Product Details

• Format: NTSC
• Rated: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Studio: Paramount
• DVD Release Date: April 26, 2005
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (391 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B0007VVGJQ
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #101,104 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

If you spliced Charles Addams, Dr. Seuss, Charles Dickens, Edward Gorey, and Roald Dahl into a Tim Burtonesque landscape, you'd surely come up with something like Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events. Many critics (in mostly mixed reviews) wondered why Burton didn't direct this comically morbid adaptation of the first three books in the popular series by Daniel Handler (a.k.a. "Lemony Snicket," played here by Jude Law and seen only in silhouette) instead of TV and Casper veteran Brad Silberling, but there's still plenty to recommend the playfully bleak scenario, in which three resourceful orphans thwart their wicked, maliciously greedy relative Count Olaf (Jim Carrey), who subjects them to... well, a series of unfortunate events. Along the way they encounter a herpetologist uncle (Billy Connolly), an anxious aunt (Meryl Streep) who's afraid of everything, and a variety of fantastical hazards and mysterious clues, some of which remain unresolved. Given endless wonders of art direction, costume design, and cinematography, Silberling's direction is surprisingly uninspired (in other words, the books are better), but when you add a throwaway cameo by Dustin Hoffman, Law's amusing narration, and Carrey's over-the-top antics, the first Lemony movie suggests a promising franchise in the making. --Jeff Shannon

A Message from Count Olaf

Dear Adoring Fan of Count Olaf,

Perhaps once every thousand years, a talent emerges that completely changes the way movies are made, orphans are orphaned, and heartthrobs throb. Often this talent has only one eyebrow, as is the case with one of the most cherished and admired actors scheming today. Surely you can you guess of whom I think.

No, you fool! I am referring to the One...the Only...the Unbelievably Handsome Count Olaf!

Or, as I like to call him, Me.

If you've already seen my performance in Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events, you must still be speechless. But if you haven't, you are in serious danger. Just teasing. But you could be after I send one of my gifted henchpersons to your home!

So why not get my movie on DVD? This major motion spectacle has everything. Me, acting! Leeches, attacking! Orphans, almost falling off a cliff! Of course, if you are familiar with books by Lemony Snicket, you know that they include all of these things too, but most of what he says is lies, and the rest is completely boring.

There's never been a film that demands repeated viewing in quite the same way, with a diabolical genius writing you a letter that says, "I DEMAND REPEATED VIEWING!!!" Plus with DVD extras, you'll get at least 20% more Olaf for your money. And... just for you, for an unlimited time only, I'll throw in Aunt Josephine free with purchase.*

So, noble Amazonians, put down your hunting spears and exotic headdresses, and prepare to bask in True Greatness. Or, as I like to call it, Me.

Of course you may have my autograph!

Count Olaf

*Count Olaf will not be held liable or accept blame in any way for any and all liability, loss, damage, or personal injury (including death), without limit and without regard once Aunt Josephine is thrown in, due to the unpredictable behavior of hungry leeches.

Stills from Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events (Click to Enlarge)

Violet, Count Olaf, and Klaus	Aunt Josephine	Count Olaf and Aunt Josephine	Directing Jim Carrey
Klaus, Mr. Poe, Sunny, and Violet	Count Olaf	Olaf Ascending	The Baudelaire Orphans

All Things Snicket

See a complete list of all Lemony Snicket's creations, including books from the Series of Unfortunate Events, calendars, and more.

The Essential Lemony Snicket Books

A Series of Unfortunate Events: The Ominous Omnibus, Books 1-3	The Situation Worsens: A Box of Unfortunate Events, Books 4-6	The Dilemma Deepens: A Box of Unfortunate Events, Books 7-9
The Slippery Slope: A Series of Unfortunate Events, Book 10	The Grim Grotto: A Series of Unfortunate Events, Book 11	A Library of Unfortunate Events, Books 1-10
Behind the Scenes with Count Olaf: A Series of Unfortunate Events Movie Book	Lemony Snicket: The Unauthorized Autobiography	The Puzzling Puzzles Activity Book

More from the Movie

Original Movie Poster

Soundtrack

Wall Poster

From The New Yorker

A mixed bag of sour treats. The voice-over to the film (by Jude Law) and the excellent Dickensian production design capture the sinister edge of these Roald Dahl-like children's books about the orphaned Baudelaire siblings and their dark adventures. But Jim Carrey, as their dastardly guardian Count Olaf, delivers such an outsized, distracting performance that all sense of danger and triumph is leeched from the film. The director, Brad Silberling, squanders the gothic mood with showboating action sequences, although there are some wonderfully spot-on performances by the supporting cast, especially Meryl Streep and Billy Connolly. -Bruce Diones
Copyright © 2006 The New Yorker

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

108 of 125 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Very good interpretation of Snickett's superlative books, December 17, 2004

By 

Jonathan Appleseed - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

It's somewhat difficult to review this film. Any adaptation of a book sets certain expectations for those who are seeing the movie - and the most common expectation is that the movie is going to parallel, as accurately as it can, the books.

