Average Rating: 6.7/10
Reviews Counted: 158
Fresh: 113 | Rotten: 45
The film adaptation of the popular books is winning raves for its set design and a wry comic charm that mitigates some morbid images. However, some have panned the film as smug and overcooked.
Average Rating: 6.6/10
Critic Reviews: 33
Fresh: 20 | Rotten: 13
The film adaptation of the popular books is winning raves for its set design and a wry comic charm that mitigates some morbid images. However, some have panned the film as smug and overcooked.
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Average Rating: 3.2/5
User Ratings: 451,656
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The best-selling series of subversive children's books from author Lemony Snicket (aka Daniel Handler) come to the screen in this black comedy for the whole family (and how often do you get to see one of those?). The Baudelaire siblings -- gadget freak Violet (Emily Browning), bookworm Klaus (Liam Aiken), and baby Sunny (Kara Hoffman and Shelby Hoffman) -- were living a fairy-tale existence with their parents until they died in a fire that destroyed the family home. With few close relatives and
Dec 17, 2004 Wide
Apr 26, 2005
$118.5M
Paramount Pictures
All Critics (159) | Top Critics (34) | Fresh (121) | Rotten (47) | DVD (42)
Episodic but entertaining.
Heinrichs helps take your mind off the slack direction and the letdown of a climax, which ought to make the kiddies hurl Gummi Bears at the screen.
A lavishly mounted blockbuster that has little personality of its own except on a purely visual level.
It just kind of spins its wheels.
I think this one is a tune-up for the series, a trial run in which they figure out what works and what needs to be tweaked.
As it ticks by, laboriously, it leaves you feeling that you should be enjoying it more than you are.
Book's fans will enjoy, but too creepy for some.
Whilst the direction and script seem off, the rest of the production work is excellent.
Between Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban and Lemony Snicket 2004 is a banner year for dark and fun kid's films.
A dastardly unadulterated delight of a film.
full review in Greek
We can be grateful that the series has given Carrey one of his better vehicles in recent years, and that Carrey has risen to the occasion so well.
It's all a bit superficial, but highly entertaining, wickedly funny, and alluring enough to make you want to start reading the books.
If you sit back, relax and just accept it for what it is -- an enjoyable, escapist Gothic pantomime -- you will go home happy.
...Carrey delivers a broad performance that's more distracting than anything else.
Successful in kicking off a largely amusing and visually engaging franchise.
A sick joke of a film that realizes the best children's entertainment doesn't hide from the bleaker side of life, but plunges into the void and respects kids enough to assume they can handle it.
Genius story for the kids...
I was once addicted to the books that this film was based on. Due to me being bored, I decided to take down off of my bookshelves the entire saga of the Baudelaire children and read each book nonstop until the end of all 171 chapters. Wanting more, I decided to rewatch the film. At first, I was puzzled with what I saw.
March 27, 2012Super Reviewer
"Lemony Snicket's A Series Of Unfortunate Events" is a movie based off of the book series of the same name. What can I say about this movie, it's great, for children or fully grown adults. It actually does follow the source material quite well, and is told from an interesting first person perspective by one of the
November 13, 2011
Super Reviewer
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