Addams Family Values 4K UHD (1993)

[James Luckard]

Originally Posted by Geoff D

Yeah, I'm not saying it ISN'T. That Blu is so unbelievably shitty that a ViewMaster version would look betterer. But there's still something really screwy going on with the 4K in itself, and I'd like to know what/why. Maybe notops' report of the print looking crummy as hell points to a deeper problem here, perhaps the OG negative was badly damaged at the time so all Paramount have left are downstream assets? Might not even be an IP from the looks of it.

I watched it last night. Maybe I missed something, I'm totally open to the fact that I might have, but it didn't feel to me like the whole movie was multiple generations away from the negative.

What I did notice was that the movie has a GARGANTUAN number of optical effects shots, more than I ever realized, and those stand out in a way they never did before. Some entire sequences are made up almost completely of optical effects shots, since "Thing," the disembodied hand, is in a lot of the movie, and any shot with him is an effects shot. All the optical effects shots were definitely fuzzier than a negative.

Also, much of the Camp Chippewa daylight material always had major problems, probably from terrible weather during filming. They adjusted it photochemically in the original movie, and it just looked terrible in a different way. I assume they adjusted it digitally here, making it look better than it's ever looked before, but still imperfect.

Beyond that, I was actually really happy with how the remaining 75% or so of the film looked. Any shots that are without effects, like closeups of faces in dialogue scenes and such, looked really nice and quite detailed.

Again though, I might have missed something, I'm totally open to that.

Can you point to some moments I should look at that seemed like they were multiple generations away from the negative?

[bebbsie23]

Just got done watching this also, and I concur with James. The first Addams Family is fresh in mind from viewing yesterday and whilst Values never quite reaches the detail/clarity levels of the first, (optical effects shots aside) it certainly appears to have more detail and clarity than the caps would indicate. It's also has significantly better clarity than the likes of Footloose and Flashdance, and notably better in respect of the encoding than other recent Paramount releases.

I don't possess sufficient knowledge about the production (other than it having a different cinematographer to the first) to take a stab at why Values has a marginally "softer" look throughout, but it quite often comes across as an inherent/intentional part of the cinematography. Regardless, I thoroughly enjoyed this rather lovely presentation of The Addams Family Values.

[Geoff D]

Originally Posted by James Luckard

I watched it last night. Maybe I missed something, I'm totally open to the fact that I might have, but it didn't feel to me like the whole movie was multiple generations away from the negative.

What I did notice was that the movie has a GARGANTUAN number of optical effects shots, more than I ever realized, and those stand out in a way they never did before. Some entire sequences are made up almost completely of optical effects shots, since "Thing," the disembodied hand, is in a lot of the movie, and any shot with him is an effects shot. All the optical effects shots were definitely fuzzier than a negative.

Also, much of the Camp Chippewa daylight material always had major problems, probably from terrible weather during filming. They adjusted it photochemically in the original movie, and it just looked terrible in a different way. I assume they adjusted it digitally here, making it look better than it's ever looked before, but still imperfect.

Beyond that, I was actually really happy with how the remaining 75% or so of the film looked. Any shots that are without effects, like closeups of faces in dialogue scenes and such, looked really nice and quite detailed.

Again though, I might have missed something, I'm totally open to that.

Can you point to some moments I should look at that seemed like they were multiple generations away from the negative?

All the caps seen so far. But if it looks good elsewhere then fair enough.

[James Luckard]

Originally Posted by Geoff D

All the caps seen so far. But if it looks good elsewhere then fair enough.

Ah, gotcha, thought you had seen the disc already.

I totally respect your opinion here, I know you have a more keen eye for some of these things, so I look forward to hearing your report when you have the disc. It's truly possible I'm missing something.

That said, the film has an absolutely MINDBLOWING number of optical effects shots, I had forgotten how many. They look dupey, of course, but the non-effects, non-Camp Chippewa material looked pretty great to me. That could also be because the old home video versions looked so absolutely hideous, however, haha.

[James Luckard]

Also, I had forgotten they brought on the great Ken Adam, of James Bond fame, to do the production design on the second film. I listened to the first ten minutes or so of the commentary, and Sonnenfeld says they threw out all the design work from the first film and Adam was allowed to design the house anew, from scratch. His work here is spectacular, and it's funny that he stayed with producer Scott Rudin and writer Paul Rudnick for their next film, In & Out, which I also just rewatched on the new UHD.

Sonnenfeld says the film's titles were done by the man who did Dr. Strangelove, which Sonnenfeld calls his favorite film, so I assume he chose Adam because he also worked on that film.

[jmorrow5]

Originally Posted by bebbsie23

Just got done watching this also, and I concur with James. The first Addams Family is fresh in mind from viewing yesterday and whilst Values never quite reaches the detail/clarity levels of the first, (optical effects shots aside) it certainly appears to have more detail and clarity than the caps would indicate. It's also has significantly better clarity than the likes of Footloose and Flashdance, and notably better in respect of the encoding than other recent Paramount releases.

