Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events DVD Review (Jim Carrey) Empire Movies

LEMONY SNICKET'S A SERIES OF UNFORTUNATE EVENTS DVD REVIEW

Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events
(Paramount Home Entertainment)

The Movie

The Extras

Reviewed by

5.5/10

8.5/10

Liam

Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events tells the story of the Baudelaire children. There's the inventor, Violet (Emily Browning), the scholar, Klaus (Liam Aiken) and the biter, Sunny (Kara Hoffman). Their lives are thrown into turmoil when their parents are killed in a fire that burned their house to the ground. So, they are left in the care of their nearest living relative - Count Olaf (Jim Carrey). However, Olaf is nowhere near interested in raising these children - he's only interested in getting his greedy hands on the enormous fortune they've inherited.

I watched the movie alone and my feelings about it were a little mixed. It was an okay movie - but that's all. So, I re-watched the movie with some friends and we all pretty much came to the same conclusion. Why? Well, there's lots of reasons. First, the movie was based on a series of books. I felt that having not read the books, I was at a serious disadvantage. Unlike the Harry Potter movies, this movie didn't stand alone without the books. Also, the tone of the movie. For a kids movie, it was a little too dark and depressing. And, if it wasn't a kids movie, it wasn't really a movie for adults either. So what are we left with? On the brighter side, I enjoyed the acting - and the general look of the movie - but they weren't enough to salvage the story.

This 2-Disc Collector's Edition DVD comes loaded with special features. On disc one, we start with Bad Beginnings. Here's you'll find Building a Bad Actor, looking at Jim Carrey's make-up and how it was used to help build the different characters in the movie, Making the Baudelaire Children Miserable which focuses on the casting of the children in the movie and Interactive Olaf, a split-screen/multiple audio extra again featuring Carrey's makeup and wardrobe.

Next on disc one we get two Alarming Audio Commentaries. The first features director Brad Silberling and the second features Silberling and the Real Lemony Snicket. For those interested in commentaries, either of these should please. The first is good in that it provides a little back story and helps viewers who haven't read the books to understand the movie a little better. We also get a good look at the making of the movie. The second commentary, while being a relatively fun listen for uneducated slobs like myself, I'm sure it'd be that much more fun for fans of the books, as we get to hear a little back and forth between the director and "the Real Lemony Snicket".

Next, we get a series of deleted scenes and outtakes titles Orphaned Scenes. If anything, the deleted scenes could've used some commentary, but otherwise, nothing really spectacular here.

Disc two starts with A Terrible Tragedy: Alarming Evidence from the Making of the Film which is a series of featurettes looking at the making of the movie. We get to look at the design of the movie, the costumes, creating Violet's inventions, the movie's reptiles and animals and finally, the music. This is a nice set of features that are well worth a look.

Volume, Frequency, Decibels is a fascinating look at the sound effects, the best of which shows the sound people literally tearing a house down to create realistic audio for the movie. There's also a couple of great sound-mixing features which allows viewers to hear how different mics are used to capture sound and how the sounds are mixed together into the final product.

Under Sinister Special Effects we first get An Alarming Conspiracy Involving Sunny which is a very creepy look at how they created an animatronic replica of the baby from the movie. Not as creepy is An Even More Alarming Conspiracy Involving Sunny which looks at Sunny as a digitally-created character. There's also The Terrible Fire which looks at creating the film's final scene and Trains, Leeches & Hurricanes which looks at a few other effects shots.

Finally, there's Gruesome Galleries which includes some pics from the movie some concept art looking at the design of the movie and the costumes.

Peppered thoughout this DVD set, you'll also find some hidden features.

Overall, the special features on this DVD are extremely well done. They keep a consistent feel and are both informative and entertaining. And, I'll admit that after checking out the features, I was that much more interested in the movie. However, as I said earlier, it is missing something. Being an adaptation of a series of books, that missing something is lost in the translation from the page to the screen. If you're just here for the movie, I've got to advise caution.

Features
Director Brad Silberling Commentary, Brad Silberling and the Real Lemony Snicket Commentary, 'Bad Beginnings' Featurettes, Orphaned Scenes, A Terrible Tragedy: Alarming Evidence from the Making of the Film, Volume, Frequency & Decibels, Sinister Special Effects, Gruesom Galleries

Video
Widescreen

Audio
English Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround, French Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround, Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround

Subtitles
English, Closed-Captioned

Release Date
April 26, 2005

Rating
PG

Length
107 mins.

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