The Number 23 (2007)
Average Rating: 3.5/10
Reviews Counted: 189
Fresh: 15 | Rotten: 174
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.
Average Rating: 3.4/10
Critic Reviews: 42
Fresh: 3 | Rotten: 39
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.
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Average Rating: 3.2/5
User Ratings: 457,527
Movie Info
Upon acquiring a mysterious book in which the number 23 seems to take on powerful cosmic significance, a once-sane man gradually becomes obsessed with the idea that the frequently recurring number may in fact hold a deadly secret in this intense mystery-thriller starring Jim Carrey and Virginia Madsen, and directed by Joel Schumacher. Walter Sparrow (Carrey) is a middle-aged dogcatcher whose wife Agatha (Madsen) has bestowed him with an obscure mystery novel detailing the investigation launched
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Cast
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Jim Carrey
Fingerling, Walter Spar... -
Virginia Madsen
Agatha Sparrow, Fabrizi... -
Logan Lerman
Robin Sparrow -
Danny Huston
Dr. Miles Phoenix, Isaa... -
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The Number 23 Trailer & Photos
All Critics (190) | Top Critics (42) | Fresh (15) | Rotten (174) | DVD (26)
For all its gimmicky numerology, The Number 23 just doesn't add up.
Top CriticPretty much every important date in history...can be teased to fit the pattern. What can't be hammered out of this fixation, apparently, is a coherent movie.
It just adds up to sheer ineptitude.
The Number 23 is an accidental comedy starring a deadly serious Jim Carrey.
Julius Caesar was stabbed 23 times. Charles Manson was born Nov. 12 (11 + 12 = 23). The Mayans believed the world would end on Dec. 23, 2012 (20 + 1 + 2 = 23). My brother stole my pogo stick when I was 23 and broke it into 23 pieces.
The author's obsession with the number 23 becomes Walter's, and we're treated to a lot of examples of numbers that add up to 23, which means a lot of scenes in which people say things like, 'What's 14 plus 9? 23!' and look haunted.
As far as psychological thrillers go, The Number 23 is a little too much 'psycho' and not enough 'logical'.
Absurd, dark, and a miscast Jim Carrey. Yuck.
As Walter's/Fingerling's paranoia grows, the viewer is irritatingly yanked back and forth between the real and imagined settings, and left to decide which one is more ridiculous.
Nothing to decipher here
There is something to this 23 stuff, and a film about apophenia (obsession with random connections) would be fascinating. But no.
Jim Carrey tries his best, but the film never gets psychologically creepy, never makes the viewer question what is fiction, what is reality, and most importantly what the number 23 is all about.
A convoluted and rather dull affair.
So much cascading hatred for the audience runs through the flickering images of this film!
... the film astoundingly reaches new levels of unintentional self-parody with every turn.
THE NUMBER 23 starts off promisingly but quickly devolves into an uneven mess.
What could have been an intriguing psychological drama turns into a mediocre crime thriller.
The Number 23 is Schumacher's first stab at a scary movie, the end result just doesn't quite add up.
This thriller's biggest mistake is its belief that it's as clever and original as it is visually stylish.
Joel Schumacher does a chaotic job of turning this thriller into indigestible jelly %u2013 it wobbles formless for a while, finally settling into the shape of a duck
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Sem conseguir convencer o espectador do básico (a onipresença do número 23), o roteiro chega a apelar para absurdos para tentar provar sua lógica tortuosa.
Good God, I actually liked this screwball of a mystery thriller.
...tombe dans pratiquement tous les pièges dans lesquels le genre se complait mollement depuis déjà plusieurs années
While it's often fun watching Jim Carrey handle more serious material the same cannot always be said of director Joel Schumacher.
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Movie: ID: 387392215 Title: The Number 23 Release Date: 2007-02-23 00:00:00.0 MPAA: 4 Status: 1
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