A Review By James L. Seagraves
I had fairly high expectations when going in to see “The Number 23,” the latest film in the ever improving Jim Carrey’s career, based on what I had heard several customers say about the movie when they saw it in the theater. I even had one customer reserve it for the first day even AFTER he had seen it not once but twice in the theater, and the kid normally has pretty good film taste, so I was preparing for a GREAT film.
What I got was anything but. I found The Number 23 to be pretty lame to be honest with you. I mean, the performances were all pretty good, but the movie just seemed to try to hard to twist you at the end, and what’s even worse is that not only did they have a ridiculous plot twist, but they also had to spoon feed every little detail to you! I HATE movies that think they’re all clever and original and “unique,” by having some horribly lame forced plot twist in the end. Not only are these twists usually unfounded, but the film’s director feels the need to spell out every minute detail in order for the simpletons of the world to “understand” something that in all actuality is so outside the realm of possibility it’s ludacris! This movie does just that.
I could go on and on about the inconsistancies and ridiculous plot points of this film for hours, but I don’t want to ruin your chance of seeing this movie and feeling like you were being taught how to pee in the toilet for the first time. Of course, the more realistic comparison to a real life event would be that you would be shown how to pee in the toilet, but the toilet AND your genitals wouldn’t even be there!
Another problem I had with this film was that from the opening scene, it looked like this movie might actually dive into some greater conspiracy about the Number 23. Showing dates like 9-11-2001 and breaking down how 9+11+2+0+0+1 = 23 was actually kind of cool, and there were a few other intriguing dates that added up to 23, but once the credits were over, so were the alleged “coincidences” that…I don’t know…maybe anyone else in the world ASIDE from Jim Carrey’s character might have actually given a damn about. I don’t care if his character lives at an address that adds up to 23, or if his name has 23 letters in his name! I wanted for them to at least dive into some of the historical dates and, I don’t know…actually make it a thought that might actually stay in your head for more than 23 seconds!
In closing I will say that this movie did have a few postive elements to it. The sex scenes between Fingerling and his girlfriend Fabrizia were very erotic and well done, and the cinematography was reminscent of Sin City and 300 at times, which was impressive. But if that’s all I wanted from a movie, I’d just go to the kid who used to work for me’s house and pick up a friggin Hentai dvd, and get all the graphic novel style sex scenes my heart could handle!
Overall score for this film: 2 out of 5.
