Product Description

This comedic saga revolves around the travails 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.System Requirements: Running Time 107 MinFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: ACTION/ADVENTURE Rating: PG UPC: 097363407645 Manufacturer No: 340764

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #4016 in DVD
• Brand: PARAMOUNT PICTURES
• Released on: 2005-04-26
• Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
• Formats: Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .10 pounds
• Running time: 107 minutes

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,

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

Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events Computer & Video Games

For PS2

For PC

For Xbox

For GameCube

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

As Twisted As Can Be
I think this is a lush, mystical film with disturbing undertones and a twisted layout. I think Jim Carey is great, the soundtrack sets the tone of the film and the cinematography, costumes and make-up are well-done. I am a big fan of Disney productions, however. I feel this film could learn a few things from Disney, as it was lacking in areas that could have been done better. The child actors were all very good, however the script was written in such a way that did not allow them to really connect with the viewer or one another. The storyline was warped and taken out of context from the books. That was disappointing. This is supposed to be a film for kids, but came across as being more of a film for teenagers and teenage angst. I hope that, if there are future productions of Lemony Snicket, the directors will allow the personalities of the children to come to the forefront. Let them become characters the audience can care about.

One of the reasons this film did not do as well as it could have (and the same with Nannie McPhee) is due to the editing and the director's decisions to cut back on the run time of the film. I feel this is a mistake. If a film is 20 minutes longer by doing an effective job of connecting the viewers to the actors, we might be interested enough to see the movie more than just once. Directors sink thousands of dollars into making films like this. So, it would be nice if they take into consideration, the film could become a classic with a little more care to detail. That's what kids love, and kids grow up into adults like me. (Someone who saw Star Wars close to 10 times the first year it was out...)

Happy
I,m very happy with my product. Good ship and time.
Congratulations for your sevice.
Thank

In a word
I think that anyone with a sense for comedy,tragedy, and suspense with the regular Jim Carrey twist would absolutely love this movie. Our American Legends Jim Carrey (The Mask, Bruce Almighty) and Meryl Streep (Manchurian Candadate, 2004; Adaptation, 2002) join with The three child stars Liam Aiken (Good Boy, 2003; Road to Perdition, 2003, Stepmom, 1998), Emily Browning and Shelby/Kara Hoffman to create a wonderful family drama. The Baudelaire Children (Browning, Aiken, Hoffmans) are orphaned from the death of their parents in a horrible house fire- and left with an enormous fortune. Now being followed my money-hungry Count Olaf (Carrey) into two homes other than his; Uncle Monty (Billy Connolly, a herpetologist that offers the children a good life, but is killed by Olaf, and Aunt Josephine (Streep), an over-paranoid house hermit who is also killed by Olaf. With Drama,Suspense and the ever-so-witty humor of Sunny Badelaire (which i particularly enjoyed),