The Number 23 Reviews

Well, the number 23 is a special to me. It's my birth date and I consider myself, it's a lucky number. This is the number which always pops-out when I wanted to pick a number. During watching team sports I always watch-out for who's wearing a jersey with this number. So the number 23 is everything to me and watched this movie 7 years ago (today, 2014) with high expectations which stood up to my belief. Here I am after a re-watch.

You know mystery movie are not meant to watch again and again, because you won't get that real twist when you re-watch. That is a big drawback in this particular genre. All we need is to give a good concentration while we watch for the first time and must not miss a single dialogues. But in my case I saw it a long ago, now I didn't remember much of the movie scene except the storyline. So I had a little advantage over that to view it again and I am glad this movie impressed me in the second time as well.

You won't see much of Jim Carrey in a serious role. This is one of those where he's out of his league, the comedies. I thought it was a dark comedy, at least it kick started sounding like that way. But after progressing with good story development it turned so ridiculously deep into a main character who was obsessed with the number 23. It began with a simple misunderstanding over a something, but later digs intellectually with more broader expansion towards a parallel story that was written in a red book.

It is a great movie, which stays true to its genre and makes audience to begin their guessing game soon the red book enters into the frames. It also had a wonderful twist with the meaningful dialogues at the end. It is a must see movie from the perspective of the Jim Carrey's filmography. One of the movies of him to remember his appearance in a divergent character than usual. Hope I gonna see it again after some years from now on and expect to remain same warmth, maintaining everlasting strength from its main plot to deliver me.

Honestly, I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since I have a weak spot for Jim Carrey, I was really eager to check it out. Indeed, when Jim Carrey tries something else, it is usually pretty good (‘The Truman Show’, ‘The Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind’, ‘Man on the moon’,...) so there was a fair chance that it could be at least decent. Eventually, there were many things I enjoyed about this feature. First of all, you can say whatever you want about Joel Schumacher but the guy knows how to direct a movie. Furthermore, I thought that Carrey was indeed good and I really loved the mood of this movie. Unfortunately, the conclusion was just really weak. Indeed, they managed to build up a fascinating mindf*ck and during the whole thing, you are wondering how it will all end up. However, at the end, they tried to wrap it up and gave us a more or less rational explanation but it was definitely not really convincing. It is actually too bad because, a part from that, the whole thing really had some potential. Still, in spite of its flaws, it remains a well made and entertaining mindf*ck thriller and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

awesome movie , one of my favorite movies ,

This was a rather silly movie. What really ruins it is numerology, into which Number 23 obviously largely bases its beliefs on. The number 23 is no more common in our world than for example number 37. They can both be withdrawn from any daily event in our lives with the help of numerology. Let's say that I ate three doughnuts just now. Then I drank water. I took seven sips before my glass was empty. Then it comes down to 37. Things like this occur by the minute. Everything can be calculated to a number you want it to be, aslong as you spent alot of time in it. True, the number 23 is far more favored by numerologists, but it is no more common than 37, 29 or even 75. The very thing Number 23 bases it's story on, also makes it ridicilous and silly. Why would a relatively sane well-living man think that the apperance of a certain number means more than the apperance than some other number? It hardly makes any sense. But that's why the novel seems like Sparrow's life. It drives him forward because it's kinda like a twisted version of his own life, or atleast that's how Sparrow sees it. I never understood how. The conclusions that the characters draw in this movie are so absurd and ridicilous that they almost make the ending of Saw seem plausible. Also, the ending twist, which is an unfortunately common thing nowadays in movies, comes about 20 minutes before the actual movie ends. I say that it is rather interesting that such a thing happens, but it looses most of it's dramatic power simply by happening far too early. You can't see it coming though, and it certainly makes sense, but the trip that the characters take to get to that end twist is so dumb and absurd in a bad way that I find it almost impossible to like.

As much as it hurts to admit it, Schumacher nailed it on the visual side here. I loved the Sin City-ish look that was present in the few great scenes that we got from the book itself. Also, it was fun to see that there is still a director out there who actually uses the whole color filter-thing with atleast some subtelty. The performances were nice, and I really enjoyed watching Jim Carrey, yet again. Especially those previously mentioned book scenes worked wonders for him. Virginia Madsen cashed in her paycheck, and so did the rest of the cast, but they still did it with a good attitude so it wasn't too bothersome to watch them. One thing that should be noted about the movies visual style were the set pieces though. They were incredibly over the top. We see large halls with nothing but a bed, rooms filled with A4s and numbers... And it all looks as realistical as Carrey's tattoo in this movie. Which means that it really goes to the fantasy-zone on the set pieces, which is fine in the book scenes, but it also does that in "real life" on occasion, which doesn't work all too well since Number 23 tries far too hard to base itself on reality, which, for a movie of this kind, is virtually impossible in the end.

