The Bauedelaires lived a life of luxury and happiness as they cherished knowledge and passed this onto their children. Violet was an inventor, whenever she tied her hair back you knew she was about to come up with something ingenious. Klaus was a reader, who cherished reading and learning everything he could get his hands on and Sunny well Sunny was a biter who enjoyed biting things. But when a fire takes the lives of their parents the three children find themselves as orphans, looking for a new home, and who are taken in by a series of odd relatives and other people, including Lemony Snicket, who narrates the film, and starting with the cunning and dastardly Count Olaf, who hopes to snatch their inheritance from them. Violet is the oldest of the Baudelaires at 14, and is their brave and fast-thinking leader but her talents and skills will be put to test as she must try and save herself and her siblings from being done away so Olaf can live on their parent’s money. But it won’t be easy as they must dodge trains and leeches and other dastardly events that Olaf will inflict upon them.

When watching the movie sometimes I got the feeling that I was missing out on a ton of things by not having read the books first. I could almost just see the things that I was missing like a glimmer throughout the movie; it must have felt like this for those who saw either Lord of the Rings or Harry Potter without reading their literary counterparts. That’s not to say that I didn’t enjoy the movie, because I did I just think the books would give the movie more context. Obviously Jim Carrey’s literary counterpart influenced his way over the top performance, and sometimes those amazing extremes only work in books and don’t translate well to film. He should have toned down his performance a little, as it was too much at times. But despite all that the movie while odd and out of context was funny, witty, odd and quite worth watching as I found myself entranced by the performances and the story.

I am normally over critical of kids movies as they just seem to dumb down their story and don’t take the time to be interesting to multiple levels of viewing. That is why when a movie comes along like this one that is a kid’s movie, but is smart and intelligent in its story telling I cannot help but heap on praise for a film that shows that kids will watch movie with plot and dialogue and a good story. While I though Carrey was to over the top, I highly enjoyed the rest of the cast’s performances most notably the three children’s. The movie was filled with humor, imagination, story and was well worth seeing.
4 stars out of 5