After the sad death of brilliant actor Raul Julia, the “Addams Family” film series was put to rest, despite both films being big commercial hits for their respective years. Almost immediately, Paramount sold the rights to the series to, baffling enough, Saban Entertainment. Saban, of course, is known for producing cheap but popular kids entertainment like “Power Rangers” and “Digimon.” The Saban label at the opening is almost a black mark on the entire movie, as the reboot of the reboot is a bargain basement third entry in to the series with all the cast replaced save for Lurch. The dark and Gothic aesthetic is missing, and comically sinister tone the series perfects is considerably watered down with the film feeling less like Tim Burton, and more like the terrible pilot to a show that never quite took off.
Tag Archives: Romance
Addams Family Values (1993)
With the success of the first installment of the nineties “Addams Family” (however minimal), a sequel was only inevitable. The follow up is a turning point for the movies where the writers put the more popular side characters in to the forefront. This time around Fester and the kids get so much more focus, as Barry Sonnenfeld allows Fester more of the spotlight this time around. After the big reveal in the first film, Morticia and Gomez have a baby boy and much to their disappointment, Wednesday and Pugsley hate him. Despite making their feelings quite apparent, they persist in trying to kill their new baby brother, causing more headaches for their parents.
The Addams Family (1991)
Among some of the best adaptations during the odd period in the nineties where every studio was putting sixties shows to film, “The Addams Family” is one of the best. While this isn’t the first time we’ve seen the Addams Family together again after the cult series, Barry Sonnenfeld offers up a unique retelling of the Addams Family that works well. The biggest change to the lore is now Uncle Fester is no longer Morticia’s uncle but an Addams’ and Gomez’s brother. This allows the writers to offer up a pretty fun and unique re-visiting of the family where the primary brood is played by some brilliant actors.
Halloween with the New Addams Family (1977)
A lot of what makes Addams Family such a fun series is the darkly comic and sinister tone and great sense of Goth that comes with it. It’s not often I say this but watching the rare 1977 movie is kind of a chore to sit through, and you can sense it’s not a good movie at all once you gander at the grainy video and lack of production quality. This attempt at a series revival is a “feature length” television movie that is supposed to set off the new Addams Family. For some reason this is a reboot with the entire cast from the original series all over again, right down to an adult Wednesday and Pugsley. “Halloween with the Addams Family” isn’t just abysmal, but it’s boring, and painfully silly.
Tragedy Girls (2017) [Philadelphia Unnamed Film Festival 2017]
Two teenage girls obsessed with death and horror movies are building their online reputation. To do so, they exploit local deaths and events in their small town.
Assholes (2017)
In the directorial debut of Peter Vack, Assholes opens up with a recently sober Adah (Betsy Brown) talking to her psychotherapist. She complains about having to compete with her brother for their parent’s affection and laments how horny she is. She soon falls off the wagon at her brother’s house and eventually runs into her brothers best friend Aaron (Jack Dunphy) at their psychotherapist’s office and begin tumbling down the rabbit hole of depravity, indulgence, and awkward comedy.
Nocturnally Yours (2017) [Philadelphia Unnamed Film Festival 2017]
After his untimely death on the night of his engagement, a man haunts his love until he finds a way to visit her in the “flesh”.
Nocturnally Yours is the sixth title on writer/director David Ferino’s IMDB resume. Here he creates a darkly funny story of love that transcends death, of a man who is not ready to move on and a woman who is not ready to let go finding a way to reconnect that turns absolutely hilarious. The story is wrong on quite a few levels, yet is so entertaining. The film takes this crazy idea, runs with it, and succeeds in making something that should make people with a dark or twisted sense of humor laugh out loud. The story is well told, the humor is on point, and the way it’s all delivered makes for a fun few minutes.