Halloween Kills

Last night, I saw “Halloween Kills,” which came out in theaters and on Peacock (for 60 days) on the 15^th. I decided to check it out on Peacock and not go to the theaters, so I will let everyone know what I thought about it.

Richard Roeper started his review by saying, “For those of you keeping gore, I mean score, at home, Michael Myers a.k.a. The Shape from the “Halloween” movies will be celebrating his 64th birthday in a few days, but the relentless killer behind the white mask remains in remarkably good shape. I guess a steady appetite for destruction and gruesome kills keeps one slim, trim and grim.”

If there’s one thing the residents of Haddonfield, Illinois, should know by now, it’s that about 60 years after six-year-old Michael murdered his teenage sister Judith, 35 years after Michael went around murdering people in the late 1970s and just hours after he killed more than a dozen locals, he has changed into something immortal, something completely indestructible, something as strong as a comic villain. Roeper noted, “And yet when a diminutive, portly, escaped mental patient who looks like an unkempt Wallace Shawn wanders into a hospital where an unruly mob has gathered and the poor soul starts wobbling around, the townsfolk think this guy is the evil entity who has wreaked so much carnage, and they start chasing him around as if they’re in a bad “Frankenstein” sequel.” Come on, mob!

Roeper said, “That’s only one of the head-scratching, unintentionally comedic, ludicrous developments in the thudding disappointment that is “Halloween Kills,” the follow-up to the exciting and clever 2018 reboot/sequel that marked the return of Jamie Lee Curtis and was a direct sequel to the 1978 original.” You can forget about “Halloween II” and “Halloween III” and “Halloween H20” and every other sequel, and consider this the third movie in this alternate universe of the franchise, with many callbacks to the 1978 and 2018 films and many characters who were children back int eh 1970s and almost escaped Michael’s knight and are now adults who are still haunted and want this for of evil to finally end and die.

Good luck with that.

“Halloween Kills” starts right after the events of the 2018 film, where Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis), her daughter Karen (Judy Greer) and her granddaughter Allyson (Andi Matichak) trapped Michael Myers in a safe room in Laurie’s house and set the place on fire. As Laurie is rushed to the hospital with a stab to her abdomen, she sees firetrucks driving to her home and screaming, “Nooooo! Let it burn!” However, emergency responders arrive at the house just in time for Michael to come out of the burning basement and thoroughly take them out, one by one – and he’s once again loose on the streets of Haddonfield on Halloween night, ready to stab, jab, gouge, punch, and kill anything in his path.

With Laurie (and thus the great Jamie Lee Curtis) sidelined in the hospital, “Halloween Kills” changes the protagonist to Tommy (Anthony Michael Hall), who was one of the kids Lauire was babysitting on that famous night in 1978 and meets up with so many other survivors in a bar on Halloween night every year to raise a glass to Laurie and to insist the locals to never forget, or something like that. Another subplot involves a gay couple named Big John and Little John (Scott MacArthur and Michael McDonald, respectively) and get this: They’ve moved into Michael’s childhood home and completely renovated the place from top to bottom. Roeper noted, “On Halloween night, Big John and Little John break out the charcuterie plate, smoke some weed and watch “Minnie and Moskowitz,” I kid you not, and they’re woefully unprepared when Michael comes a-knockin’ on the back door and then the front door.”

As Laurie and other characters give really hard speeches about the true look of evil and how there’s strength in numbers but if the townsfolk aren’t careful, they’ll become as evil and savage as Michael himself, the Masked One carves a bloody path through Haddonfield, killing characters who behave as vacuous as the victims in countless of other typical slasher movies. Roeper said, “Granted, there are some darkly entertaining and strange moments, e.g., when Michael suddenly develops a Hannibal Lecter-like flair for the dramatic, arranging a murdered couple in the same pose they struck for a framed photo on the mantle and dropping the needle on a turntable to play “Can I Have This Dance for the Rest of My Life?” by Anne Murray.”

Now wait, we’ve just heard from a police man who had the chance to kill Miachel in 1978 but missed his chance – and this guy says Michael is a six-year-old boy with the strength of a man who acts like an animal. How did he suddenly get so sophisticated, with the bizarrely arranged corpse displays and twisted musical selection?

It’s almost like “Halloween Kills” is an erratic, chaotic mess.

