The Addams Family

Paramount Pictures | Release Date: November 22, 1991

CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION

57	METASCORE Mixed or average reviews based on 19 Critic Reviews

Positive:

Mixed:

Negative:

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Critic Reviews

Critic score Publication By date

EmpireAngie Errigo

Deliciously sick and delightfully cast. Read full review

Janet Maslin

The film's aimlessness and repetitiveness eventually become draining. And its small touches often work better than its more elaborate ones, like an extended party sequence that seems awkward and largely unnecessary. Read full review

Cathleen McGuigan

The plot is lame; the jokes are often broad, though if you have a weakness for dumb humor -- or you're under 10 years old -- you'll find them hilarious. [25 Nov 1991, p.56]

Owen Gleiberman

It might have helped had the film included a few more representatives of the straight world. As it is, there’s almost nothing for the family to play off. We’re shut up in that mansion right along with them, and the kookiness grows fatally quaint. Read full review

Roger Ebert

This is the kind of film that isn't as much fun to see as it is to hear about. Read full review

Time Out LondonStaff (Not Credited)

Barry Sonnenfeld setting a cracking pace in his directorial debut, but suggesting that Tim Burton might have given the film the edge it lacks. Ooky the Addamses may be, subversive they ain't; it plays like a paean to the nuclear family. Read full review

Clifford Terry

The Addams Family doesn't deliver. After a while the ghoulish one-liners and macabre sight gags grow repetitive - the sadistic/masochistic interplay between Morticia and Gomez particularly grows weary - as too much of the humor comes off like unbridled Late Mel Brooks. [22 Nov 1991, p.B]

Hal Lipper

It's all art direction and no content. There's nothing for Morticia and Gomez to do. [22 Nov 1991, p.7]

Jay Scott

The humour is based entirely on inversion which worked in your cartoons, and even on the TV show, but it's not enough to hold up a movie, even with the helping hand provided by a disembodied hand. [22 Nov 1991]

Staff (Not Credited)

Despite inspired casting and nifty visual trappings, the eagerly awaited Addams Family figures as a major disappointment. First-time director Barry Sonnenfeld never really gets past the skeletal plot, which plays like a collection of sitcom one-liners augmented by feature-film special effects. Read full review