Lemony Snicket - post when you see it

[TNPihl]

Distributor: Paramount Pictures
Cast: Jim Carrey, Meryl Streep, Jude Law, Emily Browning and Liam Aiken
Opening Day: December 17th, 2004

Tell how the movie was, did you like it or not? (don't link to reviews on other sites)

[WesleyIsMe]

I was lucky enough to go a special screening of Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events yesterday morning!


Violet, Klaus, and Sunny are three children turned orphans when their parents are killed in a house fire. The family fortune then is passed on to Violet, but won't be accessible for her to use for four more years, when she turns 18. The orphans are turned over to their closest relative, Count Olaf (Jim Carrey), but Olaf is obsessed with getting their fortune and plans various schemes to do so. The movie, based on the first three books of A Series of Unfortunate Events, is done somewhat out of order in the film. The second book, Reptile Room and Carrey's character of Stephano are barely in the film as much as I felt they should have been. The ending of the movie finishes with the ending of book number one, and while it worked, I would have liked to see more of the detailed stuff in the book happen on the screen as well. If you've read the books, you know that the orphans go to Justice Strauss' house to find cookbooks to make Olaf and his acting troupe dinner. That is not the case in the movie, they skip that part and just go straight to dinner. The story is told though, with Jude Law playing Lemony Snicket, and it does produce quite a few chuckles despite so many unfortunate things. I guess the only unfortunate thing for me is that there wasn't more. Also stars Merryl Streep as Aunt Josephine and Cedric the Entertainer…and cameo from Dustin Hoffman!

I believe the film has a good chance at being nominated for a costume and/or makeup Academy Award as they are quite stunning in this film.

Taking away my Jim Carrey movie bias, I'd say this is still a good film but not great.

[kkvillegas13]

god that makes me mad that they did not go in the right order and they took out a lot of things, well I am seeing it on Friday, i already bought the tickets

[DarvonAlmighty]

thanks for the review wesley

[mrsjec17]

I work at a movie theater and I stayed after work tonight and screened it. In fact I just got home from seeing it.

It is great! The special effects and scenery are amazing. Jim is incredible as always. He is somehow able to make Count Olaf likeable even though he is a terrible person. It was not as funny as I thought it would be, don't get me wrong it has its moments, but overall I would say that it is a rather dark film. There are some scary moments and I would not reccomend taking young children because they might be frightened. It's not really any darker than the Harry Potter movies though but then again, I didn't think those were appropriate for really young children either.

The movie does go out of order from the books as Wes said. The first book is kind of scattered at the beginning and at the end. I'm not sure why they did it that way, but I think it still worked. Fans of the book may be disappointed by this though, well have to wait and see. I personally didn't have a problem with it.

Also, since the movie is only two hours they had to rush rather quickly through all three books. The good thing about this is that it's fast paced and never gets boring. But the bad thing is that at times it feels a little too rushed, and as a fan of the books, I would have liked to seen more from both The Reptile Room and The Wide Window. But I realize that it is rather difficult to squeeze all that in in only two hours. For the most part though it sticks to the books, except for it going out of order a little bit. And one other thing, where were Klaus' glasses?

Overall, three characters stood out in this movie for me. Jim of course, Aunt Josephine played brilliantly by Meryl Streep, and adorable Sunny. That baby steals every scene she is in. The twins that played her are adorable and the little captions that you have to read to understand her language are hilarious. Honerable mentions go to Liam and Emily. They are great at portraying Klaus and Violet. And yes, Dustin Hoffman does appear and he provides a very funny line that is sure to make you laugh.

I loved the movie, but it wasn't in my opinion Jim's best movie. (I still have a soft spot for Bruce Almighty.) It is however very entertaining and worth your time and money. I think that fans of the books will still be pleased and Jim fans definately will be pleased. He is just amazing as Count Olaf. Congrats to Jim on another job well done. For such a great guy he sure plays evil well. Go on Friday and see for yourself, you will not be disappointed. I can't wait to see it again!

Melanie

[samurai_cable]

I saw it TODAY~! I AM SO HAPPY!! I thought I was going to miss the first 10 minutes or so cause I was running late..... my boss let me off late.... but I managed to make it in time!!!

