Do you have the kind of sprogs who can sit quietly through 163 minutes of action? If not, your dream of taking the whole family to see No Time to Die is probably in tatters and you’re already resigning yourself to watching this computer-animated sequel.
Life is cruel, as satirist, Charles Addams, knew all too well. The latter’s wicked cartoons, first published in the 1930s, show an extended clan languidly at war with convention, and have spawned a franchise that includes the nifty, influential 60s sitcom and two classic 90s films. Alas, quality control, since then, has suffered. Real goths spurned the 2019 cartoon The Addams Family, and will no doubt do the same with round two, which is mostly bland and, though it contains endless references to scientific acumen, flouts logic at every turn.
That said, it contains the odd decent line and the cast are blameless. Oscar Isaac and Charlize Theron are spirited as Gomez and Morticia Addams, the eccentric husband and wife who, at the start of this movie, are fretting over their disdainful daughter, Wednesday (Chloe Grace Moretz). Deciding that a road trip will cure what ails her, the couple set off in a bespoke camper van, along with son, Pugsley (Javon Walton), Gomez’ brother, Fester (Nick Kroll), and servant Lurch (Conrad Vernon), but not before being approached by a sinister little man (Wallace Shawn) who claims Wednesday is a cuckoo in the nest.
Wednesday – who’s been socially distancing since birth and has a face as grave as Greta Thunberg’s – is narcissistic, sadistic and utterly adorable. At one point, she tells Morticia: “If you’re asking for my permission to take a new lover, you have it!”
Brilliant character. Shame about the film.
