LOVE THE BOOKS...hoping to love the movie. I just hope it does make some bank, because this is books 1-3. The series doesn't start getting GREAT until book 5... so the next flick should be fantastic (if it makes enough bank to justify a next flick) GO SEE THIS MOVIE!

MATT

So, upon seeing preview pictures of the movie, am I alone in assuming that the Jim Carrey character was actually being played by Christopher Lloyd?

its getting great reviews

Just seen the movie. Really enjoyed it. Carrey was very good. Cinematography superb - some real quality, right from the opening credits to the end.

Great performances from Timothy Spall, Billy Connolly and Meryl Streep.

Stifflers mom was there too!!

Go watch it, and enjoy.

Well, it doesn't quite have the 'magic' the books have when I read them, the movie was still fantastic. It's a great starting point and I really do hope the sequels go... Carrey was maniacle and awesome as Olaf... well worth seeing and a darkly good time!

MATT

I may be in the minority but I didn't like it. Too many ridicules things happening for my taste. I can't stand it when the adults completely dismiss everything a 14-year-old is says for no reason what-so-ever... though it's not like they tried all that hard to convince them, which is equal ridicules considering the circumstances...

I really liked it personally, alot more so than any of the harry potter movies

This is EXACTLY what happens in the books. I bet it plays better reading it than seeing it because in the books, it was quite funny.

That's one thing that I got out of the book [the one I read]. An almost surreal, stereotypical "Kids try to tell adults about something bad, but the adults don't believe them even though it's plain as day, and the kids have to save the day" thing. Obviously 'Snicket' was going for that, but in the book it seemed a little heavyhanded, and either entirely obvious/poor writing, or satirical.
With the book, given his introductions and the styles of writing, you're already in a state of suspension of disbelief, so you kinda go along with it, while thinking 'No, you dumb adults, that's evil Count Olaf!'. But making that work in a film would be much more challenging, and has a lot of opportunity to go bad.

Not familiar with the source material, I came away from this movie in the bored category, and I probably wasn't the target audience for this film. But my viewing was marred by 3-4 shutdowns of the projector, so the presentation was poor, so that might have affected my enjoyment from the movie. I never got drawn into the story, and never quite connected with the characters, well, except for the baby sister who had some good lines. I don't think this will be one of those universally loved films, but those who have read the books will most likely appreciated the production values and casting.

I give it 2 stars or a grade of C.

I think having the projector SHUT DOWN 3-4 times would really play a HUGE factor in getting drawn in and connecting with characters...movies are all about flow and pace...which in your case, would have been totally off.... that is shitty, hopefully you got a refund.

MATT

The movie looked great. Unfortunately, they took what was good about the books and decided to replace it with Jim Carrey and a lame subplot.

my cousin swears that this movie and the books themselves are a ripoff of an old european series of flicks.
he wasn't sure if it was italain or french...
just that it was european...

similar plot...
three orphans who's parents were killed...
and an uncle who wants to get them to get the family fortune...

the difference here is that the children are on the run from the uncle.
the uncle joins up with the authorities to "help" find the kids...
but, the uncle just wants to kill the kids...

like the books and movie,
the uncle is a master of disguise to all except the children

the children always seem to be one step ahead of the uncle
and in a more violent way to end each "episode"
they "kill" him off
but, it's never really set if the children succeeded or not...
well, that is until the next flick...

with the way my cousin describes it to me...
it does seem very simliar to lemony snickets...

but, i've searched the net to no avail...
without a title
all i had to go on was
that is was a european movie of possible italian or french origin...

anyone have any ideas if my cousins
sniffing too much glue or not?

-wing

We saw it yesterday, and my 13-yr-old daughter (who has been a hardcore Snicket-head for years) seemed to really, really like the film version. She claims Uncle Monty's house was exactly the way she envisioned it in the book, for what that's worth.

Me, I loved the look and feel of it, but could have done with a little less Carrey mugging, since Count Olaf in the books is a bit more menacing and not quite so hammy. I did laugh quite a few times, so I can't honestly say he wasn't funny.

Visually though, it is properly dark and foreboding.

Well, it made 30 million this weekend...

Ended up seeing it yesterday. Besides the simplistic storyline (it is based on a kid's book after all) that didn't really pull me in, it was pretty awesome in that Edward Gorey eye candy sort of way, but I can't see myself re-watching it over and over again nor picking it up on DVD. Well, maybe if the DVD was really really cheap. The end credits is the most amazing credit sequence I've seen since SE7EN.

Biggest Gripes: Jim Carrey ad libbed some really lame pop culture jokes and some celebrities showed up in minor roles, which was annoying as it pulled me out of the movie i.e. "Hey, there's *insert celebrity*!"

Yes, that was quite beautiful, actually. It's a shame that most people will probably leave without seeing it.

I had a lot of the same problems with the movie. The three main kids did just fine, and I thought it was a little clever subtitling the two-year-old, perhaps over done, but still brought in some laughs. Jim Carrey, I thought was funny, particularly changing into different disguises, but I wanted him also to be a little bit more evil or sinister. I did like the dark tone of the film presented with an eerie charm from Jude Law's narration. The visual style of the film is wonderful; to the set designs, costumes, in the cinematography, and the Thomas Newman score, who I'm fan of, make the film pretty to look at in it's own dark and moody kind of way. The plot just needed to engage me more, and even with all the visual splendor, the film was not terribly exciting which is ever so unfortunate.

Just saw this today, because it was the only movie showing at around 1 o' clock that I would even venture to pay to see. I've never even heard of the lemony snicket books, so I had no clue what to expect. Having seen the first 2 harry potters (thought 1 was pretty interesting, 2 terrible, thus didn't see 3), I can say I liked this better, although I think it was mainly the acting of the children. I thought they were pretty good, esp. the little girl Violet or whatever. Plus I can do without all the witch college or whatever stuff..

Overall really pretty on the eyes, and only so-so as far as entertaining. Seemed very long to me.

Worth the 6 bucks I paid, but my fiance and I both agreed it was alright, but not gonna get a second look. I'll prob check out the next one, if there is another one.

Oh, how were the credits? I must say I left as soon as I saw the end.. I loved the Se7en's credits although I didn't even stay for those until I had the dvd.

It was way past overdone in the books also. It got tired to me about halfway through book one.

I loved this movie. More than some of the Harry Potter movies. Does anyone know if a sequel is in store?

Doesn't look like the sequel is going to happen...not enough Box Office.

MATT

I tried to watch lemony.. had to give up after 30 minutes, i was bored to tears.
Harry I dig!

I'm the opposite. I loved the Lemony film, don't like the Potter films. Now, the Potter books I think are great and can do without the Snicket books.