Gomez Addams (Tim Curry) is worried as of late, since his parents (Kevin McCarthy, Estelle Harris) have a rare disease called Waltzheimer's that slowly turns them into totally normal, square even, senior citizens, with a predilection for vedgetable gardens, lawn mowing and polkas. So he suggests a big family gathering to get them back to their roots. Unfortunately, the company tasked with organizing the event mixes things up and thus the Addams family - Gomez, his parents, his wife Morticia (Daryl Hannah), their children Wednesday (Nicole Fugere) and Pugsley (Jerry Messing), Uncle Fester (Patrick Thomas), the Thing (Christopher Hart's hand) and of course butler Lurch (Carel Struycken) - land at the Adams (with one "d") family reunion, which is basically a bunch of normal, "honorable" citizens led by psychiatrist Phillip (Ed Begley jr) who are basically after patriarch Walter's (Ray Walston) huge fortune while already slowly poisoning him to death. Gomez and company are blissfully unaware of this, and while Gomez seeks advice from Phillip on how to make his parents abnormal again, while on the side easily beating him at darts, ping pong and tennis, much to Phillip's dismay. In the meantime, Pugsley falls in love with the somewhat "weird" Gina (Haylie Duff), he and Wednesday teach all the "normal" kids a lesson to accept outsiders, Uncle Fester's hair-eating dog escapes to create utter chaos, and Lurch has a sleepwalking spell, scaring the shit out of everybody in the process. So eventually, this leads to utter chaos, which ultimately lands Gomez and Morticia in jail, the kids in foster care, and Uncle Fester at Phillip's asylum. But the Addams have one unexpected ally, old man Walter Adams, who has long seen through his family's plot to get their hands on his fortune, and who sees the good in the Addams and sets things right for them at the expense of his own family ...

Meanwhile, back at Addams residence, two members of the Adams (one "d") family (Rodger Halston, Heidi Lenhart) arrive for the family reunion, where they have been invited thanks to the same computer error as above, and granny (Alice Ghostley) and Cousin Itt (Phil Fondacaro) pretty much scare the shit out of them ...

After Paramount lost interest into the franchise after the two Barry Sonnenfeld movies in the early 1990s, Saban Entertainment snatched up the rights to the Addams Family to make a straight-to-video sequel/reboot (with only Carel Struycken and Christopher Hart's hand returning from the earlier movies) to at once cash in on the Sonnenfeld films and use it as a quasi-pilot for The New Addams Family (with only Nicole Fugere repeating her role as Wednesday in the series though).

All that said, this film despite poor reviews at the time, isn't half bad. It's not overly funny, but at least most of the punchlines land, the casting sure is inspired, with The Rocky Horror Picture Show's Tim Curry as Gomez, the original Invasion of the Body Snatcher's Kevin McCarthy as Grandpa, and Daryl Hannah cast against type but turning in a pretty decent job. Also a rather dynamic directorial effort keeps things lively, even if it could have done with a few less shots of people running away from Addams family members screaming - after a while, the audience gets the joke even without that. That all said then, what the film sure lacks is originality, almost everything that happens is a re-hash of scenes in either the original series or the previous movies - but that, just maybe, wasn't totally unintended.

review © by Mike Haberfelner

 

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