Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events (2004)

Let's be realistic.

I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

A series of unfortunate Events is a very well made, Tim Burton-esque movie, with a lot of great atmosphere and charm.The cinematography by Emmanuel Lubezki is very fitting with the tone, the movie is going for, which is kind of bleak and macabre, but also fairly funny and sometimes even hopeful...The three Budelaire children are all played by great actors, and the adult acts are on-par. Meryl Streep gives a not TOO over-the-top performance so that you are still invested in her character, Billy Connolly is the uncle everyone wishes he could have, and Jim Carrey is excellent as Count Olaf. For many years i didn't even knew it was him! (The same with Jude Law, but to be fair, he's embodiment of Lemony Snicket is always in shadows ^^)The visual Effects of this movie (which is 12 years old by now) stood the test of time incredibly well, most of the time it's not even visible if somethings real or not. There is only one effect shot which overstays it's welcome, when the little Sunny catches something with her mouth and than looks straight into the camera in full CGI. A cut a few seconds earlier would have been great, every other CG-embodiment of her character works fairly well.The soundtrack by Thomas Newman hits all the right emotional marks and the atmosphere of the film. The end track sticks in my head for weeks after i watched this.Speaking of the end track, it's heard while seeing a incredible artistic and creative fully animated end title-sequence which is marvelously great to the end, so stay for the end credits.It's all in all a fairly well made, dark, but not too dark family picture, with great performances and intense set-pieces...

I feel like this perfectly captures the ambiance of the books. The characters, the feeling, the overall haunting fog makes it magical. Jim Carrey gives one of the best performances in his career-in fact it is a marvelously star-studded cast - and the children were perfect. This has held up incredibly well and I watch it still. Even more to its credit, the show is unbearably bad and so the movie brings round the good feels again. I really feel like it's time to stop tying to re-make everything (and thus ruining it) and maybe just do a wicked sequel. I would be more comfortable watching Carrey reprise this amazing role than having it shattered and stomped on.

This film tries to adapt an infantile-juvenile story developed in several books, about the Baudelaire Orphans and the way they end up being persecuted by a distant relative, the theatrical Conde Olaf, that tries at all cost to be tutor so that he control the immense fortune that they are sole heirs. The main roles are embodied by Liam Aiken, Emily Browning and Jim Carrey but the supporting cast features Timothy Spall, Billy Connolly and Meryl Streep, among others. One of the things I noticed is that this film tells a story virtually unknown outside the universe of English literature. I've never heard of these books until I watch the movie, and even today I do not know if they're translated into Portuguese. I also got the feeling that the movie is an "unfinished work", in the sense that it was planned to end the story with a sequel that was never made.The film does not seem to make sense, but I do not know if this is intentional and already part of the books, or if it was a conscious (and bad) option of the director and the writer. The truth is that this non-sense makes it difficult to understand, mainly for adult audiences. The film also has another problem, which may also result from an intentional choice by the director: the theatrical interpretation of much of the cast. I do not know if it was meant to play with it, making it an additional joke but it turned out badly. Jim Carrey is the only one who we tolerate these exaggerations because we are already used to his hyperactive way of doing comedy. Emily Browning is the most pleasant surprise. For such a young actress, she did a very professional job, promising a good career if the young woman stayed on the rails and strive. The film bets heavily on the CGI and this ends up being a double-edged sword because, if in a way allowed another type of jokes and scenes, on the other hand it ended up visually saturating the film. One thing I liked very much, though the majority did not care, were the final credits, elaborated in a very funny way.

So-so - lacks that spark to make it special.Three children - Violet, Klaus and Sunny Baudelaire - are left orphaned when their house burns down, with their parents in it, in mysterious circumstances. They are left in the custody of a distant relative, Count Olaf (played by Jim Carrey). It is soon apparent that Count Olaf only cares about the children for their large inheritance.Fairly lacklustre, for the most part. Had potential as heartening tale about struggling against adversity and surviving but the plot is mostly a listless, rambling adventure. Conclusion is sweet and reasonably profound but this doesn't make up for the dullness that precedes it.Part of the problem is that Jim Carrey, for all his outlandishness and clowning ability, fails to hit the right note. His performance just feels off, like he's going through the motions.In what might be a first for me, I found the children's performances far more engaging and convincing than the adults. Plus, the baby gets the best lines (another first).Considering that the director, Brad Silberling, and lead actor, Jim Carrey, are the main problems, a Tim Burton-Johnny Depp collaboration would have been a much better combination for this movie. The plot and target audience suits Burton to a T and he would have provided the suitable special effects, edginess mixed with sweetness, dark mixed with light. Depp, in camp mode, would have had a blast.But, alas, that didn't happen.