A Series Of Unfortunate Events

silver_dreams · Elder Than Dirt Joined: 05 Feb 2004 Posts: 5102

As a big fan of the books, i naturally was pretty excited when i found out about the movie that was coming out.

I saw it today, and i can only say one thing about it; utter, complete CRAP.

The casting was decent, and Jim Carrey did make a good Count Olaf....but whoever produced it either hasn't read the books or has NO eye for detail whatsoever.

First off, they turned Count Olaf from a slightly exaggerated, pompous jerk into a total fruitcake. Yes he does try to act smarter than he was and the like. No he does NOT twiddle around like a fruity little man on crack who thinks he's the best actor in the entire universe. In the books, Count Olaf IS very egotistical, but he is NOT NEARLY as ridiculous.

Second of all; Klaus' glasses. What. The. f**king. Hell. Klaus is SUPPOSED to wear glasses CONSTANTLY due to eye problems from reading so much, but in the movie, there's only perhaps three scenes at most in which the actor playing him is wearing glasses. Minor detail, some might think, but Klaus' glasses are a major thing in the Miserable Mill, so unless they either decide to be assholes and completely skip over that book in the movies, or suddenly have Klaus be wearing glasses, it'll be even FARTHER from the book.

Third, the order in which the events are sequenced. Once again, the producers completely fucked it up. I mean, you've got maybe half of the first book, some crappy nonsense to move the story along (OLAF DID NOT TRY AND KILL THEM FROM THE GET-GO, GODDAMMIT!), and then INCREDIBLY condensed and innaccurate 'summaries' of the next two books (Reptile Room and Wide Window), and then slapped on the ending to the first book in horribly fucked-up 'glory'.

The ending was probably the most irritating thing. Aside from the fact that everything was out of order, in the marrige scene, Violet was SUPPOSED to sign with her left hand, and then as soon as Olaf gave the call for Sunny to be brought down (if memory serves), proclaim that it was signed with the wrong hand and therefore nullified. Nickelodeon (mistake number 3000000 just letting Nick produce it) decided to have Klaus find out the uber-mega-MADE UP BY PRODUCERS secret about how the mansion burned down and such, and use it to burn the marrige certificate (signed by Violet with her RIGHT hand). Basically, whatever jackass was in charge of writing scripts decided to jump to his own conclusions, then have Olaf randomly confess everything.

Once again; What the f**k?

Any Lemony Snickett fans out there who were contemplating seeing the movie, DON'T. Unless you like crappy Hollywood renditions, that is.

Any one else disagree/agree?

Beatlechick90 · Posted: Sat Dec 18, 2004 7:35 pm Post subject:

I absolutely love the books but after what you've told me I don't think I'll see that movie.
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silver_dreams · Elder Than Dirt Joined: 05 Feb 2004 Posts: 5102

it's nothing like the books. honestly.

fallenangel · Posted: Sat Dec 18, 2004 8:08 pm Post subject:

Haven't read the books and don't really want to. Not my bag. Was contemplating rescuing a friend from seeing it today with just her young cousin only for the fact Craig Ferguson has a part, and I do so love Craig. But I decided against it, since his part was probably minor. And I like a lot of Jim Carrey movies (watching Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls right now), but this just seems...not right.

And everyone I know who's seen it says it sucks, so glad I didn't waste $8.
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kitsunelover25 · Posted: Sat Dec 18, 2004 8:15 pm Post subject:

Anytime you make a movie from a book, it sucks.
Harry Potter was the same way ( Gonna piss off some people, maybe ) They ruin any good book with the crappy movie. They cut parts from the movie that was in the book, which pisses me off the most.

No, never read the book. I won't get around to it ethier, I'm sure.
But I'm so happy that we didn't waste money going and seeing it. Everyone says, it was a terrible movie.

silver_dreams · Elder Than Dirt Joined: 05 Feb 2004 Posts: 5102

the Harry Potter movies were actually quite close to the book...

jhonenfreak · Posted: Sat Dec 18, 2004 9:17 pm Post subject:

Never read the books, but I love Jim Carrey films, so I had to see it.

Randomness--> I liked the tile in the reptile room. The same Escher print is haning on my wall.
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kitsunelover25 · Posted: Sat Dec 18, 2004 9:38 pm Post subject:

[quote="silver_dreams (Silver)"] the Harry Potter movies were actually quite close to the book... [/quote]
Well, they kinda we're. My biggest problem with Harry Potter was the 2nd, and 3rd movie. 1st was very close, but still had problems. I could tell you what's was wrong with them, but I'd be here all night Wink

Beatlechick90 · Posted: Sat Dec 18, 2004 9:42 pm Post subject:

I thought the second HP movie was closer to the book than the first and third.
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kitsunelover25 · Posted: Sat Dec 18, 2004 9:53 pm Post subject:

No, the 2nd was missing some stuff. Not much, but still enough.
Like, in the 2nd book, Nearly Headless Nick had a birthday party. They left that out.

I can't really remember most of the 2nd one.

