The Addams family just got a little stranger with the addition of a new baby boy. However with the new arrival, Wednesday and Pugsley become isolated and try to kill little Pubert. With all this squabbling, Morticia sounds gets tired and seeks help from a nanny. After many failures, they settle on the sparky Debbie although Wednesday has her suspicions. These suspicions seem to be justified whenever Debbie convinces Morticia and Gomez to send their children away to a summer camp and then marry Uncle Fester a man so repulsive that love cannot be the reason.
Many films wheel out sequels by simply adding something to the original film; often it is a child and often it doesn't work. However with this film the child is not the focus but a plot device for bringing in a nanny who in turn splits the plot. The result is a solid plot that basically retreads the mood and humour of the original film which, for fans, is not a bad thing at all. For me I enjoy the dark world of the modern Addams family and felt that the plot did enough to be more than just the frame for it. The silly dark humour works well and it produced many laughs while also achieving a consistent humorous tone. I can understand why some people don't like it because it is the sort of thing you really need to "get" and I "got" it; also slightly more uptight parents may not like the examples set their kids in the film (but f**k 'em if they can't take a joke).
The cast are a major factor in the humour working. Although Fester is the focus of the film, Julia is still a real joy and his chemistry with Huston is really enjoyable and they make their lines work well. Lloyd is a perfect Fester and he is consistently funny. Cusack makes the most of her role and she fits in well with the tone of the film. Ricci yet again steals the film and her deadpan delivery is funny across the whole film. The support cast have lots of cameos and smaller roles and it is fun without being distracting to watch the faces including Kane, MacNicol, Pierce, Shalhoub, Lane and Sonnenfeld himself.
Overall, if you enjoyed the first film then you'll like this, and vice versa. Personally I enjoy the darkly comic tone and consistent laughs that it produced, while the good performances across the board raise the material and provide some real joys in Julia and Ricci.
