Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events (2004)

Director: Brad Silberling Starring: Jim Carrey, Meryl Streep, Liam Aiken, Jennifer Coolidge Genres: Comedy, US Premier, Family, Fantasy Origin: USA Certificate: PG Running Time: 108 min

synopsis

The Baudelaire children are clever and resourceful but since their parents died in a fire, they are also the target of nefarious deeds because when 14 year-old Violet Baudelaire comes of age, she and her 12-year-old brother Klaus and infant, Sunny, will come into an inheritance. But not if their guardian, the demented Count Olaf (Jim Carrey) can get his hands on it first. Employing outrageous schemes and clever disguises, Olaf will try anything, including an attempt to have the Baudelaire kids runs over by a train. This unfortunate event lead to the children going to live with snake expert, Uncle Monty (Billy Connolly) but this also ends badly when a suspicious lab assistant named Stephano (Olaf in disguise) arrives. Next stop for the kids is the fearful Aunt Josephine (Meryl Streep) but a pegged-leg sailor (guess who) puts an end to this and Olaf then hatches his most dastardly plot. Based on the series of best-selling children’s books the first to knock the Harry Potter series out of The New York Times children’s best-seller list - Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events uses the first three books of the series The Bad Beginning, The Reptile Room and The Wide Window as its source material. It promises to be miserably entertaining.