One of my fav. movies

Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events is a clear grip of the horror that lies within kiddie literature.

I do not think there was a moment where I was viewing the movie, I felt as if Snicket himself had led me by the hand.

The movie rolls, with Snicket narrating the story, who is actually Jude Law doing a gavely funny voice-over. He constantly warns against impending calamities that are about to befall on his young heroes, even to the point of suggesting that the viewer flee to a next-door cinema where a much happier film is playing. For a while, I was wondering if I had stepped into the wrong theater.

The story revoles around the Baudelaire orphans and their guardian Count Olaf.

Jim Carrey stars as Count Olaf, a wily yet flamboyant villain with clever disguises and outrageous schemes, who is bent on swindling the Baudelaire orphans's fortune.

Olaf employs various, often elaborate attempts to get his hands on the fortune of the Baudelaire orphans: 14-year old Violet (Emily Browning), pre-teen Klaus (Liam Aiken), and infant Sunny (Kara & Shelby Hoffman). These three are left on their own when a house fire claims the lives of their parents. Their unfortunate journey begins at Count Olaf's gloomy-looking mansion. Just when things seem their darkest, Olaf steps in, in time claiming himself to be their relative... Olaf thinks of the children's arrival as a godsend, for they provided him free labor and an access to a huge sum of money; that is until he learns that he can't legally touch the money unless the children die. But, before he can ensure their demise, he is stripped off his guardianship.

The orphans are given then to Uncle Monty (Billy Connolly), a scientist of some sort who dabbles with exotic reptiles and then to Aunt Josephine (Meryl Streep) who lives in a cliff side home. All the while, however, Olaf is plotting to once again to get his hands on the Baudelaires and their money.

The events slowly culminates in a circus performance where Olaf and his troupe of ne'er-do-well thespians conspire to have Olaf marry the eldest of the Baudelaire orphans, Violet.

The film is jammed with amusing gags, one of the best has the youngest orphan, Sunny, speaking in cackles, giggles and grunts that the other two understand perfectly well. For us, at least for me, I will make do with subtitles.

All in all, it is a fun and entertaining movie.