Lemony Snicket's: A Series of Unfortunate Events
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Children’s movies are changing. While that statement is quite obvious to any parent, stop and think about it. Back in the day there was Chitty-Chitty Bang-Bang, and Mary Poppins. Later we had Follow That Bird, (Remember that one?) and Garbage Pail Kids: The Movie. Now we have Shrek, and Team America: World Police. What? Team America wasn’t a kid’s movie? But it had puppets in it? Damn. That explains my little bastard's potty mouth.

I guess it really isn’t a big deal. I remember when I was younger, my dad woke me in the middle of the night. Since he worked at nights, and was always away in the Army, he would come home and wake me up to watch a movie with him. These were his movies though. I can remember like it was yesterday, the first time I watched Madonna’s Truth or Dare. Oh, Madonna and Warren Beatty…. those scamps. Well, anyhow I turned out okay.
The reason I bring this thought up, is watching Lemony Snicket’s: A series of Unfortunate Events. While this is a great movie, I had some issues with it being sold as a kid’s movie.

The little kids, the Bauedelaires, are playing along a lake on a wonderful day. The 3 kids all have special gifts. The oldest is an inventor. The middle child can memorize every book he has read, and he reads a lot. The youngest child bites. They then find out that their parents die in a fire. (Burned alive I’m sure) They get shipped off to live with a Count Olaf (A freaking hilarious Jim Carrey). The Count is only after the kid’s money, so he decides to try and kill them off. (What great family fun) After it is determined that Olaf is unsafe for the kids, the child services rep takes them to live with other members of their family. Well kids, those kind family members drop dead, like flies, by the hands of a disguised Count Olaf. (Ha-Ha-Ha, what fun!) They are soon given back to Olaf, by the reality based inept social worker. Under all of this is a mystery that honestly made no sense to me.

Does that sound like clean family fun to you? It doesn’t to me. At the same time, I laughed my ass off. I will not call this movie a children’s movie, but an adult fantasy movie. Not that kind of adult fantasy sicko, but a clean-cut comedy, with fantasy overtones. Man is that a mouthful. The film’s look is brilliant, with it’s costume designs, and dark set pieces. I suggest any adult to let the inner (clean) kid out for a sitting, and have some fun. The two breakouts were Jim Carrey (natch) and the littlest child. Her subtitles made the movie.

My only complaint would have to be the underling mystery that the children are trying to solve about their parents. Where they find time, through all the attempted murders, is amazing. The answer left me quite confused. Maybe I’ll have to check out the books. No, I’ll just wait for the sequel. Check this one out still.

Added:  Tuesday, May 17, 2005

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