THE DANMAN CAN

I remember seeing the trailer for  Death Becomes Her   (1992) many times around the time it was released and I was familiar with much of the imagery, but I somehow only watched it for the first time three years ago. In 1992 I didn't know that it was made by the same director as the  Back To The Future  trilogy  (reviews  here ,  here , and  here ) and  Who Framed Roger Rabbit  (1988) ( review ). What a fun movie—so up my alley in so many ways.  Meryl Streep  and  Goldie Hawn  are perfect as catty but clever rivals,  Bruce Willis  is brilliant in the rare straight-up comedic role,  Isabella Rossellini  is deliciously wicked, and the at-the-time pioneering CG effects largely hold up really well (save a few scenes).  Dean Cundey 's cinematography is gorgeous, as usual, perfectly complimenting the gothic/Art Deco production design. The body horror in  DBH  finds director  Robert Zemeckis  at his most gruesome and unhinged (as far as PG-13 films go) and it's a joy to watch. This

"Voilà! That's when I woke up." Quentin Dupieux Feature Films Ranked

There's a sizable subset of fans that prefer 1993's  Addams Family Values  to its  predecessor  ( review ). As sequels go, it's quite good, but I still prefer the first film overall.  Barry Sonnenfeld  returned to direct and did basically as good a job as he did with 1991's  The Addams Family . I don't think  Paul Rudnick 's screenplay is as good as the first film, relying a bit too much on silly humor that goes for a big laugh rather than a sly smirk (which is more my speed).  The cast is excellent once again, given a chance to sink their teeth even further into the characters ( Christina Ricci  in particular is a delight), though I much prefer  Judith Malina  as Granny in the first film to  Carol Kane . Kane's performance isn't as good, she's not given as much screen time (thankfully), and her makeup isn't great. In fact, there are a few other scenes where the makeup and effects look a bit rushed.  Joan Cusack —the other new billing (though not