Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events ***
Cast: Jim Carrey, Meryl Streep, Jude Law, Emily Browning, Liam Aiken, Kara & Shelby Hoffman, Billy Connolly, Timothy Spall, Catherine O'Hara
Director: Brad Silberling
Running Length: 1:50
MPAA Classification: PG

Yet another popular children's book series has now been made into a movie. The subject of the first movie in this series are the first three "Lemony Snicket" novels. The movie opens with the Baudelaire children, Violet (Browning), Klaus (Aiken), and Sunny (Hoffman twins), finding out that their parents were killed in a fire that also destroyed their house. Now, they are being sent to live with their nearest relative, Count Olaf (Carrey). Unfortunately for them, all Olaf wants is The Baudelaire fortune, and he makes the children's lives a living hell as he works out a scheme to get the money.

Jim Carrey plays Count Olaf with a maniacal glee. His goofyness extends far beyond that of the source material, but that suits Jim Carrey just fine. The child actors are all excellent in their respective roles, and are about what I imagined when reading the books. The adaptation is a bit jumbled for the movie's sake, but works fairly well. There are also "additions" to the movie that are not in the first three books, and one has to wonder if they were let in on some future secrets of the novel series or if the director was just filling in the story points with items of his own choosing.

"Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events" is an entertaining family movie that can be enjoyed by all. It is not a great movie, but it shows potential that could be realized in future installments. Let's just hope that they make more movies before the kids grow up!