For a sequel to the 2018 film, which was the best sequel in the franchise, this one just gets an average rating. I was expecting better from the film, but this one just ended up being a disappointment, like many of the other sequels. That is why I do not recommend you to go to the theaters to see this. Instead, if you have the paid version of Peacock, see it on there, since it will be available on there for 60 days.

Happy Halloween everyone! I hope you enjoyed today’s review. Enjoy trick-or-treating tomorrow night. Look out next month to see what I will review next.

The Addams Family 2

The animated sequel “The Addams Family 2,” released at the beginning of this month in theaters and on Video On Demand, improves on the previous film similarly to how “Addams Family Values” did to the first live-action film. Sean P. Means said in his review, “Maybe movies about the ghoulish Addams Family work like the old “Star Trek” franchise, where the even-numbered ones were the good ones.”

Means noted, “Like “Addams Family Values,” the animated sequel centers on someone trying to exploit a rift within the solid-as-a-gravestone cohesion of the Addams clan.” This time, it’s middle-school intelligent Wednesday (Chloe Grace Moretz), feeling overwhelmed by the loving attention of her father, Gomez (Oscar Isaac), as she demonstrates her science-fair project – attaching the intelligence of her pet squid, Socrates, into her vacuous Uncle Fester (Nick Kroll).

The science fair is a disappointment for Wednesday, because Gomez and Morticia, voiced by Charlize Theron, appear, and because the powers that want everyone a winner. Wednesday is moderated kind of when Cyrus Strange, voiced by Bill Hader, the tech billionaire who sponsors the science fair, credits her originality and intelligence.

Means says, “A fretful Gomez grasps at straws to find a way to bond with his precious daughter, landing on the idea of a cross-country family vacation.” Wednesday hates the idea, but is soon dragged into Gomez’ desperate attempts to create some bonding time at famous tourist attracts like Salem, Mass., Niagara Falls and Death Valley. What Wednesday doesn’t know is that Gomez is also hiding something on this trip: The claims of a lawyer, voiced by Wallace Shawan, representing an unknown client, who believes Wednesday was switched for another baby in the maternity ward.

As the family drives their fearsome RV across the country, Wednesday enjoys herself by torturing her brother, Pugsley (Javon “Wanna” Walton), while Fester finds out Wednesday’s squid experiment has some surprising side effects.

Directors Greg Tiernan and Conrad Vernon find so much good humor in the creepiness of this eccentric family, and the script (by Dan Hernandez and Benji Samit) carves Wednesday’s isolation trouble for some genuinely funny moments. The writers also sprinkle the narrative with jokes that might go over the children’s heads, but land rightfully with the adult viewers. For example, the signpost in Death Valley, pointing to famous slasher-film locations like Crystal Lake and Elm Street.

“The Addams Family 2” isn’t as funny as Paul Rudnick’s satirical script of “Addams Family Values” was. But it does show signs of fun and silliness that the first animated film didn’t have, and proves that there may be some life in this franchise that we all thought was buried.

For those who actually liked the first animated movie, you should see this. If you don’t feel comfortable seeing this in theaters, you can easily watch this On Demand, since that’s what I did. Check this out with the whole family and you will enjoy it, I assure you.

Alright everyone, we have now come to the end of “Addams Family Month.” I hope all of you enjoyed it, as I felt they perfectly fit with Halloween. Hopefully all of you will check out most of the films in the franchise this month, as I think most of them people will enjoy it.

Look out next month to see what other excitement I will review.

No Time to Die

Tonight, my friend and I checked out the new James Bond movie, “No Time to Die,” which came out two weeks ago. How is this compared to the previous installments? Will this be the best with Daniel Craig? Or will this break the fabric that the odd-numbered Bond movies starring Craig are good?

This film is the twenty-fifth James Bond movie and Craig’s final movie starring as Bond. It’s a worthy, but not very remarkable, finale of the famous character, giving what every Bond film must have, that is, fast car and motorcycle chases, high-flying stunts, beautiful scenery, plus futuristic technology and gadgets: watches, cars, and planes.

Diane Carson said in her review, “As usual, all of this must deter an evil psychopathic man, or, in this case, two men from destroying the world through lethal, highly contagious DNA (with a nod to our pandemic tragedy, perhaps). Lured back from retirement to save civilization, if I may call this mayhem that, is, of course, James Bond, spy extraordinaire though everyone knows who he is. I won’t detail the script. Just ride the roller coaster, never looking too far around the next bend.”