Indeed, Number 23 had everything necessary to be an entertaining, linear sequence of thrills. But it failed due to the abstract nature of the story. I truly did enjoy most of the performances and direction, but I really can't get over the ridicilous script. If you can ignore the fact that Number 23 tries too hard to make itself seem realistical, you're going to enjoy it quite a bit. If you can do that, you will like it.

My biggest problem with this movie is, who cares!
Great film making isn't about style and cool shots, and Joel Schumacher defiantly seems to think so. For me a thriller has to work on one level, you the viewer must connect with the main character. Feel what he is feeling, go through what he is enduring. Place yourself in his shoes and experience what he is experiencing. Or else how can you as the viewer be thrilled, scared or moved.
Alfred Hitchcock is great at establishing this with his audience. Take any of the protagonists from any of his pictures, and you find yourself asking, "What would I do?" When this concept is applied to The Number 23, I don't find myself engaged in the plot enough to place myself there. I'd probably put the book down and find myself watching TV after. Not writing on walls, freaking out my family and all of the stuff Carrey did in this picture.
What we are dealing with here is eye candy. Stupid plot that carries us right through until the end, and it did exactly that. Good thing it all ties in with the main character, that this is his own personal demon and not some weird conspiracy. It makes more sense that way. It's not a boring movie, but it's defiantly not profound. Did I like it, No. Did I hate it, No. I just didn't care enough one way or the other.

I've seen better Jim Carrey movies, MUCH better. The overall Storyline was ok, but I wish they would of put a different twist on it.

The ending was disappointing to say the least.

Animal control officer Walter Sparrow (Jim Carrey) is obsessed by a novel, The Number 23, which his girlfriend (Virginia Madsen) offers him for his birthday. Soon Walter believes the book was written about him, and his fascination increases.

The story was all right, although in the end, it was somewhat predictable.

While this was a highly recommended movie by many people who know my love for thrillers, I am disappointed in this recommendation. The ending is one of the stupidest, most "Hollywoodian" ending I've ever seen (so far). It's not worth spoiling, but let's just say I've seen better thrillers.

Jim Carrey doesn't show his best side in this movie, he sometimes looks as if he's about to laugh or do one of his comedy faces... (He IS NOT just a comedian, I do agree that his performances in Eternal Sunshine, and Man in the Moon, were great. I just feel that Number 23's performance was not as great as expected.)

Director Joel Schumacher on the other hand clearly shows his ability to still direct! (Incidentally Number 23 is ... his 23rd film, that is, if you count his TV productions, not just the movies.)

Love thrillers? Find something else. That's my opinion.
If you're watching just for entertainment, I suppose this is as good as anything else worth watching.

previous two reviews nailed it right on the money. the style of the film was awesome, definitely some parts were almost Sin City-esque, and Jim Carrey was great in a dramatic role, which few comics seem to be able to pull off, but I clued into the 'twist' way too early, about half way thru. I even thought to myself, I bet you ******* is the writer, thinking there is no way it would be so obvious... and bam, and the twist at the end, surprise surprise, it was ******. So that, and the fact there was way too many 'what if' gaping plot holes near the end, made me really knock this film down to a 6, perhaps even a 5/10, despite it's first half that was truly great to watch.

One-time rental, I think that's what it's destined to be.

I have to say that the ending is pretty disappointing. It's not necessarily predictable, but yeah, it's close.

I will say that it was filmed pretty cool though. Like, some parts really resembled the kind of style of Sin City which I thought was amazing.

Jim Carrey did a good job as a serious actor though, it was no 'Majestic' but it was ok.

Overall though, I've seen better, way better.

Previews looked great for "The Number 23", but it wasn't as good as expected.

It's not terrible, but it's really not as exciting as you might expect it to be. At no point are you really on the edge of your seat or anything.

Jim Carrey is decent in this role, but not so special that a lot of other actors couldn't have stepped in and given basically the same performance.

All and all, I expect some people to feel somewhat disappointed if they were really looking forward to this one.