290. The Addams Family 2; movie review

 

THE ADDAMS FAMILY 2

Cert PG

93 mins

BBFC advice: Contains mild comic threat, violence, rude humour, dangerous behaviour

Two years ago I wrote that The Addams Family left its audience "with an overwhelming sense of deja vu."

It isn't hard to imagine that the feeling is heightened by this sequel to the remake.

Yep, cinema is currently so horribly devoid of inspiration that even its franchises are re-imaginings of recreations.

I first became a fan of The Addams Family with the 1960s series which was kind of fun because of its creepy characters and the way Lurch answered the door with a lugubrious "Yeaaas".

That was followed up with the type of animated TV series which was the vogue of the early 70s.

There were several low grade offshoots until the re-emergence of a real-life film in 1991, starring Anjelica Huston, Raul Julia and Christopher Lloyd with Christina Ricci as a marvellously wicked Wednesday.

That was a movie which deserved to generate a sequel but surely nothing new could come after Addams Family Values, could it?

Well, yes. Nearly 30 years later, it feels that we are now on the way to a computer-generated franchise which sadly lacks the charm of its predecessors and adds nothing to their previous incarnations.

A-listers, Charlize Theron, Oscar Isaac, Chloe Grace Moretz, Bette Midler and Snoop Dogg all lend their voices to the familiar characters in Conrad Vernon and Greg Tiernan's movie.

At the forefront of this tale is the morbid Wednesday (Moretz) who becomes convinced that she is not part of her family because they are so different to her.

Thus, as a bonding exercise, her father, Gomez (Isaac), decides they should all go on holiday and the inevitable capers ensue.

There was a huge writing team and four co-directors working on The Addams Family 2 but they are still reliant on the macabre style of gags first written by cartoonist Charles Addams nearly a century ago..

And I'm afraid, we have heard them all before.

Reasons to watch: If this is your first Addams experience

Reasons to avoid: Nothing much new here

Laughs: Two

Jumps: None

Vomit: None

Nudity: None

Overall rating: 4.5/10

Did you know? Starting in 1938, Gomez, Morticia, Uncle Fester, Lurch, Grandmama, Wednesday, Pugsley, and Thing appeared in The New Yorker in a series of cartoons by Charles Addams.

The final word. Chloë Grace Moretz: "It was a whole lot of fun to find those new shades of Wednesday and figure out what those vocals sounded like, and how to get across sentimentality and things like that in a character that's 90% of the time monotone and almost sociopathic." Screen Rant

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