The 3rd, they were doing very well untill the class with Hagrid. Then it went down hill from there.

*Sigh* I can't remember all of it, but they left out ALOT

1st came very close. But I haven't read any of the books, nor seen the movies in a while.

Myst · Very bored Joined: 19 Mar 2004 Posts: 176

I saw the movie trailors and thought it looked okay. Then I read the first book. It didn't seem anything like the trailors so I'm not surprised to read this review. I think I will go see the movie, though, becuase I like Jim Carrey.

Movies can't put everything from books into them. The movies would be way too long.

kitsunelover25 · Posted: Sun Dec 19, 2004 6:23 pm Post subject:

I know. I can't wait to see how bad the other Harry Potter movies will be. Those books are WAY to long. The movies would be 8hrs long.

silver_dreams · Elder Than Dirt Joined: 05 Feb 2004 Posts: 5102

[quote="Myst (Grim Reaper)"]
Movies can't put everything from books into them. The movies would be way too long. [/quote]
it has nothing to do with the amount of detail put into it, but that it was so incredibly different from the books that with a little re-naming, it could have been a completely different story.

Riyo · Posted: Mon Dec 20, 2004 3:08 pm Post subject:

I love the books, and my sister plans to see the movie with her friends. She asked me to come along too, so I'm going to see it anyway, to make my own judgement. But it seems that they screwed the ending into eternity. Would've been a lot easier for Violet to say, "I signed with my left hand, not my right."

Meh, I didn't like how HP movies followed the books. It was close, but not close enough for me. *is pissed off that they didn't include the Potions scene with Hermione in the end of the 1st movie*

They just should of said in the movie, "And 50 points to Hermione for showing wit and cunning in a dangerous predicament, if the scene hadn't been left on the cutting room floor!"

I still want to see the movie, but will probably get very mad that they screwed the books over.
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silver_dreams · Elder Than Dirt Joined: 05 Feb 2004 Posts: 5102

it's not worth the aggrivation.

lil_taifan_123 · Very bored Joined: 31 Dec 1969 Posts: 192

I've read all the Snicket books. And I'm going to see the movie this Sunday. Is it really that bad? I haven't seen the movie yet, but if Violet really singned with her right hand, then the marriage would be official! It's so sad the Lemony (or whoever he really is) doesn't have a say in this.

The 1st HP movie was actually very close, but the second cut out the entire Valentine's Day scene. The third movie was too horrible to watch completely, so halfway through I leave. I mean, the actors are WAY to old; no offense or anything. But Ron's hair needs some good trimming, I think Harry is okay. In the first movie, they showed Lily dying with her screaming in pain.

The spell used is supposed to cause a quick death. It's not like Voldemort was throwing needles at her or something. They better not do that to Cedric in the 4th movie when HE dies.
I AM SOOO MAD! I MEAN, THEY BETTER HAVE THE ACTORS STRAIGHT IN THE GOBLET OF FIRE, FOR INSTANCE CHO, AND BETTER DO CEDRIC'S DEATH THE RIGHT WAY OR I WILL GO ON STRIKE!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm so sorry, please don't delete my topic, it's just that when I'm mad, I'm

MAD!

Anyhow, so sorry about all this yelling and everyting, very very sorry, please forgive me! Please dson't be angry, please don't kick me off here, it's ust that I'm kinda mad.

Beatlechick90 · Posted: Wed Dec 22, 2004 8:23 am Post subject:

In the third HP movie, they gave Harry the Firebolt at THE END of the movie? WTF? He was supposed to get it for Christmas and then Prof. McGonagall takes it away!

And don't get me started on the guy they picked to play Arthur Weasley! He was so wrong for the part! I pictured him as a skinny guy with crazy, slightly balding red hair. Not as a fat businessman-looking type! Ugh.
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Riyo · Posted: Thu Dec 23, 2004 2:57 pm Post subject:

Actually, I found two pictures of the girl who is going to play Cho. Well, there are only TWO ENTIRE PICTURES of her on the internet, and that's it. She even has posers.... :wacko:

But I'm not THAT mad for them summing up two books into the first movie, I mean, look at what happened to Harry Potter. The kids are fricken' going through puberty the whole time.
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lil_taifan_123 · Very bored Joined: 31 Dec 1969 Posts: 192

UMM...

Isn't this supposed to be about Lemony Snicket? Wink

I saw the movie! They put the end of the first book at the end of the entire movie. In the third book at the end Count Olaf is supposed to run away, not have the kids in his care again. Violet signed with her right hand, and the second two books flew by really fast...

But overall it was a VERY good movie!

Oh, and about Cho, on mugglenet.com they have some pretty good pics. Check it out there.

KotokoPlum · Posted: Thu Dec 30, 2004 4:39 pm Post subject:

I thought it was okay... (though it was funny reading your review, silver! ^^)

I was mostly mad about Count Olaf saying "Right!" when Violet was about to sign with her left hand. I mean, Count Olaf is supposed to be unintelligent, right? He would have had no clue about that law/statment! That made me pretty mad! Grr!