I absolutely enjoyed this movie~ True that things were a bit rushed and out of order, but I think it worked. They sort of changed to ending, but I thought it was cool

Being a fan of the books, I think they did very well with interpretating and linking together. I really really liked the start of it I remember reading about the Littlest Elf....

Klaus did have his glasses by the way... he takes them out only when he needs to read. I think they didn't follow the book's design of Klaus because it would be much too like Harry Potter. Their glasses are the same round black rimmed ones.

I really adored Sunny (Kara and Shelby Hoffman); they are sooooo cute!! They sort of skipped the part when the Baudelaires had to figure out a way to get a boat, and there was also a lot of other stuff... Violet's inventions are very very well planned and realistic, as in it's exactly as I imagined them in the books.

And Jim?

He was brilliant I agree that there should have been more Stephano and Captain Sham.... Captain Sham was the least seen......... they also cut out bits which I saw in some clips online, some of which I would have loved to see on screen. For example, the one where Count Olaf recites a famous paragraph from Shakespeare's "Macbeth" ... I really liked that part. I hope I'll be able to see it on the dvd

I really really really really liked how Jim portrays Count Olaf........ I also really love his suit... it really does give him the skinny and arched look...

Emily Browning and Liam Aiken were both very good Violet and Klaus are so very cool... Both their performances were terrific!! Emily made me cry at one point... hehe...

I feel so good to have got to watch it the day it came out I hope everyone enjoys it when they see it!

[WesleyIsMe]

the whole Stephano scene about the tattoo...and then him running away when he sees Sunny next to the Worlds Deadliest Viper....was absurd to me. They should have developed the uncovering that it was really Count Olaf a little more. Stephano was such a good character...but was barely in the movie compared to the books....

oh well....

[psychicmuse2]

I've got tickets to see it tonight.

I'll let you know how it is. I'm taking my daughter who has EVERY single one of those books (or will after christmas, I bought her the remaining few she doesn't have).

My sister gave her a book and she's been into them ever since.

She is so excited to see it tonight.

[DarvonAlmighty]

hi everyone,

I went to see one of the first showings of Lemony Snicket's a series of Unfortunate Events, Yeah I know, LONG TITLE, but it's a GREAT movie.

I don't know if you've ever read the books, but to let you know, I have not. I seen the movie, and I think it is wonderful. Jim Carrey is funny as always, and the kids actors, in fact all the actors were wonderful.

The dressing in this movie was incredible. There are cameos in this movie such as Dustin Hoffman and Cedric the Entertainer.

The movie is about 3 orphans who's parents die in a house fire. The 3 children are then taken to their closest relative "Count Olaf" (Jim Carrey) who is just a little mean which leads into A Series of Unfortunate Events.

Jim Carrey plays as 3 different charactors as Count Alof tries to inherit the money that the children are given, by their parents. It is suppose to be for voilet, but it isn't hers till she is 18.

The baby, Sunny also gives you a lot of giggles.... she speaks babyish, but in the movie, it means intellagent (sp?) sentances.

Anyway, about the movie, I think it is really great. In my opinion I think it's great for children to see, but there is a scary part in there that you might jump! I did! :lol

If ya love Jim Carrey, if ya like Fantasy writings/stories,

This is the movie to see!

I give it 3 1/2 Stars! Only because of the fact that it didn't go according to the books, as planned, as I have read from other reviews.

I may go see it again, since I love Jim Carrey so much. :lol

[cotton]

It was really good. My 6 year old even enjoyed it. She already asked for the dvd!

[JimCarreyschick]

I just got home from Famous Players in Mississauga Ontario Canada where I live and I so loved Jim Carrey in Lemony Snicket and I really enjoyed watching it. I can't wait until it comes out on vhs and dvd and there were a lot of people in the theatre too and a few babies as well which was cute and the baby in the movie was very cute too! I loved the movie in general and I can't wait to watch it again and again and again!

Jen Carrey!

[kkvillegas13]

I just got back from seeing it, WOW, it was GREAT!!! I had a lot of fun, but I was upset at the fact that it did NOT follow the books at all they covered the little details, but not what makes the books so great. BUT I LOVED THAT MOVIE, Jim WAS GREAT!!!!

