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Movies / On DVD / The Number 23
The Number 23

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The Number 23 (2007)

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Reviews Counted:184

Fresh:15

Rotten:169

Average Rating:3.5/10

Consensus: Jim Carrey has been sharp in a number of non-comedic roles, but this lurid, overheated, and self-serious potboiler is not one of them. The Number 23 is clumsy, unengaging, and mostly confusing.

Rated: 15 [See Full Rating] for violence, disturbing images, sexuality and language

Runtime: 1 hr 38 mins

Genre: Mystery, Occult, Thriller, Murder, Theatrical Release, Fantasy Worlds

Theatrical Release:23-02-2007

Synopsis: In Joel Schumacher's psychological thriller THE NUMBER 23, Jim Carrey takes on another dramatic role. Carrey's character is similar to his roles in THE TRUMAN SHOW and ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE... In Joel Schumacher's psychological thriller THE NUMBER 23, Jim Carrey takes on another dramatic role. Carrey's character is similar to his roles in THE TRUMAN SHOW and ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND: he portrays an average man thrust into quite extraordinary situations after a series of strange events cause him to question everything he's ever taken for granted. On his birthday, Walter Sparrow is given a mysterious and tattered book called THE NUMBER 23 by his loving wife, Agatha (Virginia Madsen). As Walter reads the book, he quickly notices its alarming similarities to his own life. Rather than stop reading, he continues, unknowingly inviting the book to take over his life. The deeper Walter gets into the plot, the more he sees himself in its protagonist, Fingerling, whom we see through highly stylized sequences in which Carrey appears as the seedy detective character. Madsen is also present in these scenes, cast as Fingerling's pain-loving girlfriend Fabrizia. As Fingerling and Fabrizia's love affair inches towards its fiery conclusion, we learn the role the number 23 has played in their story and will play in Walter's future if he cannot keep his growing obsession with it at bay. While Carrey and Madsen are adept at playing a man gone mad and a headstrong wife in crisis, they are most fascinating as their dark counterparts, and Schumacher succeeds in creating a truly intoxicating noirish underworld of sex and death through those sequences. [More]

Starring: Jim Carrey, Virginia Madsen, Logan Lerman, Danny Huston

Starring: Jim Carrey, Virginia Madsen, Logan Lerman, Danny Huston, Lynn Collins, Rhona Mitra

Director: Joel Schumacher

Director: Joel Schumacher
Screenwriter: Fernley Phillips
Producer: Tripp Vinson, Beau Flynn
Studio: New Line Cinema

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1 - 4 of 6

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Reviews for The Number 23

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41 - 60 (sorted by date; UK critics are listed first)
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A psychological thriller that is a murky mess.

Full Review Source: Spirituality and Practice | comment Comment
03/06/07
Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat
Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat
Spirituality and Practice

An overworked horror-thriller based on an absolutely ridiculous concept that, at various points in the movie, comes tantalizingly close to working.

Full Review Source: Q Network Film Desk | comment Comment
03/06/07
James Kendrick
James Kendrick
Q Network Film Desk

Schumacher's style is too slick, his sense of the macabre too watered-down, and his concentration on the thematic implications of the story too distracted by more generalized ideas to really get at the dark heart of the material.

Full Review Source: Mark Reviews Movies | comment Comment
03/05/07
Mark Dujsik
Mark Dujsik
Mark Reviews Movies

A cop out of chaotic inconsequence.

Full Review Source: Oregon Herald | comment Comment
03/05/07
Mark Sells
Mark Sells
Oregon Herald

More like "The Number 2"

Full Review Source: Bangor Daily News (Maine) | comment Comment
03/05/07
Christopher Smith
Christopher Smith
Bangor Daily News (Maine)

If you circle every 23rd word in this review, you'll wind up with a message that makes no sense. Neither does paying to see this movie.

Full Review Source: eFilmCritic.com | comment Comment
03/04/07
Dan Lybarger
Dan Lybarger
eFilmCritic.com

The Number 23 lacks cohesion. (Director) Joel Schumacher flails around like a drowning man, and takes his picture under with him.

Full Review Source: Journal and Courier (Lafayette, IN) | comment Comment
03/04/07
Bob Bloom
Bob Bloom
Journal and Courier (Lafayette, IN)

It just adds up to sheer ineptitude.

Full Review Source: Time Out New York | comment Comment
03/03/07
Melissa Anderson
Melissa Anderson
Time Out New York

If long-winded Wikipedia writers or "Lost" bloggers wrote a thriller, it would turn out something like this. It starts as a dark variant on "Stranger Than Fiction" and ends with a melodramatic flood of embarrassing exposition.

Full Review Source: State Journal-Register (Springfield, IL) | comment Comment
03/02/07
Nick Rogers
Nick Rogers
State Journal-Register (Springfield, IL)

Once all the blood and madness run out, The Number 23 is one of those disposable movies that so often fill the film industry's off season.

Full Review Source: Advocate (Baton Rouge, LA) | comment Comment
03/02/07
John Wirt
John Wirt
Advocate (Baton Rouge, LA)

...raving nonsense...

Full Review Source: Sacramento News & Review | comment Comment
03/02/07
Jim Lane
Jim Lane
Sacramento News & Review

With its glaring plot holes, over-reliance on coincidence and unexplained central conceit, it is hard to fathom why this project drew the likes of Jim Carry and Virginia Madsen.

Full Review Source: Reeling Reviews | comment Comment
03/02/07
Laura Clifford
Laura Clifford
Reeling Reviews

Everything in the film may add up to 23, but no matter how you do the math, it doesn't add up to a good movie.

Full Review Source: TheMovieChicks.com | comment Comment
03/01/07
Cherryl Dawson and Leigh Ann Palone
Cherryl Dawson and Leigh Ann Palone
TheMovieChicks.com

A supposedly tangled tale that's ultimately as easy to unravel as two nylon stockings.

Full Review Source: Creative Loafing | comment Comment
03/01/07
Matt Brunson
Matt Brunson
Creative Loafing

... just another movie designed to cash in on the gullibility of ticket buyers.

Full Review Source: Film Journal International | comment Comment
03/01/07
Daniel Eagan
Daniel Eagan
Film Journal International

What's wrong with The Number 23 can't be blamed on Schumacher -- though he ought to have known better than to sign on board this project.

Full Review Source: Mountain Xpress (Asheville, NC) | comment Comment
02/28/07
Ken Hanke
Ken Hanke
Mountain Xpress (Asheville, NC)

There may be filmmakers worse than Joel Schumacher, but few so talentless have worked so steadily for so long....this is just a bigger budget, even more idiotic version of Darren Aronofsky's Pi.

Full Review Source: Philadelphia Weekly | comment Comment
02/27/07
Sean Burns
Sean Burns
Philadelphia Weekly

Is there any A-list material that Joel Schumacher can't screw up?

Full Review Source: Outtakes With Fiore | comment 1 Comment
02/27/07
Fiore Mastracci
Fiore Mastracci
Outtakes With Fiore

The film operates on a much broader scale than it has any business doing, thus the answers, when they are finally provided in the now-obligatory talky final ten minutes, are frustratingly bankrupt.

Full Review Source: FromTheBalcony | comment Comment
02/26/07
Bill Clark
Bill Clark
FromTheBalcony

There are any number of ways to scare audiences, but numerology isn't one of them, especially if nothing else in the movie adds up.

Full Review Source: Boulder Weekly | comment Comment
02/26/07
Thomas Delapa
Thomas Delapa
Boulder Weekly
 
 
41 - 60 (sorted by date; UK critics are listed first)
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