Best/Worst Character 5 - The Addams Family *snap snap*

[thedamndest]

This week is really a scream (or screyum) in Best/Worst Character. We take you to the creepy, kooky, altogether ooky (what the hell is "ooky" anyway?) the Addams Family. This movie was released in 1991 and was a precursor to the post-Y2K trend of re-imagining old television shows. It spawned a sequel and a difficult Nintendo game that was not at all like the movie, despite featuring the movie poster on the cover. Good for it. Not Cousin It. I think he was left out of the game.

http://www.big-pix.com/shop/images/posters/r-addam.jpg
"You rang?"
"Why, yes I did, Lurch! To tell you to vote in Best/Worst Character!"
*indiscernable grumbling*

imdb: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0101272/
Previous installment (Austin Powers Trilogy): http://tpww.net/forums/showthread.php?t=91027

[mitchables]

Been ages since I've seen the first Addams Family. For some reason I always preferred Addams Family Values. But, going off memory here, I will say...

Best: Gomez Addams. Raul Julia was inspired in both incarnations as the sharply-tongued, sharply-dressed patriarch of the modern goth-age family.

Worst: Hmm. Tough here. For Addams Family alone, Pugsley. He was pretty under-utilised and didn't really have any extended excellence until AFV. Uh, I think. I can't really remember. Although I seem to remember not having much love for either the lawyer (Tully) or Fester's "mother", Abigail. They were just so... so... there.

[thedamndest]

Best: When I first saw this movie I was like eight. I had a huge crush on Christina Ricci so Wednesday was my favorite character back then. But now it has to be Gomez for all the reasons Mitch cited.

Worst: Pugsley. He's got some funny gag moments, but doesn't really have any character. I would have said Granny, but I didn't feel like she was central enough to list because she has very little screen time, but what screen time she does have she annoys me with.

I like both movies. The second movie is good because it has the two separate plots - the kids at camp and Fester marrying the widower. It allows all the members of the family to play more of an active role than they did in the first film. In general, I think the plot of the first movie is better, but only slightly.

[mitchables]

The plot of the first film is marginally better, because ultimately the second will always carry the taint of late 1980s-to-late 1990s sequels in their largely rehashed nature. That said, I thought the actors were all better in the second. Joan Cusack was hilarious in her role. Completely outshone that Abigail character as an antagonist. Wednesday and Pugsley are both fantastic and Christina Ricci was, similar to Thed, a childhood crush of mine so I mean, a slightly more developed Christina Ricci is always a good thing. And having Christopher Lloyd in the Uncle Fester persona for a whole movie is total win compared to the Gordon/Fester thing he had going on in the first.

[mitchables]

<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/ptLD0kCoHG4&hl=en&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/ptLD0kCoHG4&hl=en&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>

I love Peter MacNicol :'(

[mitchables]

Actually, LOL @ future Numb3rs co-stars.

[thedamndest]

Spot on about the actors of the second movie being better. Joan Cusack delivered the goods, but so did David Krumholtz as Joel and Peter MacNicol and Christine Baranski as the camp counselors.

But while the Fester gets married/camp scenario was funny, I would say the original was the better plot because of the location. We see more of the Addams' manor and it is more in-line with the, for lack of a better phrasing, creepy, kooky, and ooky, setting that the movie delivers. The sequel has that too, but it takes us away from it a little bit too often to be as authentic as the original. Plus there is the Pubert kid. That was a big miss.

[mitchables]

I don't know, I think the setting of the first film was more in-line with the creepiness/kookiness/ookiness, but the tone of the second was unquestionably more macabre. It was a darker tone overall, the humour was blacker. Even the most colorful scene in the movie (the play, above), degenerates into the razing of a village and MacNicol being roasted on a spit.

[Gertner]

Best: Wednesday

Worst: Gotta be Pugsley