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Released by: Paramount
Released on: October 29th, 2024.
Director: Barry Sonnenfeld
Cast: Joan Cusack, Anjelica Huston, Raul Julia, Christopher Lloyd, Christina Ricci
Year: 1993
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Addams Family Values – Movie Review:
Director Barry Sonnenfeld and the key cast members from the 1991 Addams Family movie returned in 1993's Addams Family Values. The story this time around, Gomez (Raul Julia) and Morticia (Anjelica Huston) are celebrating the arrival of Pubert, a bouncing baby boy. Wednesday (Christina Ricci ) and Pugsley (Jimmy Workman) are decidedly nonplussed about this and take it upon themselves to get rid of the poor kid. Meanwhile, the arrival of a new nanny, Debbie Jellinsky (Joan Cusack), sets Unlce Fester's (Christopher Lloyd) heart aflutter. In order to keep Wednesday and Pugsley from doing away with the new addition, they're sent off to summer camp.
Soon enough, there are signs that Debbie is really only into Fester for his money, but soon enough, they're wed, after which there are a few mysterious ‘accidents' that almost wind up planting Fester six feet under. However, Pugsley and Wednesday are more hip to Debbie's game than she realizes and it isn't long before they're doing everything they can to get out of the preppy hell that is Camp Chippewa and back home to save Fester from his murderous new gold digging bride!
A rare sequel that's just as good as the original, Addams Family Values works for basically the same reasons that the first movie worked. Once again we have an excellent cast. Joan Cusack's character isn't quite as interesting or inspired as the Addams' are and some of the subplots involving the kids' trip to summer camp are a bit limp but when the movie is focusing on the core Addams Family characters, it is a lot of fun. Once again, Ricci as Wednesday Addams is the film's crown jewel but Julia and Huston are once again perfect and Lloyd is his typically reliable self as the always eccentric Fester.
The production design and costume work in this second film is just as solid as the first and once again the film is nicely paced and loaded with some very effective humor. Sure, most of the jokes revolve around the Addams' bizarre, gothic tropes and macabre lifestyle but that's what you want out of an Addams Family project, so that's a plus rather than a minus.
Addams Family Values – UHD/Blu-ray Review:
Addams Family Values was arrives on UHD from Paramount in HEVC encoded 2160p ultra-high definition 4k transfer framed at 1.85.1 widescreen with Dolby Vision/HDR10 and it looks really good. Taken from a new 4k scan of the original 35mm negative, picture quality here is very strong, improving over the past Blu-ray release (which looked pretty decent) from a few years back with more noticeable detail on display in pretty much every frame. The colors look fantastic here and really pop, without looking too hot or artificially boosted, while black levels are nice and deep. The image is super clean, retaining grain but showing no real print damage. There are one or two spots where some very minor compression artifacts pop up but overall, this transfer is excellent.
And English language DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio track is the main option on the disc. The score sounds very nice and is spread around well and throughout the film you'll pick up on some fun surround sound activity throughout the front and rear channel speakers. Dialogue stays clean, clear and nicely balanced throughout and there's good range here. No problems with any hiss or distortion to note. A French Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo track is also included as is an English language descriptive audio track, while optional subtitles are offered up in English, English SDH and French.
Brand new commentary track with Director Barry Sonnenfeld and Screenwriter Paul Rudnick proves worth listening to. It’s a lively and engaging track that covers the origins of the project, getting the main cast members back together and what they were like to work with, some of the effects set pieces, coming up with story ideas for this second film in the franchise and lots more.
Crafting Family Values is a ten minute featurette made up of clips from vintage EPK and interview materials that feature cast and crew members discussing their work on the project and expressing their enthusiasm for it.
This release also comes with a slipcover as well as an insert containing a code that can be redeemed for a digital download version of the movie. Given that past editions of this movie on home video haven’t had much in the way of extras as all, it’s nice to see Paramount give fans something more with this edition (even if they should have included the original trailer).
Addams Family Values - The Final Word:
Addams Family Values is a really solid sequel, a film just as funny as the movie that inspired it. The UHD release from Paramount offers the film up in an excellent presentation and with a couple of extras to boot. Recommended for fans of the franchise.