emlogomain.jpg

Main
Facebook
Tumblr
News/ Updates
DVD Reviews
DVD Reviews 2017 to 2024
Blu-ray Reviews
2024 BLu-ray and 4K UHD Reviews
2023 Blu-ray and 4K UHD Reviews
2022 Blu-ray and 4K UHD reviews
Blu-ray Reviews 2021
Movie Reviews
Movie Reviews 2019 to 2024
TV
Interviews
Movie Review: DUNE PART TWO
Blu-ray Review: THE MOON
Blu-ray Review: DIVINITY
Blu-ray Review: APOCALYPSE TETRALOGY
Bluray Review: THE MARSH KING'S DAUGHTER
DVD Review: INTO THE ABYSS
Blu-ray Review: THE EXPENABLES 4
4K Blu-ray Review: THE CREATOR
4K Blu-ray Revew: TO LIVE AND DIE IN L.A.
Blu-ray Review: FOG CITY
4K BR Review: OPPENHEIMER
Blu-ray Review: BLUE BEETLE
Movie Review: THE MARVELS
Blu-ray Review: TALK TO ME
4K Blu-ray Review: SCREAM 3 steelbook
Blu-ray Review: THE CRIMSON RIVERS 2
4K bluray review: THE BLOB 4K steelbook
Blu-ray Review: ON THE SILVER GLOBE
Blu-ray Review- BABYLON 5: THE ROAD HOME
Blu-ray Review: GOD IS A BULLET
Blu-ray Review: SKY PIRATES
Blu-ray Review: SISU
Blu-ray Review- HOLLYWOOD DREAMS AND NIGHTMARES
Movie Review: COLONIALS
4K Blu-ray Review: NIGHTBREED
Movie Review- MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE- DEAD RECKONING PART ONE
Blu-ray Review: STONE COLD
Blu-ray Review: ONE RANGER
Blu-rayReview: THE FLASH
blu-ray Review: MAD HEIDI
4K Blu-ray Review: THE DOUBLE LIFE OF VERONIQUE
4K Blu-ray Review: DRAGONSLAYER steelbook
4K Blu-ray Review: STREETS OF FIRE
Blu-ray Review: A MAN CALLED OTTO
Blu-ray Review: THE CRIMSON RIVERS
4K Blu-ray Review: THE ITALIAN JOB (1969)
4K Blu-ray Review: EVENT HORIZON
4K Blu-ray Review: CLOVERFIELD steelbook
4K Blu-ray Review: ACCION MUTANE
4K Blu-ray Review: WINGS OF DESIRE steelbook
Blu-ray Review- DOCTOR WHO: THE ABOMINABLE SNOWMAN
Blu-ray Review: SAMPO
Movie Review- AVATAR: THE WAY OF WATER
Bluray Review: HALLOWEEN ENDS
4K Blu-ray review: HIGHLANGER Director's Cut steelbook
4K BR Review- STTMP The Complete Adventure
Blu-ray Review: MOONAGE DAYDREAM
Blu-ray Review: NO ESCAPE
Blu-ray Review: GINGER SNAPS TRILOGY
Blu-ray Review: I'M DANGEROUS TONIGHT
Blu-ray Review: THE INVITATION
Movie Review: HALLOWEEN ENDS
Movie Review: HELLRAISER (2022)
Blu-ray Review: AFTER BLUE
DVD Review: DEUS
