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I don't know how many of you are interested in A Series Of Unfortunate Events, but I've just found out (and this is relatively old news) that Liam Aiken (that kid from Stepmom and Road To Perdition) is playing Klaus Baudelaire in that Really Bad Idea, Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate EventsWell, he's pretty cute now-- he even has freckles-- but I needed to know if he was talented or not. I did a bit of research at metacritic.com and found...Comments on his performance in his most recent movie, Good Boy!:The Onion A.V. Club: "For example, they're supposed to love Liam Aiken, that horrible little brat from Stepmom..."The Globe and Mail (Toronto): "To be fair, Good Boy! is redeemed by two intriguing performances. Young Liam Aiken manages to bring a quiet integrity to the role of Owen. Also, there's a great scene where one of the supporting dogs is asked to sit, roll over, then play dead."TV Guide: "While Aiken couldn't be cuter or more-well suited for his earnest role, the script is utterly predictable and often falls into the saccharine trap."Seattle Post-Intelligencer: "The boy, named Owen Baker (rising young star Liam Aiken)..."Portland Oregonian: "[Writer/director John Hoffman] also makes sure the kids are genuine and likable."New York Post: "The movie is saved, however, by its well-trained four-legged stars and the likable Liam Aiken ("Road to Perdition"), who plays 12-year-old loner Owen Baker."New York Daily News: "Before we get to the dogs, let's hear it for Liam Aiken, the 13-year-old who plays Owen, a lonely youth in sore need of animal companionship. Aiken resembles a young John Cusack and has some of the same delicious acting instincts. He registers half-tones of emotion like a pro twice his age."Chicago Tribune: "But the dogs are all but upstaged by their human costar, Aiken, who has appeared in "Stepmom," "Sweet November" and "I Dreamed of Africa." Clad in a cute red jumpsuit, Aiken is a puppy of a boy who (aside from one grating, obligatory fist-in-the-air "yeah!") has you smiling when he's smiling and almost crying when he's almost crying."LA Weekly: "Liam Aiken is a very good Owen..."New York Times: "As Owen, the boy who adopts the terrier from the pound, Liam Aiken does a nice job of conveying adolescent vulnerability and affection."Boston Globe: "Aiken probably wouldn't stand for condescension, anyway. Through his uncannily vivid face, we see a boy's already expansive world open up even more. When the Greater Dane arrives and the dogs might have to leave forever, the boy's heartbreak is yours."So I guess he's all right. He'd better be.Australian Emily Browning (see her photo here), who has already appeared in two awful horror movies, Ghost Ship and Darkness Falls, will play Violet. I checked all the reviews at metacritic.com, but most of them are offline now, and she was barely mentioned in Ghost Ship's reviews and not mentioned at all in Darkness Falls':New York Post: "You've got one of those frightening little girls with a pale face and an English accent." San Francisco Chronicle: "Ghostly little girls are surefire scare machines, or so goes the logic of lousy horror movies. Especially if the girl has a chilly British accent, as this one does ... The girl is not scary..."James Berardinelli: "Oddly, the most "human" character is one of the ghosts – a little girl named Katie (Emily Browning), who appears from time-to-time to reveal bits and pieces of the past. We also see her during the prologue, as the sole survivor of the steel cable incident. It's not a good sign when an audience feels more sympathy for an apparition than for the flesh-and-blood protagonists."She was also in Ned Kelly, but she wasn't mentioned in any of the reviews I read. I did find out, however, that Orlando Bloom is actually admired for his talent in some places and that he "personifies the attractive rogue women find irresistible." (Movie-vault.com) Okay.Finally, it turns out that Love Actually has got a lower Metascore than Elf, which is very sad and unexpected. I knew better, of course, than to assume that LA would be brilliant (not juggling eight storylines like that), but then Elf went and got a 64/100 (compared to LA's 56), after looking like such an idiotic movie, and it's just sad.