Oz The Great and Powerful and Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events

I thought I'd place these together for contrast as they are both based on children's stories. First up, the prequel to The Wizard of Oz through my LoveFilm subscription. Oscar "Oz" Diggs (James Franco), a sideshow magician gets whisked by a tornado to a mysterious land.

A bit of personal history here: I was The Wizard of Oz! Many moons ago, I was in an amateur dramatics company and I played the title role when we did a production of the musical the original film was based on, so it was interesting to see a bit more of the story.

It's quite a good film, with very good special effects and fills in the background to the original story. The only quibble I have with it is that it seems to be a children's story with no children in it, so it becomes difficult for children to empathise with anyone, and it's not really a sophisticated enough story for adults. Franco's a better Oz than I was, though.

Next is the film adaption of the very successful Lemony Snicket books I got from the shop. The Baudelaire children, Violet, Klaus and Sunny, are orphaned and, passing through the hands of various guardians, try to find out what happened to their parents while avoiding the clutches of the lethal Count Olaf (Jim Carrey).

Your enjoyment of this film will depend on what you think of Jim Carrey's performance as the evil Count. I thought he wasn't villainous enough to counteract the hammyness of the role. However, the rest of the cast is good enough to compensate, and the plot is a good one, in particular how the children escape the Count's attempts to kill them.

Both films are enjoyable, by adults and children, although the second probably has the edge with all ages.