Blu-ray Review: WOLF HOUND
Movie Review: PREY (2022)
Blu-ray Review: CRIMES OF THE FUTURE
Movie Review- THOR: LOVE AND THUNDER
Blu-ray Review: THE UNBEARABLE WEIGHT OF MASSIVE TALENT
Blu-ray Review: FIRESTARTER (2022)
Movie Review- TOP GUN: MAVERICK
Movie Review- JURASSIC WORLD: DOMINION
4K UHD review: LIFEFORCE
Blu-ray Review- WYRMWOOD: APOCALYPSE
Blu-ray Review: BELLE
DVD Review: THE KING'S DAUGHTER
Blu-ray review: PROJECT GEMINI
Movie Review: EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE
Blu-ray Review: SETTLERS
Movie Review: THE NORTHMAN
Blu-ray Review: HOUSE OF GUCCI
Blu-ray Review- GHOSTBUSTERS AFERLIFE
Blu-ray Review: LAST NIGHT IN SOHO
Blu-ray 4K Review- RESIDENT EVIL: WELCOME TO RACCOON CITY
Movie Review- SPIDER-MAN: NO WAY HOME
Blu-ray Review: RAGING FIRE
Movie Review: THE MARIX RESURRECTIONS
4K Blu-ray Review: NO TIME TO DIE
DVD Review: THE FLOOD
Blu-ray Review: DOCTOR WHO Season 24
Blu-ray Review: CANDYMAN (2021)
Blu-ray Review- DOCTOR WHO: EVIL OF THE DALEKS (import)
Movie Review: DUNE Part One
Blu-ray review: ELVIRA'S HAUNTED HILLS
Blu-ray Review: THE COLONY (2021)
Movie Review: ETERNALS
Movie Review: NO TIME TO DIE
Movie Review: HALLOWEEN KILLS
Blu-ray Review: THE GREEN KNIGHT
Blu-ray Review: FAST VENGEANCE
4K Blu-ray Review: BLACK WIDOW
Blu-ray Review: F9 THE FAST SAGA
Blu-ray Review: DOCTOR WHO Season 8 (1971)
4K Blu-ray Review: PROSPECT
Blu-ray Review: SPARE PARTS
blu-ray Review: SIBERIA (2021)
Blu-ray Review: DOORS (2021)
Blu-ray Review: THE UNHEALER
Blu-ray Review: VOYAGERS
Blu-ray Review: TIMELINE (import)
Blu-ray review: KING KONG (1976)
4K UHD Blu-ray review: PERDITA DURANGO
Blu-ray Review: PYSCHO GOREMAN
DVD Review: SKY SHARKS
DVD Review: WILLY'S WONDERLAND
Blu-ray Review: EVENT HORIZON Collector's Edition
Blu-ray Review: SPUTNIK
Blu-ray Review: PUMP UP THE VOLUME
Blu-ray Review: MONSTER HUNTER
Blu-ray Review: SOUTHLAND TALES
Blu-ray Review: SHADOW IN THE CLOUD
Blu-ray Review: SPACEWALKER
Blu-ray review: THE IPCRESS FILE
DVD Review: STRANDED ON MARS
Blu-ray Review: TENET
DVD Review: SKYLINES
Blu-ray Review: POSSESSOR UNCUT
Blu-ray review: FLASH GORDON
Movie Review: TENET
PHOTOGRAPHY