Does this do that? Yes and no.

The central plot elements of the books are there: the greedy Count Olaf who wants to steal their fortune; the bumbling Mr. Poe who can't seem to understand anything; Uncle Monty, who makes them feel at home for the first time since losing their parents; and their Aunt Josephine, who is afraid of so many things - radiators, ovens, falling refrigerators, and, of course, realtors.

However, the movie moves rather quickly to the second book, skirting swiftly around the first book and inserting a segue that didn't happen in any book to cause the movement. I was puzzled by this. There were other liberties taken, but as I ruminate over them, they seem rather insignificant. The resolution of Uncle Monty's "scene" was nearly identical to the one in the book, as was the resolution to the "scene" featuring Aunt Josephine. As I said, the central plot elements remained the same.

In an interesting and altogether understandable move (as it was the most intriguing filmable climax), the ending of the first book was made the ending of the movie.

All of the sets were well created: Olaf's, Monty's, Josephine's home - and even the ruined Baudelaire mansion. They were believable and well done.

Some of the actors seemed out of place, particularly the ones playing Mr. Poe and Klaus. I don't understand why they were so far removed from their physical descriptions in the book. Surely finding someone taller to play Mr. Poe couldn't have been that difficult (he wasn't, by the way, coughing and sniffing constantly), and at the very least they could have put glasses on Klaus.

Jim Carrey was somewhat over-the-top as Count Olaf and Captain Sham, but he was understated and perfect as Stefano. Count Olaf is, as any readers of the book know (and I've read and reviewed all of them) a rather over-the-top character, so I found his portrayal of Olaf to be spot-on and didn't have a problem with it as some "real" reviewers have.

The person I saw the film with had never read the books, and when we were leaving, I asked his opinion. He said that he loved it, and in fact enjoyed it more than the Harry Potter movies. Personally, I disagree - and this is my review. <grin>

The movie also gave away a few secrets, and I think that may have been because the filmmakers aren't certain whether or not they are going to make any more films. I'm not aware of any filming underway for a second set of "Unfortunate Events", so the kids portraying Violet, Klaus and Sunny will, and likely have, already outgrown their characters. Perhaps the filmmakers gave these secrets away believing that the story they were telling needed more resolution than it had. In any event, if they do make more films, it will be interesting to see how they handle the divulging of these secrets.

If I had never read the books, I think I would have "loved" the movie too. However, I've read all of them, and while the filmmakers did a very good job recreating the spirit of Snickett's work, they didn't do an excellent one. Hence the four star review. (Four stars means very good - five stars means excellent, or superlative. At least in my book.)

37 of 41 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Wonderful Wonderful Movie!, December 17, 2004

By 

Ed Mich "Ed" (New York) - See all my reviews

Alot of people are going to hate me after this, but the worst problem with "Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events" is Jim Carrey, but I don't think the role of Count Olaf was meant for him. I like Jim Carrey, and I think he's very talented. He proves he can do great comedy, like in "The Mask" and "Bruce Almighty," and he proved that he could great do drama, like "The Truman Show" and "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind," but he is just too big of a star for this movie. He was doing his own thing throughout, and while everybody else was on one level, he was on another, and the two didn't mix very well. I mentioned in my review for "The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou" that the second half of 2004 has been great visually. "Hero," "House of Flying Daggers," and now "Lemony Snicket" have great things to watch, and I think this movie actually requires a second viewing so you can look around and find all the little visual quirks you might have mixed. Look around the front hall when the children enter the home of Count Olaf. Paintings on the wall, the staircase. It's almost like you are stepping into a brand new world.

