Delayed Reaction: Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events

What I Guessed It Was About: Some orphaned kids move in with their great uncle who is just an awful dude. He does some cruel things to them. He's also probably involved in their parents dying or disappearing, because of course he is. They get back at him by pranking him to near death. Then the oldest daughter grows up and gets super attractive (Seriously, did you see her in Sucker Punch?).

How I Came Into It: I'm familiar with the book series as a thing that exists, although I didn't really know what they're about. I listened to a podcast once with the author and he talked about them a little. Jim Carrey and Emily Browning being in this was all I really knew though. And that it was intended for kids - I mean - families.

Why I Saw It: (Club 50) This is a much better cast than I expected. Jim Carrey gets to do what he loves the most in comedy: play strange characters and do funny voices. Meryl Steeps has some fun too. I can't say I expected Billy Connolly, Catherine O'Hara, and others to show up although I was pleased to see them. The kids are fine too, mostly playing the straight man (men, women, whatever) to the bizarre adults. There's a wicked, dark sense of humor to the whole thing that I quite appreciated as well.

Why I Wish I Hadn't: The down side of gallows humor for kids is that it isn't allowed to get as dark as it wants to. I get why this is, but there were several points where a joke let up a beat before it got really dark, which would've played to my tastes more. Then there's the fact that the plot is pretty thin. It relies on the performers to make it seem more nuanced than it is (luckily, they hired the right cast for that). I didn't love the film because it wasn't intended for me. It's not much more complex than that.

Verdict (?): Weakly Recommend