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List Price: $14.98 | | Label: New Line Home Video
Salesrank: 6087
Released: July 24, 2007 |
| Our Price: $2.86 |
| Used Price: $0.23 |
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MPAA Rating: R (Restricted)
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
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.Runtime: 95 minFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: ACTION/ADVENTURE/THRILLERS Rating: R UPC: 794043106880 Manufacturer No: N10688
Description of The Number 23 (Unrated Infinifilm Edition):
Jim Carrey as a schizophrenic murderer isn't convincing, in this melodramatic film about a man obsessed by the Number 23. Joel Schumacher (Batman Forever, St. Elmo's Fire) has unintentionally managed to make a comedy of horrors that really is quite humorous in parts. Walter Sparrow (Carrey) becomes engrossed in a homespun novel about Detective Fingerling, whose life degrades into mayhem because of his obsession with 23's esoteric numerical puzzles. Sparrow's preoccupation with the book follows his botched attempt to catch a nasty dog that bites him, leading one to believe that Sparrow's contraction of rabies might be the cause for his mental degradation. As the story progresses, Sparrow retreats further into Fingerling's world, rife with suicidal sexpots and hardboiled detective sleuthing. His wife, Agatha (Virginia Madsen), also plays Fingerling's girlfriend, sex-crazed Fabrizia, who taunts Fingerling until he stabs her. Back in reality, Walter aims to solve the unresolved crimes in the book, taking it as a murderer's diary rather than as an imagined work. The story is half-baked, though Carrey's portrayal of a mentally disturbed person is what makes The Number 23 comedic. Long, contemplative stares, and over-dramatized acting renders Sparrow a clichéd character, rather than one odd enough to engage viewers. For a better version of almost the exact plot but with a terrorist's twist, see Thr3e instead. --Trinie Dalton
The Number 23 (Unrated Infinifilm Edition) Reviews:
Numerical Madness 
2008-08-19 - This is the best, and certainly the most interesting, of Jim Carey's movies. We aren't aware of it initially but, through the Carey character, we see a world slowly unraveling, and the dissolution is somehow related to the otherwise unremarkable number 23. Carey comes to the recognition that everything in his environment relates in some way--by multiplication, division or the number, itself--to the number 23.
Carey's world becomes progressively darker, more surreal and frightening as everything becomes increasingly incomprehensible. The harder he struggles to understand, the less sense things make. Ultimately we realize that we, along with the character, have been dragged into the confusion of losing our minds.
It is more, however, than just an exercise in mental illness. A beautiful young girl has been brutally murdered. Carey, at the same time the victim and the perpetrator, must pay the legal price...otherwise he will never regain his sanity or his soul. An interesting and intelligent flick.
Ron Braithwaite author of novels--"Skull Rack" and "Hummingbird God"--on the Spanish Conquest of Mexico
Confusing 
2008-08-19 - I watched this movie on HBO and I thought it was very confusing and hard to follow. I still dont really understand it.
Too many coincidences
2008-08-13 - Initially I was intrigued with this movie. Carrey's performance closely resembled Jim Barish in Eternal Sunshine. The same confused look-running aimlessly as if the missing pieces of the script could be found on a street corner or something. But what is fundamentally remarkable is the odds of this little self publish book making it back to its writer is so incredibly laughable, I can't believe no one in the entire production of this thought-hey maybe we should come up with a better plausible ending. Again, this film uses that much hated dark nuclear green lighting that gives the impression this movie was shot in a cesspool. It's a bad script, uncreative direction and horrible lighting. Pass this one by if you can.
Entertaining, but suffers from weak writing. 
2008-07-31 - To the point: An interesting story line, entertaining, but suffers from weak writing. Suspenseful, a bit shocking at times, but not excessively gory. Good performances from the cast. The biggest problem with the movie is the storyline needed tighter writing. Enjoyable when you're in the mood for something a bit different.
Painful 
2008-07-08 - This bizarre and, ultimately, sucky movie was brought to us by garbage-pusher Joel Schumacher, and stars Jim Carrey. Carrey is completely wasted in this boring, badly directed, badly written, badly acted snooze-fest. Leave it on the shelf, it'll just put you to sleep!
Plot-wise, it concerns Jim Carrey's growing obsession with the number 23, a murder mystery, and lame, yawn-inducing drama. You won't care, and each twist is as unimpressive as the last.
TURKEY!
