Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events
Director: Brad Silberling
Year Released: 2004
Rating: 0.5
After a fire destroys their mansion, the three dull Baudelaire children (boy = bookish, girl = inventor, baby = owner of strong jaw) keep getting dropped off on the doorsteps of countless potential surrogate parents who are crazy, distrustful or both. Though the screenwriter can be faulted for the horrendous dialogue and cardboard characters, it's Silberling's job to keep Jim Carrey in check, which he doesn't do (though in Carrey's defense, the material needs something other than comic relief from a babbling baby). Perhaps no one is to fault at all - not even novelist Daniel Handler and his harping on family values - since they were trying to squeeze three books into one film - a decision that makes for an unfortunately choppy movie.
