24 years later: not good

When this was relesaed in 1991 I was indifferent. I saw it with some friends, thought it was ok but nothing to write home about.

But I re-watched for the first time on Netflix a couple of nights ago and found myself severely annoyed by it.

This movie is nothing more than actors playing dress-up. There's no story -- not really, not one that anyone could care about. It isn't funny, unless your idea of funny is just recognizing references to stuff in an old tv show ("Ha ha look there's cousin It"). It's purely about putting actors in outlandish costumes on outlandish sets, mugging for the camera.

I can't imagine that Barry Sonnenfeld's direction consisted of anything more than telling the actors to make "big" faces, because, boy, does Sonnenfeld like his zoom-ins on big, show-offy, actorly expressions. "Gomez: big smile!" "Morticia: look droll!" "Fester: big smile!" "Wednesday: look droll!"

I recall that this earned points with the critics back in the day because it was "ironic." That is, I guess we're to tell from the subtle twist of Angelica Huston's lips, or Raoul Julia's wink, that they're all "in on the joke." But who cares if the joke sucks in the first place.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not being a snob here. I like popular entertainment and Hollywood fare as much as the next guy. But there's got to be some kind of story in there. I don't like this kind of thing where the sole artistic impetus is: Hey, isn't this funny to see (then) modern actors dressed up in silly, "fabulous" costumes from that weird old show?

Reminds me of the universally-despised Joel Schumacher Batman films.