The movie is based on a seris of books. There are 13 in the seris overall, but only 11 have been written. This movie covers three of the books. "The Bad Beginning," "The Reptile Room," and "The Wide Window." I've read the books, and the movie covers the basic idea, but not word for word, and we jump the first book to the second to the third and back to the first again. We begin with the voice of Lemony Snicket at his typewriter, writing the story of the three Baudelaire children. There is Violet, who loves to invent, and whenever she is getting ready to invent something, she ties a ribbon to get the hair out of her eyes. There is Klaus, who loves to read, and is able to retain all the information he gets from books. Then there is baby Sunny, who has two teeth, and can bite anything. They always find her hanging from the table. She speaks in baby talk, and we get subtitles to translate what she says. Their parents die in a fire, and the banker Mr. Poe brings the children to live with their closet relative, and it's their parents third cousin four times removed or their fourth cousin three times removed. Whichever order, their relative is Count Olaf, a tall, actor with the tatoo of an eye on his ankle. He makes the children do chores, and cook roast beef dinners for his acting group, but his intentions are to kill the children and collect the fortune that their parents left behind. He tries to kill them, fails, and they get sent to live with their Uncle Monty, who is going to bring them on a trip to Peru, an animal lover with snakes, in cages, all over his house. Eventually they are sent to live with their safety freak Aunt Josephine, who doesn't like to open door with the knobs because she is scared that they will shatter and pieces will go into you eyes, and she doesn't like to cook things on the stove because she's scared that it'll blow up, so she feeds herself and the children cold cucumber soup. No matter where they go, they are always persued by Count Olaf, always in a different disguise, with his acting group not far behind, always with a clever trick up his sleeve to get that money.

Besides Jim Carrey, "Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events" has some all star cast members. People that you see all the time, but don't know their names. There is Catherine O'Hara as Olaf's neighbor. Cedric the Entertainer as a police officer. Olaf's theatre group includes Jennifer Coolidge, Jane Adams, Luis Guzmen, and Craig Ferguson. These names may not mean anything, but if you see the movie, you'll recongize them right away. The music is something else to see. Thomas Newmen is a brilliant composer. He did the music for one of my favorite movies, "American Beauty." His music gives such a gloomy feel, but you can't help but smile at it's genius. Stay for closing credits and listen, and you'll fall in love. I have been trying to rack my brain figuring out who would have made a better Count Olaf, but I can't think of any. Carrey also brings to much comedy to the roll, something that takes away much of the seriousness to the character. Olaf is not a nice person. He lies, cheats, steals, and kills to get his way, and you don't use those characteristics when you think about Jim Carrey.

Every single adult in this move, except for Count Olaf, is plain stupid. They just don't listen, which is a big problem in life. It's ironic that the children are always right, and the adults roll their eyes. What's so great about the film, is that Count Olaf uses the stupidity of these adults for his own benefit. Everything is connected to everything else. When Olaf is disguised, a person like you and me can see right through him, but not these characters. If they have any suspision that he is an imposter, they think that he is somebody completely different. It's darkly comic, and disturbing to think something like that could really happen. "Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events" is a very good movie, aside from Carrey's unwantedness. He simply was not right for the role. Maybe a John Malkovich type would have fit better. It's enough to bypass that performance, and just let the visuals wash all over you. I would see a sequal, because this movie doesn't tie up all the lose ends, and I'm glad that they are different from the book seris, otherwise, we would all know exactly how it ends, or if it doesn't end. Lemony Snicket was with the voice of Jude Law, as the 2004 Jude Law film festival concludes. This year alone, he's in "Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow," "I Heart Huckabees," "Alfie," "Closer," "Lemony Snicket," and "The Aviator," and he has become one of my favorite actors. His narration is perfect for this film, and his addition if truely wanted. Not one of the best films of the year, but certainly one of the most entertaining.

ENJOY!

rated PG for thematic elements, scary situations and brief language.

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Better than I expected!, December 9, 2004

By 

Yangchen Nyandak - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

I have recently seen this movie, and I have to say that it exceeded my expectations. It was filled with jokes and laughs, but don't worry, the jokes don't steer away from the story. I was quite doubtful on the fact that Jim Carrey would be playing the part as Count Olaf. Jim Carrey is usually in Comedic Films and I thought that he would not fit this character, because in the books, the count isn't supposed to be funny, but cruel and greedy. But, it turned out fine. In fact, I felt Jim Carrey was a big plus to the movie, and the rest of the cast was picked perfectly. I highly recommend this movie to the fans of the series!( also, you Harry Potter crazies)