Every addition must help the success, and for the most part, everything does. Let’s start with the casting of Rami Malek and Christoph Waltz as the main villains. They handle their roles differently and well. Equally great because they play their roles without displays: Ralph Fiennes as M, Naomie Harris as Moneypenny, Ben Whishaw as Q, and Jeffrey Wright as Felix. As love interest Madeleine Swann, Léa Seydoux does a great job, despite her crying and acting like a damsel in distress, which could have been downplayed.

Get this: Lashana Lynch plays Nomi, Agent 007. That’s right, without spoilers since she’s introduced as that early in her appearance. Her presence brings a confident strength to every scene, despite way more could have been developed with her qualifications. Credit also is given to Daniel Craig who previously did not want to play Bond by calling the character a misogynist. Craig playing him improved on that previous remark and also humanized the character.

At two hours and 43 minutes, the film may feel like it is too long, but that’s a small complaint. Carson credited, “Hans Zimmer’s music is, especially in the romantic scenes, unimaginative, but serviceable. Tom Cross and Elliot Graham’s editing intensifies the action (though I still consider Christopher Rouse’s, Saar Klein’s, and Richard Pearson’s editing for the Jason Bourne trilogy the best action film editing ever.)” Director, co/screenplay writer Cary Joji Fukunaga knows what we came to see and how to deliver exactly that.

Since the studio never said anything about ending the famous franchise, now everyone must be thinking who will be the next actor to play Bond. Carson mentioned, “I’d love to see Idris Elba, though he may be too cool for that role or, introduced already as 007 here, the charismatic Lynch. Whoever takes the helm, count me in for another theme park ride.” The movie is playing in every cinema, but I’m not sure how it looks on IMAX since I never saw it there.

As the final film of Craig playing Bond, I’d say he literally went out with a bang. After watching the film, I was thinking this might be the end, but I don’t think that will happen. This is an engaging film with gripping action scenes, like car chases, fist fights, gun fights, etc. However, when I got to the end of the film, I was shocked by what happened. I’m not going to give anything away, but if you’re a fan of the Bond franchise, this is one that you should not miss. I don’t know if this will play on any streaming service later on, but go to the theater and be safe. This is, hands down, the best Bond movie starring Craig.

Thank you for joining in on my review tonight. Stay tuned next Friday for the finale of “The Addams Family Month.”

The Addams Family (2019)

Jeffrey Lyles started his review by saying, “There’s clearly something special with The Addams Family. It’s one of those properties that works no matter the format whether a cartoon, TV series, movie or its latest iteration an animated movie that’s worthy of two snaps up.”

The character designs might be upsetting to some familiar with the characters from the TV show and the previous live-action movie. They are far more in staying true with the original designs from Charles Addams’ 1938 comic strip.

The 2019 animated movie is less an origin story on the family and more the start of their reboot in their franchise. Gomez (Oscar Isaac) and Morticia (Charlize Theron) have made a home from an isolated deserted insane asylum with their children Wednesday (Chloe Grace Moretz) and Pugsley (Finn Wolfhard), butler Lurch (Conrad Vernon), Uncle Fester (Nick Kroll), Grandma (Bette Midler) and the disembodied hand Thing. Listen closely for the fun casting of rapper Snoop Dogg as Cousin It.

Screenwriters Pamela Pettler and Matt Lieberman get the spirit of the source material with social misfits that have no idea they don’t fit into society while ironically being completely welcoming to any stranger they encounter.

If anything, the script is a little too determined for an 86-minute movie with three subplots that may have been the story for three movies. Every character gets their moment, but the focus is more on the children and not on Gomez and Morticia. Lyles said, “Chalk that up to the animated format, which would be more compelling to a new generation of younger Addams Family fans than their parents or grandparents.”

Wednesday and Pugsley both must deal with being forced to be something they’re not with unplanned pressure from their parents. This is shown in the main story with home makeover reality actress Margaux Needler, voiced by Allison Janney, the designer of the original community Assimilation, who all don’t think the Addams Family fit in. Lyles noted, “The script cleverly mocks the sheep-like mentality of social media and the corrosive need to fit in with the loudest voices in the room/online.”

Directors Greg Tiernan and Conrad Vernon do a great job with animation.

This new film on the franchise should prove inviting enough to attract new fans while also staying true to the source material for longtime fans. With the sequel that was recently released, there’s plenty of reasons to be excited for this enjoyable reboot.

I don’t understand why critics didn’t really like this movie. I saw it on Hulu a few months back and I enjoyed it. I think everyone should like this movie because this is a good movie for the whole family can watch together. Maybe old school fans may not like it as much, but I think everyone should give this a chance. Check out the film on Hulu and enjoy yourselves.

