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Two for the Money

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Lee Callihan | 11:48 a.m. Dec. 18, 2004
The film is not true to the three books and is at
best "saved" only by the performances of the cast. If you
had read and obviously this reviewer has not any of the
three books the film is based on, then you would know
there is little that was gleaned other than obvious plot
points from them. I found myself bored at times which I
did not while reading the books. Carrey is amazing in his
performance but when has he not been? I am also suprised
at the reviewers comments about the length of the film?
Has everyones attention span shortened? I have an idea,
lets spend 8 to 12 dollars for just 45 minutes of film? It
seems this reviewer thinks less is more. One last note the
set design and set decoration are worthy of Oscar
contention. Thank you.
Dennis | 4:51 p.m. Dec. 24, 2004
Plain and simple, I thought the movie was horrible. I
don't remember the last time I sat in movie thinking, I
wish this movie would end! I would not recommend that
anyone go see this. As one women said as we were walking
out of the theater, "that movie was an unfortunate event"!
Kate | 8:14 p.m. Dec. 27, 2004
I was bored, my kids were bored, the kids behind me and my
children were obviously bored because they kept kicking
the backs of all of our chairs...couldn't recommend this
to anyone. I gave it one star for the interesting effects.
Comments continue below
Darren | 9:26 a.m. Dec. 28, 2004
Memo to Jeff Vice:

Everyone from critic to fan adores the Harry Potter movies
except you; everyone else is not wrong. Hence, using your
review of this rather tragic piece of tripe to
further "advise" the makers of one of the most popular film
series in history is utterly laughable. If you insist on
your fringe dislike of Harry Potter films, save it for your
review. Don't act like everyone agrees with you, because
you're a lonely voice yelling in that echo-chamber.


This movie should be titled "Little McGyvers: Unfortunate
Adults in Idiotville". After a very promising spoof of
opening mini-toons and a very ominous, serious beginning,
this film rapidly decends into a farce. The children have
super-human cleverness while the adults are all too stupid
to live -- fortunately most don't very long. The
incongruencies made me wonder who, exactly, this film was
intended to entertain. It frightens small children by
killing every caring adult and insults adults by making
everyone over 20 a moron.

Supposedly the children's dead parents were part of some
secret society formed to protect the world from Evil.
Unfortunately, they chose to ally themselves with
intellects worthy of Darwin Awards, not Medals of Honor. No
wonder their world is being destroyed by the genius of --
not of a mad scientist -- an ACTOR. A bad actor even.


Of course the Snickett world "officials" (an inexplicable
Banker who somehow is responsible for shuttling the
children from one doltish caretaker to the next and a
Constable who is a Hip-hop version of Clueso) are as
clueless as the rest of the adults.

"Unfortunate Events" gets two stars for 30 minutes of cool
set-up and some interestingly quirky character play by
stars who far outshine this patchwork debacle of a
film.

Memo to Harry Potter film makers: this is what NOT to do
to a great book.

Ann-Katherine | 5:35 p.m. Dec. 30, 2004
I LOVED this movie! Being a huge fan of the books, I was
going in very excited to see how they turned the clever
stories into a movie. I must say that I felt they did a
fantastic job tying Lemony Snickets funny lines from the
books into the movie! I also thought it to be extremely
refreshing to see a film that didnt end in "happily ever
after", and as sad as it was, it left an good message and
Jim Carrey even brought in a bit of humor. Great music,
great sets, great actors... four stars for a FANTASTIC
film!
Jess | 1:55 p.m. Dec. 31, 2004
I think people are being much to hard on this movie. I do
not understand why it is said to be dark or evil. I took
my family to this film and we all enjoyed it, my small
children were talking about it for days after. The
characters were great, Jim Carey does a wonderful job. the
set design is amazing.
Michael Hunt | 3:15 p.m. Jan. 7, 2005
The two stars are simply for the visual effects. The story
line of the film is quite predictable---even without
knowing of the books. Thank the director for combining
three books into one film. Memo to Harry Potter film
directors---please do the same!
James Hunt | 9:44 a.m. Jan. 13, 2005
This movie had awsome special effects. Don't go see this
movie!
Napoleon Dynamite | 9:47 a.m. Jan. 13, 2005
This movie had awsome special effects. Don't go see this
movie!
james | 9:40 a.m. Jan. 15, 2005
I have not read the books, so it does not matter to me how
"true" the movie is to the series. My children have read
the books, and enjoyed the movie very much. I give it four
stars simply because it is refreshing to watch a movie with
clever diagloge. Also, the visual effects create the right
mood. The movie was far better than the Potter films I have
seen.
KelsieCraghead | 1:17 p.m. July 19, 2005
I believe this movie was very differnt from the books.
This upset me because I loved all the aspects of the books
and having 3 books be thrown around and all mixed up
really bothered me. Though the actors were good, and the
thought was good, I didn't enjoy this movie as much as I
thought I was going to. For everyone that is saying Harry
Potter should slaughter their books by putting three in
one, YOU'RE WRONG! If you throw them all together you miss
the whole magical aspect of it all.
Dale Hoskisson | 7:01 p.m. Nov. 13, 2005
The only thing good about the movie was that it captured
the spirit of the
books. Unfortunately, it did not capture the content of the
books. It was like a
condensed version of the Reader's Digest version. It would
have been better
named "JimCarey's Series of Unfortunate Events" because it
was really the Jim
Carey show. And, contrary to what Hicks says, his over-the-
top performance
was not appropriate here.

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Movie Info
Rated R for violence, profanity, vulgarity, brief partial nudity, sex, drug use.

Cast: Matthew McConaughey, Al Pacino, Rene Russo
FIND LOCAL MOVIE SHOWTIMES
Image
Macall Polay, Universal Studios

Rene Russo stars as Toni and Al Pacino as her sports-gambling husband, Walter Abrams, in "Two for the Money."

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