Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events

[The Silver Bullet]

"It's Potter without magic, souped-up on psychosis and absurdity, with a more-than-liberal dash of Dickensian darkness."

MY BRIEF REVIEW.

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This is good, but it ain't no Prisoner Of Azkaban (as far as dark films based on popular childrens' book series go). Meaning: themodernage, don't get your hopes up.

***Admin (not GB) Warning: Cameo Spoilers***

The beginning is ABSOLUTELY brilliant. The first thirty minutes are wonderful. The problem is that, by that point, all the material in the first book has been covered, and it becomes obvious very quickly how the rest of the film will proceed: very episodically (each episode covering one of the three books covered in the film), with about the same drama and outcome in each episode.

It's great to look at, though, and Jim Carrey is a lot of fun (especially as Olaf). Although he's not the Olaf I pictured reading the books, he's really meancing, even though he's also really funny. However, the cast is WAY too big. They should have kept Billy Connelly, Jude Law (whose face is never seen), Meryl Streep and Timothy Spall and gone with unknowns for everyone else. Luis Guzman is in a couple of scenes, but he has not a single line of dialogue. Jennifer Coolidge and Jane Adams and Cedric The Entertainer fare pretty much the same.  And Dustin Hoffman shows up for precisely three shots.

yeah, i agree with you.  hopes were lowered and a pretty good time was had.     i loved the beginning but the lack of where the movie was going seemed to just let it wander.  which, maybe should've been good because peter pan didnt really have the strict 3 act thing going on and that was better for it, but that always felt like it was going somewhere.  this didnt feel like it had much place to get to, but loved the dark tone for kids and actors, etc. etc.

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Title: Lemony Snicket's Series of Unfortunate Events
Released: 26th April 2005
SRP: $27.95

Further Details
Paramount has sent over artwork for Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events which stars Jim Carrey, Meryl Streep and Jude Law. This popular comedic saga revolves around the travels of the three Baudelaire orphans, Sunny, Klaus and Violet who find themselves fobbed off on a series of odd people, including the narrator Lemony Snicket. The recurring bad guy is a distant family relative named Count Olaf, who initially takes in the kids but clearly is trying to separate them from a family inheritance. The disc will be available to own in seperate anamorphic widescreen and full screen releases from the 26th April this year. Paramount has yet to reveal details on extra material, but we'll let you know just as soon as we hear anything. Stay tuned for that. For now though, here's the first look at the official region one artwork: http://www.dvdanswers.com/index.php?r=0&s=1&c=5828&n=1&burl=