How is the sequel that was recently released? You’ll have to wait until next week for the finale of “The Addams Family Month” to find out.

Zack Snyder's Justice League

Today, I finished watching Zack Snyder’s extended “Justice League” cut, which was released on HBO Max back in March. Seeing how this film is four hours long, I watched it in pieces while I was exercising, since that’s what people have been doing during the pandemic. Now, I will let all of you know if I thought this is better than the theatrical version.

Four years ago, when the “Justice League” film was released, it got mixed reviews. Many DC comic and movie fans had dismissed the film for its poor, unfocused script. Mostly because the film went through a difficult production and some serious changes between 2016 to 2017. There were reports that Zack Snyder left during the production because of the suicide of his daughter Autumn, then Joss Whedon came in and changed things around and may have ended up changing things a little too much than he should have.

Apparently die-hard fans and cybercitizens went all over social media with the #ReleaseTheSnyderCut campaign, and the studio eventually listened after a few years. Now we finally get the version Snyder always wanted to release, and it became a four-hour long movie that came out on HBO Max. Fortunately, the famous Snyder cut this time around makes Justice League into a film worth seeing.

After Superman (Henry Cavill) sacrifices himself to kill Doomsday, Batman/Bruce Wayne (Ben Affleck) travels all over the planet to gather a new team of superheroes, which includes Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot), The Flash (Ezra Miller), Aquaman (Jason Momoa), and Cyborg (Ray Fisher), to defend everyone from an oncoming alien attack. That attack is Steppenwolf (Ciarán Hinds), one of Darkseid’s (Ray Porter) minions who wants to get the three Mother Boxes, the powerful and indestructible boxes that are capable of building and destroying the planet.

Tatat Bunnag said in his review, “While the premise in Zack Snyder's Justice League in broad terms remains the same as the 2017 film, with double the runtime, the new film is a methodical slow burn and has a much deeper interest in exploring its characters more than one may expect.” Nearly every character in the extended version in every way has more of a background and is far more articulate and appealing. These improvements help us really like the characters and understand where they’re coming from.

The premise for the Flash and Cyborg mainly – since the presence of those two characters were mainly dull and somewhat boring in the theatrical version – really bring forth everything that’s human and strong about them. Mainly, Cyborg feels like a well-rounded person in this movie, and for the first time, you see what he thinks and understand more of his family background (Joe Morton and Karen Bryson). Bunnag said, “And it's frankly stunning how engaging Barry Allen/The Flash is here compared to the bland iteration in the theatrical cut.” Allen struggles to find a direction in life and keep his promise he gave to his father, played by Billy Crudup. Now the film pieces the character together from his decision to help the heroes to accepting his responsibility to use his powers for good. Steppenwolf is also more a well-done villain in this version. There’s more clearness to his motivations, which include his duty and loyalty to Darkseid.

Zack Snyder’s Justice League also nicely gives us more background on the three Mother Boxes, which was never explained in the theatrical version. When we look at the Marvel Cinematic Universe and how they have released so many main and solo movies over the years to go into so much detail on each of the Infinity Stones, we see the DC Extended Universe never had a chance like that before. Now, thanks to the extended version, there’s more than enough time to let viewers know more about the Mother Boxes. Bunnag ended his review by saying, “Ultimately, Zack Snyder's Justice League is definitely a surprise vindication for the director and really saves the movie from the dustbin of history. With its improved stories, better realised protagonists and antagonists, I believe that it should resonate with fans better than ever.”

We also get appearances from other famous DC characters, like Jeremy Irons as Alfred, J.K. Simmons as James Gordon, Jesse Eisenberg as Lex Luthor, Amy Adams as Lois Lane, Diane Lane as Martha Kent, Amber Heard as Mera, Willem Dafoe as Nuidis Vulko, Kiersey Clemons as Iris West, Joe Manganiello as Deathstroke, and even Harry Lennix makes a surprise appearance as Martin Manhunter. We even hear the voices of Carla Gugino as the A.I. on the Krypton ship, Russell Crowe and Kevin Costner as Clark Kent/Kal-El’s fathers.

