I rented this movie from Netflix.com, and after watching it I wasn’t too impressed with it at all. The cast wasn’t very impressionable; their lead roles were short except for the movie’s lead actor Jim Carrey and child actors Emily Browning, Liam Aiken, and little Kara Hoffman. I did find some very enjoyable elements about this movie.
For instance, the opening scene of a short animated elf movie, that’s purposely enjoyable, and purposely designed and staged for the narrator Lemony Snicket (Jude Law) to inform the viewer that this presentation is not really a happy depiction of wonderland of elves. , But a sad story of the Baudelaire children, and their adventure of unfortunate events to come. “Lemony Snicket’s A series of Unfortunate Events” also offers a good storyline, costumes, and a delightful old English fantastical setting.
Jim Carrey makes a good attempt, and effort in his very characteristic, and animated role as a greedy uncle who sets out to steal the inheritance of rich orphans entrusted in his custody. However, the short appearances of Meryl Steep and Dustin Hoffman made no sense to me, their acting roles were very short, dry, and appeared meaningless. There are more unimpressionable short appearances by other noted actors such as Cedric the Entertainer. But what should I expect from a children’s movie. And my knowledge of the Lemony Snicket’s series of children’s books is limited; I’ve never read them.
Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events is based on the children’s book series by Daniel Handler. This movie was released in 2004, written for the screen by Robert Gordon and directed by Brad Silberling.
The running time for this movie is 1:40 minutes.
In this movie, Lemony Snicket’s narrates the story of the Bauldelaire children, and the tragic loss of their wealthy parents who die in a fire. The children are remanded to the custody of their greedy Uncle Count Olaf (Jim Carey, The Grinch 2003). Count Olaf wants the inheritance of the children, and thinks of schemes to kill them. His first scheme and attempt to kill the children on a railroad track for an on coming train to kill them fails when Emily, the oldest child, and inventor comes up with a life saving plan to derail the train. The banker in charge of placing the children in a good home catches Count Olaf abandoning the children. Count Olaf loses custody of the children.
The Baudelaire children are then sent to the home of a good uncle and reptile lover Uncle Monty. The Baudelaire children face another unfortunate event when Count Olaf comes to the house disguising himself as a reptile trainer, and kills Uncle Monty. The children are taken to their Aunt Josephine’s home (Meryl Streep, She Devil 1990) where their stay is very short and life threatening. Count Olaf has thought of another bad plan to take the children while they are stranded at sea, and kills aunt Josephine when he allows a pack of leeches to eat her alive.
Count Olaf’s scheme comes to an end when he discovers that the only way he could get the inheritance of these children is to develop a family link to them so he attempts to marry young Violet. When this plan fails Count Olaf faces the legal ramifications of his wrong doings. I stop here you’ll find out what happens next when you purchase this interesting movie.
Overall
I’ve pretty much expressed my feelings about this movie. It wasn’t impressionable. It has a good story line, animation, an excellent opening, and pretty good child actors. And that’s it. Jim Carey doesn’t to quite well in this lead role despite his animated and characteristic attempts. I liked him better in “The Grinch”, and “Bruce Almighty”. This is a bad directorial attempt by Brad Silberling. While the cast consisted of some of the most respected and noted actors such as Meryl Streep, and Dustin Hoffman their lead roles doesn’t do this movie justice. However, as I mentioned earlier, there are some good elements about this motion picture and all children watching this movie can look forward to a good animated presentation of an elf movie, some pretty good clips of animation through out the movie. And good storyline to those older children who are familiar with the book series of Lemony A Series of Unfortunate Events. Maybe some children will enjoy this movie. It’s somewhat entertaining to say the least. This movie gets three stars. Enjoy if you will.