Lemony Snickett

Last night (instead of watching the HK finale, see below), a quick perusal of the DVR revealed that we have essentially nothing recorded. We have about half of 24 Season 3 that we're still slogging through (having been latecomers to the 24 bandwagon, we caught up - at least in recording them - when A&E reran them all from the start. Can I just say that I totally could've lived without season 3 so far. Way too much Kim. Way too little plot.) A Dead Zone. An Office. And maybe a Mythbusters, but I'm not positive.

Other than that, we had, out of idle curiosity, recorded Lemony Snickett's Series of Unfortunate Events. I should probably preface with the fact that neither Tim nor I are Jim Carrey fans, so it was with mildly low expectations that we went ahead and pressed play.

The movie details exactly that - a series of unfortunate events - all perpetrated by Jim Carrey's character, ostensibly to first orphan and then seize the fortune of Violet, Klaus & Sunny Baudelaire. The plot, such as it is, I believe is taken from the first 3 of a 13 book series. First, the Baudeliare children lose their parents and their mansion in a mysterious fire. Then Count Olav, no relation to the children, apparently, becomes their guardian through the bumblings and/or payoff of the banker Mr. Poe. Why the banker is in charge of setting up guardianship, I'm unclear. Why the parents didn't have a will beyond one that gives the money to Violet is also unclear. Where on earth Count Olav comes from is also also unclear. When Olav tries to kill them by parking his car on the train tracks, Mr. Poe takes the children to live with a Herpetologist who is in some way related to them - uncle or cousin, I can't quite recall. Played by John Cleese is the only important thing there - other than the fact that there were so many subjects of herpetology that I had to leave the room until those portions had run their course. When he kicks the bucket (after Olav shows up in disguise as a new "assistant"), the children go to an aunt (I think) whose husband was eaten by leeches. This also turns out poorly and the kids end up back with Olav after he's seen "saving" them (when really he was, yet again, trying to kill them.) Except that they then manage to publically unmask him as the villan he is and are off to a new guardian, just as soon as they stop by home, get a letter from their folks that had been lost in the mail for years, and their own personal spy glass.

Spy glasses pop up througout the story. And are never explained. In a series of books, this is perhaps neat as they might reveal clues. In a movie, when you know it's critical to understanding the plot, it's maddening to never really have an inkling of an idea of why they're there. Unfortunately, spy glasses aren't the only item like that. Maybe you need to have read the books in order to understand the movie better, I'm not sure. All I know is that so many pieces were missing, I simply felt like scratching my head at the end of the evening and wondering if I had missed the first six movies in the series.

That said, the acting was very good (even Carrey, who seems to somewhat keep his offensiveness under control - though you do have a few typical Carrey "jokes", they're minimal). The kids were great. Jude Law has a very good narrarator voice. And I love when Merryl Streep takes funny roles. If they make a sequel, I'll probably see it. And I may just have to check the books out of the library...assuming I ever get around to getting a library card.

Overall, I give it 3 Unfortunate Events out of 5.