 For those who did not really get into the theatrical version, check out the Snyder cut. There are still some problems, it doesn’t resolve all the issues from the theatrical version, but they do improve on those mistakes. Snyder’s direction and characterization are better, but he just can’t do Superman justice. That’s a major complaint that I can understand where people come from when they say that. However, seeing how this is a long film, which it in pieces, since you can watch it on HBO Max, if you have an account. Still, you should see this because it is a great film and another one of my favorite comic book films. I didn’t mind the theatrical version like a lot of people did, since I missed some of those comedic moments that were in the theatrical version, but the Snyder version was worth it in the end.

Thank you for joining in on today’s review, stay tuned tomorrow for the continuation of “The Addams Family Month.”

Addams Family Reunion

Now we have come to the worst of the franchise, “Addams Family Reunion,” released on TV in 1998. Gomez’s parents (Kevin McCarthy and Estelle Harris) come to stay but he (Tim Curry) is shocked to find they are suffering from Waltzheimers, which is making them act like normal old people. Gomez goes to find other Addams family members and sees that a reunion is being held. He goes to the reunion to try to get his relative Dr. Philip Adams, played by Ed Begley, Jr. (famous for TV shows “St. Elsewhere” and “Living with Ed”), to help cure his parents but the other Addamses are only interested in getting their share of the family patriarch’s will. There Puglsey (Jerry Messing) falls in love (Hilary Duff’s older sister, Haylie Duff, who you might remember from shows “7^th Heaven” and “Lizzie McGuire”). Meanwhile, Philip’s brother and sister-in-law (Rodger Halston and Heidi Lenhart) are heading for the reunion and end up at the Addams Family mansion accidentally.

The preview two theatrical movies “The Addams Family” and “Addams Family Values” were big hits. The film series would probably have continued with other sequels except that Raul Julia died in 1994. Despite this not being a big deal to Hollywood commercial people, it was ultimately decided to discontinue the “Addams Family” franchise after Julia’s passing.

Paramount sold out interest to Saban Entertainment, the producers of a large amount of children’s shows like “Samurai Pizza,” “Mighty Morphin Power Rangers,” “Digimon,” and the “Casper” sequels. Saban produced a low-budget and terrible third “Addams Family” film, which was only released to video. The only person to return from any of the other films were Carel Struycken as Lurch and Christopher Hart’s hand as Thing. Following this, Saban produced the live-action TV show “The New Addams Family,” which apparently people hated, but I only saw little bits of it. Apparently, Nicole Fugere was the only cast member from this film that returned for the show to reprise the role of Wednesday.

Moria said in her review, “The first two Addams Family films have a delightfully droll touch – all arch mock Goth with a dash of macabre black humour but nothing too serious. Alas, by the point of Addams Family Reunion, director Barry Sonnenfeld was no longer aboard and all the arch Goth purring, all the writhing in delight at suffering, the encouraging of the children to torture better, not only falls heavily but seems to only be slavishly treading in the other films’ footsteps. All the arch wit is reduced to cartoon pratfalls, which are pitched at a shrill juvenile level – the torture of the straights who end up in the house, the banquet scenes and especially the persecution of a postman in the opening scenes hit an agonising excess. Tim Curry is not Raul Julia but his fruity acting style is well suited to the part of Gomez. However, the rest of the cast, especially Nicole Fugere’s Wednesday, seem pale shadows of their cinematic counterparts.” Especially Daryl Hannah as Morticia, Pat Thomas as Uncle Fester, and Alice Ghostley.

As can guessed, there is the sense of something worthwhile to “Addams Family Reunion.” There is the funny idea of Gomez’s parents coming to visit and developing Waltzheimers, an elderly condition that starts making them behave normally, dressing as old people, watching sports on TV and mowing the lawns, all to the Addams’ shocked dismay. There are so many plot points introduced – the reunion, Pugsley’s girlfriend – and if anyone can see them as passed by Raul Julia, Anjelica Huston, Christina Ricci and the rest and directed by Barry Sonnenfeld, this could have made a nice third “Addams Family” movie.

Moria said, “The film also takes up where Addams Family Values left off in seeing the Addams’ Goth kinkiness as harmless and normal and conservative WASP values as anathema.” This film goes even further and climaxes with the ‘normals’ being tortured – many electrocuted, hung and beaten in their own house, even having an atomic bomb detonated on them.

The Addams Family were not shown for so many years until the revived animated films “The Addams Family” and “Addams Family 2,” which we will be looking at later in the month.

As everyone can predict, this film is a poor man’s version of the Addams Family. Even though I never really grew up watching any of the shows and other specials they were in, I was very familiar with them. If you like the Addams Family, do yourself a favor and never watch this TV movie. It is so poorly made, and you can tell it’s a product of the 90s. You will really loathe this film entirely.

