The Number 23 2007

Connie Ogle, Miami Herald: I'm not much of a math student, but I can tell you what The Number 23 all adds up to: nothing. Read more

Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times: 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. Read more

Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: This is the sort of film where no one can say anything without someone else commenting: 'Thirty-two -- 23 reversed!' Yes, and what do you know? There are 23 letters in the phrase 'better luck next time, folks.' Read more

David Germain, Associated Press: 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. Read more

David Edelstein, New York Magazine/Vulture: Shot by computer-enhanced shot, The Number 23 is impressive, but those shots don't come from anywhere or build on one another. Read more

J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader: 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. Read more

Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal: There's little in this first script by Fernley Phillips but bloodless notions -- nothing that might qualify, by the light of day, as entertainment. Read more

Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: Carrey owns this movie. He's in virtually every scene, and there's no taking one's eyes from him. Read more

Eleanor Ringel Gillespie, Atlanta Journal-Constitution: No one wants to watch a by-the-numbers hack job -- even if the movie is called The Number 23. Read more

Nathan Rabin, AV Club: Watching Carrey babble gibberish about the sinister nature of 23 in scene after hyperventilating scene isn't any more fun or enlightening than listening to street-corner lunatics discourse on similar topics. Read more

Bill Muller, Arizona Republic: Not only does the film have no sense of story, it has little sense of itself, including a long postscript just to untangle the knots. Read more

Wesley Morris, Boston Globe: The only fright in the nominal thriller The Number 23 is how shaggy, gaunt, and wiped out Jim Carrey looks. Read more

Kevin Crust, Los Angeles Times: Carrey has never looked so uncomfortable on-screen. Read more

Bruce Westbrook, Houston Chronicle: How do we loathe thee, The Number 23? Let us count the ways. Read more

Tom Charity, CNN.com: For all its gimmicky numerology, The Number 23 just doesn't add up. Read more

Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor: It makes you want to cover your eyes and clutch your ears. Read more

Lisa Kennedy, Denver Post: Newcomer Fernley Phillips' screenplay eventually binds itself into too tight a knot. But it also has some admirable ambitions about family, responsibility, memory. Read more

Tom Long, Detroit News: 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. Read more

Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly: 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? Read more

Jonathan F. Richards, Film.com: Pretty 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. Read more

Terry Lawson, Detroit Free Press: Director Joel Schumacher never knows when enough is enough. Read more

Scott Foundas, L.A. Weekly: Having seen the movie, allow me to throw one additional calculation into the equation: The Number 23 is a zero. Read more

Jan Stuart, Newsday: The 23rd letter of the alphabet is W, without which there would be no waffles, Wal-Mart and, that final word on all things tiresome and pretentious: whatever. Read more

Lisa Rose, Newark Star-Ledger: 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. Read more

Kyle Smith, New York Post: 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 cliche. Read more

Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel: The Number 23 plays a bit too much like Memento for Dummies. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: 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. Read more

Stephanie Zacharek, Salon.com: Let's cut to the chase: Movies don't get much more dunderheaded than Joel Schumacher's semi-psychological thriller The Number 23. Read more

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: It's so cheesy that it's almost transcendent. Read more

Bill Zwecker, Chicago Sun-Times: 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. Read more

Rick Groen, Globe and Mail: 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. Read more

Peter Howell, Toronto Star: 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. Read more

Trevor Johnston, Time Out: Schumacher keeps it pacy, the murky camerawork's very cool, Carrey suitably wide-eyed, but its limitations are finally only too obvious. Read more

Melissa Anderson, Time Out: It just adds up to sheer ineptitude. Read more

Claudia Puig, USA Today: Here's our homage to the film's tortured permutations of the numerals 2 and 3: 3 minus 2 equals 1. And there is only one reason to see this movie: You have absolutely nothing better to do. Read more

Justin Chang, Variety: Gimmicky numerology plus Jim Carrey minus narrative coherence equals The Number 23. Read more

Stephen Hunter, Washington Post: As Sam Goldwyn said: Include me out. Read more