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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

[See More Credits]

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1 - 4 of 6

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Reviews for The Number 23

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161 - 180 (sorted by date; UK critics are listed first)
Text View | |< << 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 >> >|
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Narrated in voice-over by the hero, the movie is an object lesson in the dangers of having a storyteller who manufactures his own logic.

Full Review Source: Chicago Reader | comment Comment
02/22/07
J. R. Jones
J. R. Jones
Chicago Reader

No one wants to watch a by-the-numbers hack job -- even if the movie is called The Number 23.

Full Review Source: Atlanta Journal-Constitution | comment Comment
02/22/07
Eleanor Ringel Gillespie
Eleanor Ringel Gillespie
Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Having seen the movie, allow me to throw one additional calculation into the equation: The Number 23 is a zero.

Full Review Source: L.A. Weekly | comment Comment
02/22/07
Scott Foundas
Scott Foundas
L.A. Weekly

It cannot abide ambiguity or abstraction, feels a desperate need to square all corners and turn over all stones -- it refuses to embrace the very supranormal scariness it wants us to consider...

Full Review Source: Flick Filosopher | comment Comment
02/22/07
MaryAnn Johanson
MaryAnn Johanson
Flick Filosopher

Don't freak out, but as I write this review there are exactly 23 paper clips in the drawer of my desk.

Full Review Source: Sun Publications (Chicago, IL) | comment Comment
02/22/07
Josh Larsen
Josh Larsen
Sun Publications (Chicago, IL)

Twenty-three reasons to avoid wasting your time with "The Number 23."

Full Review Source: Arizona Daily Star | comment Comment
02/22/07
Phil Villarreal
Phil Villarreal
Arizona Daily Star

"The Number 23" is a movie that doesn't believe in itself.

Full Review Source: ColeSmithey.com | comment Comment
02/21/07
Cole Smithey
Cole Smithey
ColeSmithey.com

They could have saved time and money and simply given paying customers cards reading, 'You have a small penis,' or 'Those pants make you look fat.' Surely that's an easier and more cost effective way to insult the audience.

Full Review Source: CHUD | comment Comment
02/21/07
Devin Faraci
Devin Faraci
CHUD

Glaring flaws in the story makes it silly and too contrived to be a good thriller.

Full Review Source: FilmsInReview.com | comment Comment
02/21/07
Victoria Alexander
Victoria Alexander
FilmsInReview.com

By the end, you'll want to stick around, if only to crack the Jim Carrey code: Is he a real actor after all, or is the rabid urgency with which he keeps trying to be the most real thing about him?

Full Review Source: Entertainment Weekly | comment 9 Comments
02/21/07
Owen Gleiberman
Owen Gleiberman
Entertainment Weekly

There are at least 23 reasons to avoid this snoozer of a stinker. ... Our audience started laughing in derision and yelling at the screen.

Full Review Source: Internet Reviews | comment 1 Comment
02/21/07
Steve Rhodes
Steve Rhodes
Internet Reviews

The movie isn't sufficiently lurid or campy to be enjoyable on an exploitative level and it's not well enough crafted to work as a more serious form of entertainment.

Full Review Source: ReelViews | comment Comment
02/21/07
James Berardinelli
James Berardinelli
ReelViews

One of the many mysteries about the number 23 is why Jim Carrey and director Joel Schumacher thought audiences would share their fascination over the mysteries about the number 23.

Full Review Source: Associated Press | comment Comment
02/21/07
David Germain
David Germain
Associated Press

Contrived, incomprehensible gibberish that exists for the sole purpose of exposing a miscast star in a career stretch for which he is pathetically unprepared. It’s the worst kind of flop, a flop for its own sake.

Full Review Source: New York Observer | comment Comment
02/21/07
Rex Reed
Rex Reed
New York Observer

Gimmicky numerology plus Jim Carrey minus narrative coherence equals The Number 23.

Full Review Source: Variety | comment Comment
02/21/07
Justin Chang
Justin Chang
Variety
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

I can say I was never bored with The Number 23...so I guess that's a good sign that it works as a piece of entertainment if nothing else.

Full Review Source: Dread Central | comment Comment
02/20/07
Johnny Butane
Johnny Butane
Dread Central

It's kind of amusing to watch Joel Schumacher trying to be David Fincher or David Lynch and failing miserably due to the weak material.

Full Review Source: ComingSoon.net | comment Comment
02/20/07
Edward Douglas
Edward Douglas
ComingSoon.net

There are probably at least 23 reasons why this thriller doesn't work.

Full Review Source: Hollywood Reporter | comment 1 Comment
02/20/07
Frank Scheck
Frank Scheck
Hollywood Reporter
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

There's a mess of things wrong with this suspense thriller. Start with the fact that it's neither suspenseful nor thrilling.

Full Review Source: Rolling Stone | comment Comment
02/20/07
Peter Travers
Peter Travers
Rolling Stone

Shot by computer-enhanced shot, The Number 23 is impressive, but those shots don’t come from anywhere or build on one another.

Full Review Source: New York Magazine | comment Comment
02/20/07
David Edelstein
David Edelstein
New York Magazine
 
 
161 - 180 (sorted by date; UK critics are listed first)
Text View | |< << 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 >> >|
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