Now that we have finally got that piece of trash out of the way, look out next week when I look at the animated films in “Addams Family Month.”

Addams Family Values

“Isn’t he a lady killer!” the beautiful young nanny says when she first meets Fester, the long-lost brother in the Addams Family.

“Acquitted,” Gomez corrects.

We are back again in the insane house of the Addams family, who find comfort in fighting, cheer in sadness, pride in boasting that their little son has been given probation. They live in a onejoke universe, arrived at by accepting the mirror images of all respectable values. Roger Ebert admitted in his review, “But the good news is, this time I found the joke funnier than in the original "The Addams Family" (1991).”

It’s the rare sequel that is better than the first one, and yet “Addams Family Values” is one of them. Nothing much appears to have changed. The actors are about the same, the director is still Barry Sonnenfeld, the Addams house still towers above a horrible upland, next to a graveyard. Ebert admitted, “Maybe I liked it more than the original because I was in a different mood? Perhaps, knowing I was going to see twee little MacAulay Culkin in "The Nutcracker" right after seeing this film, I was in the mood for macabre bad taste? Or perhaps the screenplay, by Paul Rudnick, contains more invention than the 1991 effort.” “Addams Family Values” involves not one but three subplots, all of them funny and one of them (about the birth of a new baby boy) the source of one great joke after another. “I’m going to have a baby,” Morticia (Anjelica Huston) tells Gomez (Raul Julia). “Right now.” In an unavoidable twist on the usual movie childbirth scene, she’s in pain in the delivery room – and loving every moment of it.

The newborn son, named Pubert, played by Kaitlyn and Kristen Hooper, sure does look like his dad. Even to the pencil mustache. “He has my father’s eyes,” Gomez murmurs. “Take them out of the baby’s mouth!” Morticia demands. The older Addams children, Wednesday (Christina Ricci) and Pugsley (Jimmy Workman), are completely jealous, and even try to decapitate the baby on the guillotine that is conveniently in the baseman.

The demand for a nanny is clearly required, and the family hires Debbie Jelinsky, played by Joan Cusack, who arrives in a low-cut outfit, and takes the job. Nothing in the house seems to bother her, not even the unexpected arrival of Thing (Christopher Hart), a disembodied hand that jumps on her shoulder. She’s not worried: “I’m good with my hands.” Debbie is revealed to have her eye on the gullible Fester, reprised by Christopher Lloyd, the long-lost Addams brother whose reappearance gave most of the story in the first movie. After all, he is one of the richest men in the world, along with maybe being the ugliest. Trying to get the older children out of the way, she convinces Morticia and Gomez to send them to summer camp, where they do not, it goes without say, fit right in. Then Wednesday meets her first boyfriend, played by David Krumholtz, and there is little doubt they were, evidently, made for one another.

What is most charming about “Addams Family Values” is the way the relationship between Gomez and Morticia has strengthened. Raul Julia and Anjelica Huston are given a lot of one-liners and payoff quips, obviously, but what’s funny is what comes in between – the real love where they embrace each other, and the way they enjoy their unspeakable lifestyle. Speaking English is not enough to reveal how they feel. They start speaking French and Spanish, the languages of romance, to reflect the happiness they feel, living at the center of a nightmare.

Joan Cusack, a natural comedian, makes a good addition to the cast. “I just adore little babies,” she says, looking at Pubert. “I just want to grab them and squeeze them until there’s not a breath left in their tiny little bodies.” Her attempts to attract Fester away from the family tomb and into a more comfortable lifestyle led to one of Huston’s great lines, when she visits Fester’s new place. She doesn’t mind that he is miserable and unhappy, the prisoner of a gold-digging jerk, but… “the décor, Fester! Pastel?” Ebert admitted, “Of the previous film, I said, probably unfairly, that it so closely resembled Charles Addams' original New Yorker cartoons that the art direction must have been a cut-and-paste job. Looking more thoughtfully at "Addams Family Values," I no longer agree.” Addams in his cartoons made one of the most easily recognizable imaginary worlds of the century, but the achievement of this film is to make it solid, to put the family in a physical setting where their chilling lifestyle seems almost right.

I guess this might be better than the first one, but I think both films are good in their own way. I think I might like them just the same, even though people might say this is better. The highlight of the film is the Thanksgiving play at the summer camp. If you saw the first film and liked it, or may not have liked it all that much, the sequel will satisfy everyone across the board. Check it out because you will love it, I promise.

