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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: R [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:Feb 23, 2007 Wide

Box Office: $35,063,732

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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Release:

Oct 20, 2009

[DVD Details]
 
 
  • (ENGLISH) A man becomes obsessed about a novel that features a character preoccupied by the number 23 and sees parallels between the book and his real life, but the book ends with a murder that has not happened yet.
  • (FRENCH) Le jour de son anniversaire, Walter Sparrow, brigadier de la société protectrice des animaux dans une petite ville, arrive en retard à son rendez-vous avec son épouse Agatha. Celle-ci l'attend dans une librairie de livres usagés, o¨ son regard s'est arrêté sur ½The Number 23+, un roman tout élimé qu'elle offre à son mari. + la lecture des premiers chapitres de l'ouvrage, Walter se découvre une parenté troublante avec le héros, un détective tourmenté par le nombre 23, sorte de clé de voûte de tous les mystères de l'existence. Un examen numérologique approfondi de sa propre vie plonge Walter dans le même délire obsessionnel, lequel croît au fil de sa lecture. Dans l'espoir de l'aider à retrouver ses esprits, Agatha et leur fils partent avec lui à la recherche du mystérieux auteur du roman.
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    Reviews for The Number 23

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    81 - 100 (sorted by date)
    Text View | |< << 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 >> >|
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    That I got so much enjoyment from the movie's flamboyant style made the inanity of the plot all the more irritating.

    Full Review Source: Los Angeles CityBeat | comment Comment
    02/23/07
    Andy Klein
    Andy Klein
    Los Angeles CityBeat

    Pages turn, knives plunge, rain patters and the camera rarely holds steady. No amount of quick cuts and twitchy shots, however, can compensate for the lack of narrative momentum.

    Full Review Source: Newark Star-Ledger | comment Comment
    02/23/07
    Lisa Rose
    Lisa Rose
    Newark Star-Ledger
    Top Critic Icon Top Critic

    The main test of a twisty thriller is, would you watch it again? You won't, because the solution turns out to be both uncomplicated and cliché.

    Full Review Source: New York Post | comment Comment
    02/23/07
    Kyle Smith
    Kyle Smith
    New York Post
    Top Critic Icon Top Critic

    There are more than 23 reasons why Joel Schumacher's The Number 23 is not very good; but in keeping with the theme, I'll stick to the titular sum:

    Full Review Source: Sympatico.ca | comment Comment
    02/23/07
    Angela Baldassarre
    Angela Baldassarre
    Sympatico.ca

    Though students of formulaic screenwriting may figure this mystery out long before Walter does, there won't be much satisfaction in it because it is totally preposterous.

    Full Review Source: New York Daily News | comment Comment
    02/23/07
    Jack Mathews
    Jack Mathews
    New York Daily News
    Top Critic Icon Top Critic

    I'd give it 2.3 stars. But that would be generous.

    Full Review Source: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel | comment Comment
    02/23/07
    Duane Dudek
    Duane Dudek
    Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

    Visually stylish and dramatically moribund, The Number 23 is a half-baked idea posing as profundity.

    Full Review Source: Kansas City Star | comment Comment
    02/23/07
    Robert W. Butler
    Robert W. Butler
    Kansas City Star

    I'll give the filmmakers this: They had me calculating the instances 23 appears in my own life. Trust me, it helps pass the time until the closing credits.

    Full Review Source: Jam! Movies | comment Comment
    02/23/07
    Kevin Williamson
    Kevin Williamson
    Jam! Movies

    How do we loathe thee, The Number 23? Let us count the ways.

    Full Review Source: Houston Chronicle | comment Comment
    02/23/07
    Bruce Westbrook
    Bruce Westbrook
    Houston Chronicle
    Top Critic Icon Top Critic

    If nothing else -- and, trust me, there ain't much else -- the title has a satisfying ring of candour. Yep, The Number 23 is all about the number 23.

    Full Review Source: Globe and Mail | comment Comment
    02/23/07
    Rick Groen
    Rick Groen
    Globe and Mail

    Charlie Chaplin did not star in The Wolfman. Jerry Lewis did not attempt Hamlet. Jonathan Winters never appeared in Death of a Salesman. Thank heavens.

    Full Review Source: Detroit News | comment Comment
    02/23/07
    Tom Long
    Tom Long
    Detroit News

    Director Joel Schumacher never knows when enough is enough.

    Full Review Source: Detroit Free Press | comment Comment
    02/23/07
    Terry Lawson
    Terry Lawson
    Detroit Free Press
    Top Critic Icon Top Critic

    The major mistake Carrey made was agreeing to do the movie in the first place.

    Full Review Source: Denver Rocky Mountain News | comment Comment
    02/23/07
    Robert Denerstein
    Robert Denerstein
    Denver Rocky Mountain News
    Top Critic Icon Top Critic

    Newcomer Fernley Phillips' screenplay eventually binds itself into too tight a knot. But it also has some admirable ambitions about family, responsibility, memory.

    Full Review Source: Denver Post | comment Comment
    02/23/07
    Lisa Kennedy
    Lisa Kennedy
    Denver Post

    A thriller like this needs to pack a lot of firepower on the backend. Unfortunately, all we get is a weak, much-anticipated little pop.

    Full Review Source: Chicago Sun-Times | comment Comment
    02/23/07
    Bill Zwecker
    Bill Zwecker
    Chicago Sun-Times

    The only fright in the nominal thriller The Number 23 is how shaggy, gaunt, and wiped out Jim Carrey looks.

    Full Review Source: Boston Globe | comment Comment
    02/23/07
    Wesley Morris
    Wesley Morris
    Boston Globe
    Top Critic Icon Top Critic

    If I wanted to give director Joel Schumacher more credit than he deserves, I'd say that he purposely blew the film up at the 2/3 mark just to make the film a prophecy.

    Full Review Source: 7M Pictures | comment Comment
    02/23/07
    Kevin Carr
    Kevin Carr
    7M Pictures

    Carrey skillfully leads us on a twisted trek with hair-raising jolts.

    Full Review Source: Maxim | comment Comment
    02/23/07
    Pete Hammond
    Pete Hammond
    Maxim

    Carrey has difficulty playing inner torment without making it look funny, an issue magnified by...director Joel Schumacher's concessions to utilizing the actor's skills to get laughs.

    Full Review Source: Reel Times: Reflections on Cinema | comment Comment
    02/23/07
    Mark Pfeiffer
    Mark Pfeiffer
    Reel Times: Reflections on Cinema

    Part detective story, part psychological drama, this is unsatisfying on both levels.

    Full Review Source: This is London | comment Comment
    02/23/07
    Derek Malcolm
    Derek Malcolm
    This is London
     
     
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