Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events

Movies made from children’s books are always hit or miss: witness the pitiable failures The Cat in the Hat and The Grinch Who Stole Christmas, but for every badly realized bit of kiddie-poo you have a Harry Potter franchise. I think Lemony Snicket falls somewhere in between.

I suspect this is yet another case of needing to release a film while the books are still hot regardless of whether the film is fully realized or not. Apparently the filmmakers cobbled together three of the stories to come up with something of a disjointed, badly paced bit of very peculiar entertainment. Then, not satisfied that the script alone could damage the film they committed the cardinal sin of movie-making and put Jim Carrey in the lead role.

There are two things I will always hold against the American people: spending lots of dough on Ben Stiller flicks and making Jim Carrey a huge star. I loved the guy when he did In Living Color but that was his niche: the token white guy in the background of a sketch comedy show. Pity that his big screen shenanigans have ruined even those early bits for me.

Thankfully the addition of Billy Connolly and Meryl Streep took the edge off and someone absolutely brilliant cast the three Baudelaire children.

Good, but uneven.