The Addams Family (1991)

Elevator Pitch: The Addams family, Morticia, Gomez, Granny, Wednesday and Pugsley, plus Lurch the butler and Thing a disembodied hand, live in a dark mansion but miss Fester, Gomez’s elder brother who had disappeared many years ago. Then as if ordained, a woman who might be a psychariatrist appears with a man who looks just like Fester, and could be him with complete loss of memory. Gomez is overjoyed but the psychariatrist with a male companion will stop at nothing to get at the riches owned by the family hidden in an underground vault and protected by passwords and booby traps.

Content: The family do a lot of Addams family things, which will be fun for those who remember the TV series. Gomez visits the vault, Morticia prepares roses for display by cutting the blooms off them, and later when the villains are tryingt to find out how to get to the money she is stretched on the rack and seems to enjoy it. Pugsley and Wednesday appear in a school play fencing, and spray the audience with fake blood. There is  party which involves some odd people and time is spent in the family graveyard. You get the idea, but absolutely nothing to offend, although the IMDb Parent’s Guidance suggests that implied passion between Morticia and Gomez is sexy.

A View: This movie has the characters, incidently resulting in the studio being sued, who were absolutely fine, but it lacks a plot. The possible Fester is just not good enough and although at one point they are thrown out of their house they just seem to hang around waiting for things to get better. What critics reviewed it did not like it much, one describing it as “Intermittently amusing”. That more or less sums it up. We really wanted them to do better. So unfortunately not really a watch, but if you are a bit desperate for an Addams reboot try the second film “Addams Family Values” which is much better.

Additional Info: The script required Fester’s origins not to be finally determined, but the cast elected Christina Ricci to plead with the management for a favourable resolution.