Sadly, there was a direct-to-video sequel that was made. Do you want to know how that was? Check in next week when we look at how horrible that was in “Addams Family Month.”

Venom: Let There Be Carnage

For the first time in over a year, I went to the theaters today with a friend and checked out “Venom: Let There Be Carnage,” which came out yesterday. How is this compared to the first one? Let’s find out:

The difficulty of the pairing is done. Now that the strange friendship between disgraced journalist Eddie Brock, reprised by Tom Hardy, and disgraced alien Venom have put everything behind them, sharing appears to be more difficult than either one thought. Throw in a strange creation of a symbiote, and “Venom: Let There Be Carnage” ends up being a violent, messy, but entertaining fight through couples therapy for the duo.

Eddie’s career is slowly being fixed thanks to his super-strong symbiote, which helps him solve a decades-old case involving serial killer Cletus Kasady, played by Woody Harrelson. Meagan Navarro said in her review, “But Eddie cramps Venom’s style and the two have commitment issues that breed constant bickering, eventually building to domestic violence. It leaves both vulnerable when Kasady escapes death row after transforming into Carnage.” Kasady first goes to free his lost love Shriek, played by Naomie Harris, from her secluded cell before going to his search for revenge.

Navarro noted, “Written by Kelly Marcel (Cruella, Fifty Shades of Grey) from a story by Hardy, Let There Be Carnage leans in hard to the odd couple schtick from the previous entry. Nearly everything else falls to the background or wayside; this is a rom-com in disguise. Eddie and Brock quarrel, break up and must learn to overcome their differences once the child they’ve unwittingly birthed turns out to be a homicidal maniac with daddy issues.” Eddie always had difficulty with relationships, but for the right symbiote and help from his ex-fiancé Anne (Michelle Williams) and her fiancé (Reid Scott), Eddie finds personal growth in the madness.

Director Andy Serkis takes the ball, runs with it, and doesn’t stop for the fast 90-minute runtime. It’s the right runtime for this comic book adaptation, but it does get messy. Navarro noted, “Let There Be Carnage winds up feeling more like an abridged version of Carnage and Venom’s long-awaited cinematic confrontation, with chunks of story excised to get to the action.” Shriek really gets the shaft. Harris tries to insert wild, crazy energy into the character, but there’s nothing in the script for her to hold on to. Shriek ends up downgraded to plot device meant to showcase how three’s a crowd in her failed love. She does have a grudge against the officer, played by Stephen Graham, that put her in the secluded cell, but that also gets looked over. Shriek’s inclusion ends up not being utilized at all.

The PG-13 rating does lighten the action a little. Carnage ends up with most of the kills, Venom to a much smaller point, but it’s never as satisfying as we expect. Navarro noted, “Serkis attempts to circumvent the limitations with many explosions or quick cuts, but it’s difficult not to miss the lost potential. A mid-credit scene serves as a requisite tease but also possibly explains the reduced rating.” My thinking is that there will be something in the new Spider-Man movie that will be coming out close to the holidays.

Comic book fans wanting this to be a fight that they have been expecting for news will most likely be unsatisfied. It’s a fast and violent fight that ends neatly. Navarro noted, “For those connected with the quirky bond between Eddie and Venom, the sequel dedicates its entire identity to that aspect. It’s a sloppy entry in superhero fare, but it’s hard not to be charmed by Venom attempting to cheer up his host with a lavish breakfast and pep talks. Or a dose of self-love and acceptance in the form of a confessional mic drop at a costume party.” If you’re looking for some comedy entertainment, this sequel really brings that. However, for a long-awaited fight between the two famous symbiotes, it leaves empty.

I probably will think that this movie is not as good as the first one, but I still liked it. If you enjoyed the first movie and are looking for the sequel to continue what the first one succeeded at, the sequel might have succeeded at that. Still, it’s not a good comic book adaptation, but a decent, fun one. Check it out in the theaters if you want to, but stay safe if you go.

Thank you for joining in on tonight’s review. Next Friday, I will be looking at the first sequel in “Addams Family Month.”

The Addams Family (1991)

Welcome everyone to another “Halloween Month,” where once again, I will only be posting reviews every Friday unless I watch another Halloween related movie and want to review that this month. This year I would like to keep the lighthearted, funny Halloween movies, so this year I will be looking at “The Addams Family” franchise. I knew of them since I was a kid, and I remember watching glimpses of their live action show from the 90s that DiC produced, if I remember correctly. However, let’s look at their very first film from 1991, “The Addams Family.”