I don't possess sufficient knowledge about the production (other than it having a different cinematographer to the first) to take a stab at why Values has a marginally "softer" look throughout, but it quite often comes across as an inherent/intentional part of the cinematography. Regardless, I thoroughly enjoyed this rather lovely presentation of The Addams Family Values.

I think you did just take a reasonable stab at it. Maybe the different cinematographer explains it and maybe different film stock was used between the two. I'm really not sure, but it's pretty clear that this one is missing some of the texture that its predecessor has. I just wanted to help temper your expectations since you were coming in hot off the first film, which I'd consider one of the best looking 4K discs we've ever received from Paramount.

Side note: While the first one is prettier, Values is a lot more fun IMO.

[notops]

Man, Amazon is all over the map on this one. First it was on time, then it was delayed to November 4. Now it shipped out today. If you ordered from Amazon and it got delayed, check your updates. You might be in for a nice surprise.

[Jlouisbarrett]

Got mine with slipcover on Tuesday. Ordered from Target on day 3 of the B2G1 sale.

[maverick22]

Originally Posted by Ant1010

one of the rare cases where the sequel blows away the original

I hope so because I watched the first one last night and am close to sending it to the “sell” pile. Not due to PQ (looks great) - just didn’t enjoy the movie as much as I had hoped.

If Values is that much better, I’ll gladly keep both. Hope to watch Values in the next few days.

[bradnoyes]

I watched this a few nights ago and agree with what most have posted. This is a vastly superior film compared to the original but the PQ can't compare. That said, I still think it looks fine. Not a bottom-tier disc or anything. Just a decent presentation.

[jmorrow5]

Originally Posted by maverick22

I hope so because I watched the first one last night and am close to sending it to the “sell” pile. Not due to PQ (looks great) - just didn’t enjoy the movie as much as I had hoped.

If Values is that much better, I’ll gladly keep both. Hope to watch Values in the next few days.

I've been meaning to ask someone this, so since you mentioned your "sell" pile, what's your preferred platform for physical media resale? I used to bring stuff to a local buy/sell/trade shop, but the offers are so low these days that it makes more sense to just throw things in storage and save myself the time & fuel consumption.

[Brian81]

Does this appear to have been done by the good or bad Paramount team?

[Matt89]

Originally Posted by maverick22

I hope so because I watched the first one last night and am close to sending it to the “sell” pile. Not due to PQ (looks great) - just didn’t enjoy the movie as much as I had hoped.

If Values is that much better, I’ll gladly keep both. Hope to watch Values in the next few days.

Yeah I've also never been much a fan of the original, and it's pretty widely accepted that Addams Family Values is better than the first film.

[Monstar]

Wild. I pre-ordered the movie from Amazon and it arrived on time without any hint of delays. Maybe because I pre-ordred it as it was first announced....?

I'm not a slipcover guy, but this is one of the few times I'm glad I got it.

[maverick22]

Originally Posted by jmorrow5

I've been meaning to ask someone this, so since you mentioned your "sell" pile, what's your preferred platform for physical media resale? I used to bring stuff to a local buy/sell/trade shop, but the offers are so low these days that it makes more sense to just throw things in storage and save myself the time & fuel consumption.

This site and eBay.

More and more though, I get concerned with eBay customers and eBay taking the side of the customer if the slip isn’t mint, if there’s a scratch I didn’t see on the disc, if a disc doesn’t work well in their player, etc.

I would prefer to just sell here on this site, but there are just so many more people on eBay that see your item obviously that there’s a better chance it will sell there. I don’t like the 15% Ebay fees either though.

[GloveSlap]

Originally Posted by Monstar

Wild. I pre-ordered the movie from Amazon and it arrived on time without any hint of delays. Maybe because I pre-ordred it as it was first announced....?

I'm not a slipcover guy, but this is one of the few times I'm glad I got it.

I'm not a slip person either, but this one is definitely nice. It has original poster art, and is actually different than the purple case art underneath.

It's a shame they didn't do the same with the first. That original Addams Family poster gives me feels.

[notops]

I’m really pleased. Spotting compression issues as a weakness of mine, so I won’t speak on that. But any shots that don’t involve dissolves, fades, or Thing look fantastic. As it should be for a movie made in the early 90s.

[bebbsie23]

Originally Posted by Brian81

Does this appear to have been done by the good or bad Paramount team?

The encoding looks solid. Considerably better than some of the other recent Paramount releases.

[Dsneybuf]

Amazon sent me a message saying my copy will arrive tomorrow instead of on Monday.

[Total Procall]

Originally Posted by Monterey Jack

Personally found that to be one of her weakest performances. Stilted robotic line delivery, rushed style of line delivery too. I'm English though so perhaps the accent adds to my critique. Depp was fantastic.