Addams Family Values becomes a veritable joke factory, where Lloyd’s physical comedy is unlocked, Ricci’s deadpan trends even deader, and Morticia and Gomez remain the platonic ideal of sexy goth parents.

| Jan 22, 2025

There’s a lot about "Values" that I don’t think can be appreciated *as much* in adolescence, whereas the shifted perspective not only makes the film make more sense, but increases the appreciation.

| Oct 29, 2024

A step up from its already-solid predecessor, Addams Family Values doubles down on the camp and macabre humor to wonderful effect, thanks in no small part to scene-stealing turns from Ricci and Cusack.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Dec 6, 2022

A more confident film than its predecessor. Very appreciative of the harsh satire about Thanksgiving and the substantial roles for female actors, particularly a very game Joan Cusack, who delivers an iconic camp performance as Debbie.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Nov 27, 2022

While the film can lean into corny at times, following predictable tropes and expectations, Cusack‘s performance as Debbie truly elevates Addams Family Values into a sequel that can stand strong with its predecessor, as well as on its own.

| Nov 26, 2022

Addams Family Values is an endlessly quotable 90s gem that should have a place in your Thanksgiving movie rotation if there is such a thing. Not because it takes place on the actual holiday, or teaches us about sharing with others.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Nov 23, 2022

The mood is still macabre, although, on the whole, not as funny or fresh.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Sep 22, 2022

To put it bluntly, this is not for the anti-Beavis & Butthead faction. The humor is sicker, more mean-spirited and darker than in the first show... But older kids and adults will cackle fiendishly at the one-Iiners.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Sep 22, 2022

Add to the crypt Addams Family Values, the illustrious and far superior sequel which picks up where the original left off.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Sep 22, 2022

By the time the cast, crew and creators of this film have had their way, there are few icons left un-smashed. To subvert another American verité, theirs is a job well done.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Sep 22, 2022

Rudnick has actually made an effort to live up to the film’s title, and the film is sort of a rebuke to Dan Quayle and other heralds of nuclear-family normality. Unfortunately, it’s neither a particularly savage nor lucid one.

| Sep 22, 2022

Teetering on the brink of absolute tastelessness and cutting-edge humor, Addams Family Values lands just where you want it: dancing gracefully on the grave of one long gag.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Sep 22, 2022

The result, if you've seen the first effort, is utterly predictable throughout since the whole conception is stymied by the fact that this is a black comedy designed for a PG certificate, and thus only a very pale shade of gray.

| Sep 22, 2022

Addams Family Values is a rare comedy sequel that actually improves on the original, and the reason, I suspect, is that Rudnick, who wrote the screenplay, has been allowed to run wild.

| Sep 22, 2022

Paul Rudnick's script is wicked, tart, satiric, hilarious: It gives director Barry Sonnenfeld and his impeccable cast both a springboard and a safety net.

| Sep 22, 2022

Addams Family Values is a ghoulishly fun time. It would have been a real howl if the producers weren't too scared to go out on a limb in this twisted family tree.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Sep 22, 2022

You've got to hand it to moviemakers who are willing to get so grisly... Unfortunately, that sort of gleeful malevolence doesn’t last long. It's soon replaced by the same hit-and-miss comedy that characterized the original Addams Family in 1991.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Sep 22, 2022

This time, Sonnenfeld doesn't bury the jokes in exposition about characters we already know... What was missing before was an interesting storyline, which screenwriter Paul Rudnick concocts with diabolical humor.

| Original Score: B- | Sep 22, 2022

Ken Adam, the great British designer responsible for Dr Strangelove's War Room and Ernst Stavro Blofeld's most sinister hideaways, has lovingly made his near-namesake's world three-dimensional, as well as creating its bland, middle-American antithesis.

| Sep 22, 2022

Addams Family Values is a series of clunky one-liners dressed up with some half-hearted attempts at social commentary.

| Original Score: 1/5 | Sep 22, 2022