Addams Family Values

With way too many disparate plot lines going on simultaneously, this film can't help but fail all the way around. Sonnenfeld (and not a few critics to boot) have made much about the superiority of this story over the previous one, but it's all so muddled that you end up feeling like you're in one-liner hell. While the first Addams outing had the reserved charm of Charles Addams's New Yorker strips (from which it borrowed heavily), this time out the humor has acquired a frosty, malicious edge -- at times, the gags are positively mean-spirited. Granted, Julia, Huston, Ricci, and Workman are all excellent in their roles (Kane as Granny Addams seems little more than an afterthought), but they're unfortunately not enough to save this elongated mess.