Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events

I'm a bit behind in watching movies. I hardly ever go to the movie theater anymore and wait for the inevitable DVD release, just to bring down the empire of theatrical chains...no, I'm just too busy or too lazy to go out. This is explains why I've only just seen Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events. I think it's an incredible movie, from the opening faux sequence with the animated Elf to the closing credits. Jim Carrey steals the show, of course, as Count Olaf, as he repeatedly tries to bilk the Baudelaire children (Violet, Klaus and Sunny) out of their inheritance. It's a great role for Carrey, as Olaf is an actor, and dons various disguises to cheat the kids--it's his Peter Sellers moment. This is the darkest story for kids that I've ever seen, involving murder and arson. The photography uses digital grading to promote amber or grey tones throughout the landscape. The set designs are fantastic, from Olaf's dilapidated mansion to Aunt Josphine's rickety house built on a cliff. The actors playing the kids are pretty good, but they don't seem to convey too much emotion, considering the fact that their parents were killed. It's great that Violet is the brainy one. The twins that play Sunny, the baby with teeth that Jaws (from James Bond) would kill for, are the best actors in the whole movie. I've no idea how close this movie is to the books, but I think it works much better than the Harry Potter films. I think it would be tough to make a sequel without recasting all the kids, as they are surely much older by now. Nuff said.

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