James Kendrick started his review by saying, “The opening of Barry Sonnenfeld’s The Addams Family recreates in morbidly humorous, loving detail one of Charles Addams’s most famous New Yorker cartoons, in which the titular family perches atop their decrepit mansion, preparing to pour a cauldron of boiling oil on a group of beaming Christmas carolers. It’s exactly the kind of delightful, misanthropic black comedy that made Addams’s cartoon creations so famous, leading to numerous adaptations in other media, most famously the 1960s television series that introduced not only the instantly iconic, snappy theme music, but also gave the characters their names (they went nameless in Addams’s comic panels).”

When Barry Sonnenfeld’s film came out in 1991, the Addams Family had been not been seen for quite some time, with no appearances on film or television over the course of a decade and a half (the last large Addams film was a 1977 television reunion movie “Halloween With the New Addams Family”). So their re-appearance at the end of the Reagan/Bush presidency felt like a really bad type of sad fun, given an extra amount of energy by the perfect casting of the late Raul Julia as the wide-eyed, highly, enthusiastic head of the family Gomez Addams, the agile, sharp Anjelica Huston as his majestic wife Morticia, Christopher Lloyd as the sneering, powdered-white Uncle Fester, and Christina Ricci (then unknown) and Jimmy Workman as Wednesday and Pugsley, the family’s preteen children whose idea of fun and games involves electric chairs and guillotines.

Kendrick noted, “Sonnenfeld, who was making his feature-directing debut after a decade-long career as an ace cinematographer, primarily for Joel and Ethan Coen’s early films, turned out to have a perfectly attuned sensibility, as he captures the family’s droll humor with just the right mixture of morbidity and genuine care; he gets the idea of the American Gothic-gone-humorous.” Many of the laughs in “The Addams Family” is around the way the family’s value system reflects the traditional American family while at the same time upsetting everything it is about. Love is still love in the “Addams Family” world, but normal is not normal. Hence, Gomez is sure to be supportive and free of Pugsley’s achievements, even when said achievement involves stealing stop signs to cause car accidents. Similarly, Gomez and Morticia’s strong romance and passion for each other should be put on a type of pedestal to long-married couples that the love will never die but will grow stronger as the years go by. Kendrick said, “The fact that Gomez’s terms of endearment and ribald passion for his wife saunters happily into the realm of gleeful caricature only makes it that much more enjoyable (Julia, a veteran of the stage, knows how to really ham it up).”

Obviously, there must be a story in the film to follow all the jokes, and screenwriters (and Tim Burton collaborators) Caroline Thompson and Larry Wilson come up with a plan involving a devious fake psychologist named Dr. Greta Pinder-Schloss (Elizabeth Wilson) passing off her son Gordon (Lloyd) as Uncle Fester, who in this movie has been missing for years. It’s all a scheme to steal the upper-class Addams family’s large wealth, and Gomez is so relieved of his long-lost brother’s return that he is not able to recognize what is happening right in front of him. Obviously, there is always so much going on in the dark halls of the Addams house, whether it be Granny (Judith Malina) cooking up a witch’s brew of some kind or the hand known as Thing (Christopher Hart) running through the hallways and getting caught on one of Pugsley’s skates. Kendrick ending his review by saying, “Pugsley and Wednesday pretty much steal the show every time they’re on screen, although they function as little more than interstitial punchlines to break up the action (when Pugsley asks what game they are playing as Wednesday straps him into an old electric chair, she answers in perfectly deadpan fashion, “It’s called ‘Is There a God?’” It is in such moments that we recognize how these characters initially grew out of one-panel comics, and most of the best material in The Addams Family oscillates between such one-off jokes and a—dare I say it?—endearing affection for this misfit family, whose commitment to their own offbeat existence is a grand achievement to which we should all strive.”

If you haven’t seen this film, and you have/have not seen anything Addams Family related, or are familiar with them, see it. You will love the lighthearted comedy that fits will for the month of Halloween. How can you not be singing/humming the theme song to “Addams Family” during the month of Halloween? It’s one of the most famous theme songs ever. Still, this is a must because it is a classic that everyone should see. Check it out and have an enjoyable time.

How is the sequel to this film, you ask? Stay tuned next week to find out in “The Addams Family Month.”