[FutureStar1977]

Warning: Not really any detailed spoilers, but please read entire review before reacting. In the way this review starts out, someone may jump to conclusions WAY too quickly.


I have read how some critics have been saying that Jim clowns, tries to "steal" scenes, and he is over the top at times in this film.

Well, I just got back from seeing the film and I think what they are saying may make sense when they talk about how he clowns and is overly dramatic. Don't throw the stones at me yet!! Hear me out! This is a good review I am writing here!

I think Jim was fabulous in this film! I think he got the character of Count Olaf down to a tee. So you are probably wondering why I would understand what the critics have been saying...Well....

Think about it. If you have read the books, which I have, you all know that Count Olaf is overly dramatic, is an scene stealing actor with a theater troupe, and Olaf is known for being a bad actor, though he does try to be a good one. Well, Jim did just that. He nailed the character of Count Olaf just right.

Yes, Jim was over-dramatic at times. Well, he is playing the character of Olaf, who would be over dramatic, riiiiight? So I stick my tounge out at those critics who said that Jim's performance was over-dramatic.

Jim's character was supposed to be that way! Obviously some of these so called critics did not finish their research for reviewing this movie. If any of them had taken the time to read the books the movie was based on instead of just taking the short cut and watching the film, they would know that Jim's character is supposed to be over-dramatic, supposed to try and steal attention, and is supposed to play at being a bad actor.

In essense, this makes Jim a wonderful actor because he got down the character of Olaf just right.

I hope what I am saying makes sense here. LOL

As for rest of the cast, Meryl Streep was so funny and fabulous, and Sunny had some one liners that I simply loved.

The costumes, scenery, and lines were right up my alley.

The only thing that I found distracting was that some of the order of events were not there or in the right order. But if I had not read the books first, I would have never noticed that anything was out of place.

Some critics have also given the movie a hard time because they say there is "scary" stuff in the film. Okaaaayyy...Maybe I am just too old to be scared of this movie, but I do not believe that there was any scary stuff at all. Sure, Count Olaf kills some people and tries to kill the orphans. But when someone did die, notice how they never showed the dead bodies and noice how they never showed the murder actually happen? I think they handled that very well. So once again, I stick my tounge out at those critics.

Overall, I give this film an A+, five stars, two thumbs up, or whatever you want to call it. I think it was wonderful and very well done.

Of course, I give Jim the highest grade possible because I think he nailed his character down perfect.

The People's Critic,
Marissa

[JenniferSal]

**Warning, not very detailed spoilers might be below**
Hi! I'm new to posting here, but have been lurking for a while. I saw the movie yesterday, and thought it was great! I've read the first three books as well, and I figured it would be pretty close to those, so yeah of course there were some things that had me a little perplexed. But despite the order of events, I thought the movie and the performances were wonderful!

I've only read the first three books, and one thing I noticed that I thought was neat, in the third book there was only one sentence as Count Olaf ran off with the man/woman after being found out not to be Captain Sham, that he referred to being guilty of arson, and in the movie they took that one step further and showed how he truly did commit the crime. And also the setup for the 'secret society' - I bet that will be something they've done to setup for exploring in the sequels, as I believe they're hoping to make many more movies of this.

As for the acting, Jim was wonderful - yes, I thought he played Count Olaf with enough 'over the top' and scene stealing qualities, but like it's already been said, that is how Count Olaf is written! I don't think Jim went overboard at all one bit. The three children were great too, and I too especially liked the baby in the scenes the twins were in.

As far as being too scarey for kids - I didn't see it myself. And there were kids that were pretty young in the theater I was in and there was no upset or crying at any point whatsoever. My niece is 6 and a half, and I will happily take her to this movie (it also means i get to see Jim's performance again! !), to me there are movies specifically aimed at kids that are somewhat worse in ways. Yes, this has a 'dark' aspect to it, but like it was pointed out - no murder scenes or dead corpses are shown.

Alrighty, I've written enough for now. Seriously, see this movie, it's great!

Jen

[Count Olaf]

The movie was pretty good I don't think they discussed the plot enough. THey didn't explain things fully so people who didn't read the book would understand better. Jim, however had a stellar performance as per his usual. He was by far the best character in the movie acted out te best of them all