LEMONY SNICKET'S A SERIES OF UNFORTUNATE EVENTS

DVD Review by David Blackwell

DETAILS: 107 minutes, deleted scenes, outtakes, commentaries, several featurettes, galleries, and more on two discs

STUDIO: Paramount/Dreamworks/Nickelodeon

RELEASE DATE: 4-26-2005

ANALYSIS: Someone has stolen Tim Burton's brain and he wants it back. The production design and story of Lemony Snicket's A SERIES OF UNFORTUNATE EVENTS feels and looks like a Tim Burton. However, it was directed by Brad Silberling. He has created a fantastically bizarre world with off the wall characters and a fantasy world that is strange and yet compelling. Jim Carrey steals the show as the inept Villain/bad actor Count Olaf, but Emily Browning also holds her own as fourteen year old inventor, Violet Baudelaire.

Violet, her brother Klaus (who remembers everything he reads), and their baby sister Sunny lose their parents when the family mansion burns down. Count Olaf (an evil, bad actor) ends up as their legal guardian who can't wait to get his hands on the Baudelaire fortune. He tries to kill the children only to be outsmarted due to Violet's quick invention that switches the train tracks. The children go to new gaurdians with Count Olaf not far behind (in disguise naturally). Count Olaf will try to find a way to make sure each gaurdian befalls an unfortunate fate to get the kids again. Bill Connolly is a hoot as Uncle Monty while Meryl Streep (as hypochondriac Aunt Josephine) proves once again why she is an overlooked talent. I have no idea why they needed Dustin Hoffman (he does get to do something in the deleted scenes and outtakes).

Lemony Snicket's A SERIES OF UNFORTUNATE EVENTS is a visual delights from the matte paintings to the props to Violet's little inventions that save her and her siblings, Count Olaf's car, and the costumes. There is something for everyone in this film whether you're a kid or adult. You can't forget the very deadly viper or the happy elf.

VIDEO/AUDIO: The movie is presented in 1.85:1 Anamorphic Widescreen. The transfer is good. Colors, blacks, and image detail aren't bad at all.

The audio is also great. You can A SERIES OF UNFORTUNATE EVENTS in English 5.1 Dolby Surround, French 5.1, or Spanish 5.1 with the option of English subtitles. The deleted scenes and featurettes have the option of English, French, or Spanish subtitles.

SPECIAL FEATURES:

DVD Producer David Prior has done another excellent job with this DVD. It is filled to the brim with extras. He has produced and directed the featurettes. This DVD still doesn't match up to the best David Prior produced DVD, the PANIC ROOM Special Edition DVD. It still is a hard act to beat.

DISC 1- Two audio commentaries were recorded for the movie. The first is with director Brad Silberling and the second has Brad being joined by the real Lemony Snicket. The second commentary is boring.

Bad Beginnings features two featurettes and an interactive Olaf feature where you can decide which Jim Carrey as Olaf screen test to hear while video from all four is playing on the screen. BUILDING A BAD ACTOR goes behind the scenes of Jim Carey as Olaf with talks about his screen tests as the various characters (Olaf and the two others Olaf disguised himself as) and an Olaf disguise that was abandoned. MAKING THE BAUDELAIRE CHILDREN MISERABLE focuses on the actors chosen to play the kids in the movie.

Rounding off the first disc are thirty minutes of deleted scenes, extended scenes, and outtakes. Jim Carrey shows off his genius in many of these cut scenes. I wish some of them were kept in the movie.

DISC 2- Several featurettes on the making of A SERIES OF UNFORTUNATE EVENTS, and interactive feature of the various sound elements that go into parts of two scenes, and three production galleries.

A WOEFUL WORLD is an overlong 54 minute featurette on the production design and sets of the movie in addition to how the sets were created (and force perspective was used in some of them). COSTUMES AND OTHER SUSPICOUS DISGUISES looks at the costume design of the movie (Jim Carrey does an impersonation of the current governor of California) while VIOLET'S FUNCTIONAL DESIGNS focuses on the clever inventions that Violet created in the movie. CAUTION! INCREDIBLY DEALY VIPERS goes behind the scenes with the Snake Wrangler and the safety precautions he puts in place when deadly snakes are on set. Also a behind-the-scenes look at a puppet snake used in one scene. THE SAD SCORE drives home the point of how bigger movies are having shorter post-production which means the composer had to deliver the music in less time.

THE UNSOUND SOUND DESIGNER is on the sound effects and sound design of the movie. Then you can hear the various sound elements that go into a couple of scenes. SINSTER SPECIAL EFFECTS contains four featurettes on the special effects of the movie.

MENUS: The animated menus are fantastic. They add to the environment created by the film and the extras. The menus are in sync with the fantastic design of the film.

FINAL ANALYSIS: Lemony Snicket's A SERIES OF UNFORTUNATE EVENTS is a fantastic visual movie. The two disc DVD is packed with loads of interesting extras.

this DVD Review is (c)4-29-2005 David Blackwell and cannot be reprinted without permission. Send all comments to lord_pragmagtic@hotmail.com and look for additional content at http://www.livejournal.com/users/enterlinemedia