didn't use some of the other Addams Family characters (Lurch,Thing,Cousin It,etc) as much as they should have,and the final act of the movie is definitely the weakest as the humor gets way too childish and a lot less that will entertain adults.The Addams Family isn't the perfect family film,but it is enjoyable and I would definitely recommend it to a younger audience.Mortica (Angelica Huston) and Gomez (Raul Julia) Addams welcome long lost Uncle Fester to live in their home after as he returns from the Bermuda Triangle,but he isn't all he seems..
I had a really good time with it mainly because of the extremely good acting and the dark but at the same time, colorful art direction and cinematography.To be honest, when I watched it, it was because I was very young and didn't notice the overall witty humor and great technical values.Nowadays, as a grown up and objective reviewer, I can say that the movie is smartly character driven and is supported by great technical values and aspects like funny situations, groovy clothing, the classical situations we all love, and best of all, a fun factor that ranks very high.Raul Julia owned the movie every time he was on scree and I remember being in love/lust with Christina Ricci with her pony tails, mini dress and everything.
Gordon Craven (Lloyd) pretends to be the long lost brother of Gomez Addams (Julia) in hope of gaining access to the family's money.This 1991 comedy from Barry Sonnenfeld (Get Shorty) is one of those rare gems that will never be praised enough.The Addams Family brings a dark and dismal tale to a vibrant colourful light with its superb choices of characters and settings, not to mention a great use of slapstick comedy.The narrative revolves around a man who has obeyed his mother and gone into the home of the craziest people in the village.
And, just like the series, there's just a ton of quirky, off-handed humor.The late great Raul Julia and Angelica Houston were perfectly cast as Gomez and Morticia Addams.
The Addams Family(1991) Starring Anjelica Houston, Christina Ricci, Christopher Lloyd and Raul Julia.
In this dark adaptation of the TV series, a man(Lloyd) who pretends to be their long lost Uncle Fester in order to try to retrieve money that The Addams Family has.I rented this because I read the reviews on this site, and most were positive.
This I think is the most prominent feature of it and sets mood and tone for the Addams' point of view and for everyone else.Raul Julia, Angelica Huston, Christina Ricci and Christopher Lloyd are excellent and Cousin It is just fabulous (wonder what shampoo he uses?) If you want something a little weird with some very black comedy one evening then if you haven't already I suggest you give it a whirl.Sleep tight.
When Gordon(Christopher Lloyd) pretends to be Gomez's(Raul Julia) missing brother Fester to get to his wealth, it might ruin the addams family fortune forever.
However, The Addams Family does that well.What really helped this movie was the great cast in which everyone was suited to the character they played.
Raul Julia, Anjelica Huston, Christina Ricci and Christopher Lloyd excel in their roles.The story is good as well and involves the long lost relative Uncle Fester (an ugly looking creep) coming to the Addams mansion to claim a large sum of money which he believes belongs to him.
Christopher Lloyd gives Fester more dimensions than Jackie Coogan ever did, but the one character that steals every scene is Christina Ricci as Wednesday Addams.
Anjelica Huston and Raul Julia stand out as the forever morbid couple Gomez and Morticia Addams as does Christina Ricci in a scene stealing role as Wednesday Addams.
Sadly the death of Raul Julia, who incarnates Gomez in a delightful way, marked also the end of a good time for the Addams Family incarnation.
Comparisons to the TV show are of course expected and while the movie is just as much dark fun..Raul Julia and Anjelica Huston are perfect as Gomez and Morticia and the rest of the cast fit well..especially Ricci and Wednesday..The plot leaves something to be desired...But the movie is good fun and is definitely recommended..on a scale of one to ten..7.
Raul Julia stands out as Gomez in a rare (for Julia) comedy role, and Angelica Huston's subtle smirks and dark romantic flair is remarkable even for her, Christopher Lloyd is a great Uncle Fester in a role that seems tailor-made for him, and watch for Christina Ricci, though only 11 in this film she may well become one of the most prolific and talented stars of the next decade.
Hilarious adaptation of Charles Addams' New Yorker cartoons that plays out more like the plot of a television episode (perhaps intentional as an homage to the 1960s show?) than a feature film, with Gomez (Juliá) and his family being reunited with his estranged brother (Lloyd), except the man who they believe is Uncle Fester is really an impostor out to steal the family's riches that is hidden in a vault.
This film adaptation of the Addam's Family has its moments and is watchable, but there are just certain things about it that do not work that cause it to be a sort of all right comedy rather than a really good one.
Every single character is perfectly casted in this film; Raul Julia does a great Gomez, Anjelica Huston is perfect as the dangerously slim, french-loving Morticia, Christoper Lloyd is flawless a Fester, Christina Ricci does a chillingly good Wednesday, which is quite impressive at that age(she was 10 or 11 when they made this), and Jimmy Workman is also great as Pugsley.
While all the actors of this movie version (of the much charming TV show "The Addams Family") are excellent only Christopher Lloyd manages to do justice to his character, Uncle Fester.
The Addams Family have always been original, in their weird way, and this film is not.
The Addams Family 1990's movies are so special for so many reasons: Christopher Lloyd, Anjelica Houston; Cristina Ricci; Carel Struycken (Lurch); Thing, Cousin It, the score, the set design; the puns - but I have to say the reason I am in love with these movies and watch them over and over again is Raul Julia as Gomez Addams.
Raul Julia is perfectly cast as Gomez Addams (it's a shame this and it's sequel were some of his last roles before his death) As is Angelica Houston as Morticia.