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A Series of Unfortunate Events (2004)

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  • Awesome Music: Thomas Newman's score was one of the most praised aspects of the movie, to the point where it even got an Oscar nomination.
  • Angst? What Angst?: Of sorts. The book described how deeply the kids are grieving their lost parents by Violet having little interest in inventing, Klaus having issues remembering anything beyond basic facts as easily without research, and even Sunny biting things with less zeal than before, the events of the story pushing them to put aside their grief long enough to use their various talents to survive Olaf's plots. Here, the kids are gloomy, as pointed out by Olaf, but none of them struggle with the same trauma the book described.
  • Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: In the middle of the dramatic destruction of Aunt Josephine's house, the tension is immediately cut by the inexplicable appearance of the Aflac duck screaming. Doubles as Narm.
  • Broken Base:
  • Crosses the Line Twice:
    • When Count Olaf shows up as "Stefano" in place of Monty's assistant Gustav, Olaf gives the Implied Death Threat "he'd give anything to be here right now." On its own nothing special... but we then cut to the sight of Gustav tied to the front of a racing locomotive, screaming in terror.
    • Daniel Handler's reaction to the fact that all of The Wide Window was filmed - "You did?! You filmed the entire segment of The Wide Window!? - followed by his reaction - "You said this was not in the film!" (paraphrasing!) - concerning The Marvelous Marriage seems to scream of this.
  • Harsher in Hindsight: In the DVD commentary of the film, Lemony Snicket snarks the director for saying that Cedric the Entertainer adds "urban flare" to the film merely because Cedric happens to be the Token Minority and a black guy. In 2014, Daniel Handler (Snicket's real-life alter ego) made a racist joke about winner Jacqueline Woodson being allergic to watermelons while hosting the National Book Awards. Handler had to apologize, which he did via Twitter.
  • Ho Yay: In a Deleted Scene, Constable and a critic played by Dustin Hoffman get to banter as they watch The Marvelous Marriage. The Critic even asks Constable if they want to get Chinese [food] after the show.
  • Love to Hate: Count Olaf. Jim Carrey's portrayal gives the character just enough comedy to go with the evil of the original, and actually makes him come off as smarter than his book counterpart.
  • Mis-blamed: The plot of the film is attacked for trying to fix the insubstantial nature of the books it was based on; alleged leaks of the author's original screenplays indicate that he'd have deviated even more wildly. The Netflix series, produced directly by Handler, pretty much confirms this, as it slowly changed a lot from the books, even more than this film.
  • No Problem with Licensed Games: The console versions of the games based on the film have decent reviews. While sometimes repetitive, fairly easy, and short, it manages to expand a bit on the orphans' situation, their respective guardians, the bond between the siblings, and gives a few members of Olaf's troupe more limelight (as bosses for the various worlds) which the 2-hour movie didn't have the time for.
  • Older Than They Think: Olaf calling Sunny a monkey was not invented by the movie. He expressly calls her that in the tenth book (The Slippery Slope), which came out the previous year—albeit only once.
  • Retroactive Recognition: Jane Lynch gets a short cameo as a realtor, years before becoming better known for Glee and Wreck-It Ralph.
  • So Okay, It's Average: Perhaps it didn't quite deliver the grim charm of the original books, but it was respectful to them for the most part.
  • They Changed It, Now It Sucks!: The way that Count Olaf is defeated (in an ending that is lifted from the first book, The Bad Beginning) is completely different. In the book, Violet makes the marriage invalid by signing the wedding vows with her left hand, and the law says the vows must be signed using the hand of the bride, and since Violet is right-handed, it's technically invalid. In the film, it is Not His Sled: Olaf catches on to this deception and forces Violet to sign it with her right hand, meaning it's up to Klaus to save her all for the sake of a more exciting, Hollywood climax.

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