Technical Specs

• BD-25 Blu-ray Disc

Video Resolution/Codec

• 1080p/VC-1

Aspect Ratio(s)

• 2.35:1

Audio Formats

• English DTS-HD Master Audio 6.1 Surround Sound

Subtitles/Captions

• English SDH

Supplements

• Commentary with director Joel Schumacher
• Number Summaries
• Additional scenes
• Theatrical trailer
• Making of The Number 23 (featurette)
• Creating the World of Fingerling (featurette)
• The 23 Enigma (featurette, the legacy behind the obsession of the number 23, )
• How to Do Your Numbers (Game, the history of numerology, HD)
• Introduction
• Calculating Your Number

The Number 23 (Blu-ray)

New Line Cinema / 2007 / 98 Minutes / Rated R
Street Date: October 06, 2009
List Price: $28.99 (Buy it at Amazon and save)

Reviewed by Aaron Peck
Tuesday, October 27, 2009

The Movie Itself: Our Reviewer's Take

With a dismal eight percent on the TomatoMeter 'The Number 23's film debut was anything but grand. It was lambasted by critics everywhere. Do I feel the same way? Well, to a certain degree I do. At times the film does feel sloppily put together, and at times you don't know if Carrey is trying to be funny or not. We know Carrey can act, we've seen him in 'Eternal Sunshine and the Spotless Mind,' and 'The Truman Show.' Both of those films were well-acted, serious pieces. In 'The Number 23' Carrey is stuck in a film that seems confused as to what it should be. Is it a horror film? Murder mystery? Sylized film noir?

After his wife (Virginia Madsen) buys him a book, animal control officer Walter Sparrow (Jim Carrey) becomes obsessed with its contents. The book strangely reflects his own life as a young child. The main character in the book is called Fingerling, he's a detective.

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As he pictures the book's story, Carrey stars as Fingerling, a tough detective covered in tribal tattoos, with a penchant for kinky sex with his girlfriend. He becomes obsessed with the number twenty-three after meeting with a blonde woman who had been threatening to commit suicide because of the number. She said it had infected her life. It was out to get her.

Schumacher gives 'The Number 23' a perfect style. The scenes from the book Sparrow is reading are filmed in a stylized, noir-like fashion. The opening sequence of the book is rendered in beautifully done CGI, that is explained in the special features as "two and a half 'D.'" It's like watching a live-action pop-up book.

Sparrow soon starts to see the number twenty-three everywhere in his life, driving him into a state of paranoia. It seems every number, by using crazy arithmetic, equals twenty-three.

Sparrow's decent into madness is oddly interesting to watch. Joel Schumacher's directorial style is in your face, and completely hammed up so you don't miss anything that's going on. There's no thinking for yourself going on here. The film spells everything out for you.

Parts of the film are enjoyable, and somewhat creepy. I enjoyed most of Carrey's acting as Fingerling and Sparrow, but at times he still can't leave his worn out voice acting, ala 'Ace Ventura' at the door. There are a few times he slips up, creating an air of comedy rather than suspense.

'The Number 23' builds and builds so much that it's hard to justify its semi-witless ending. Maybe just a step above "it was all a dream," 'The Number 23' just kind of settles for an ending rather than creating and interesting one.

In the end though, 'The Number 23' is a messy movie, but slightly entertaining nonetheless. The ending seems like a cop-out, but I actually did enjoy the stylized noir-like parts. I think that this came across to many people as style over substance. I can see where they're coming from, but at least the style is enjoyable.

The Video: Sizing Up the Picture

The 1080p/VC-1 encoded transfer for 'The Number 23' only adds to its stylized cinematography. The film is full of deeply rich primary colors, especially red. The colors are rendered here to perfection. No so much popping off the screen, but rather embedded solidly in it. The bright red wall in the Sparrow household is a perfect example of the dark and brooding color palette used here. Fine detail is also optimal. On that same red wall brush strokes and imperfections from underneath the paint are clearly visible. Contrast is well done, juxtaposing reds and blacks in one scene, only to switch to burning hot whites in another. The scene with the "suicide blonde" is handled fantasically. Everything is covered in white and purposefully overexposed to give the blonde an angelic like appearance. Fingerling's dark clothes are perfectly contrasted with the shimmering white walls. No significant technical anomalies like blocking or aliasing were detected. A few of the darker scenes suffered, only slightly, from some poor delineation. Nit-picking aside, this transfer does this stylized movie justice.

The Audio: Rating the Sound

'The Number 23's DTS-HD Master Audio 6.1 audio track is alive with loads of foreboding noises and some very active LFE. It's an engrossing sound mix that lends itself well to building suspense, and creating an encompassing feel. Rear channels are, for the most part, lively and resonant with the film's soundtrack and ambient noise. Dialogue is presented clearly through the center channel. Panning effects are smoothly transitioned, and sound effects, like Sparrow tearing off wall paper or the distant bark of a dog, are clean and precise.

The Supplements: Digging Into the Good Stuff

The theatrical and the extended edition are both provided here using seamless branching. The extended cut, as far as I can tell, adds only three minutes (boosting its 98 minute runtime to 101) of footage that is a little more steamy when it comes to the sex scenes in Fingerling's world.

• Audio Commentary (HD) - Joel Schumacher is the lone wolf on this one, and man does the guy love himself. Really, if anyone were to outdo Michael Bay in self-love it would be Schumacher. He's got some interesting insights into the film, but you can tell he really thinks highly of himself. I mean after making 'Batman and Robin,' what's not to love right?
  
• Making of 'The Number 23' (HD, 22 min) - A semi-interesting, but standard making-of piece with interviews from the cast and crew. Plenty of back-patting going around on this one.
  
• Creating the World of Fingerling (HD, 11 min) - This is a good little featurette that focuses on some of the key scenes when it came to making the fictional book world. Most interesting is talk about the CGI opening sequence and where the idea came for representing the "suicide blonde" scene the way that it was represented.
  
• Deleted Scenes (HD, 14 min) - There's some interesting material here including a cool alternate opening scene for the film.
  
• How to Do Your Numbers (HD) - Is an introduction on how to calculate what is called your "principle number." If you're interested in numbers as much as they think you might be, this may be the special feature for you.
  
• The Number 23 Enigma (HD, 25 min) - This is an in depth look at the fascination with the number 23, that includes interviews from mathematicians and numerologists.
  

HD Bonus Content: Any Exclusive Goodies in There?

• Focus Points - Is a feature that can be played along with the film (theatrical only) that includes informational featurettes popping up from time to time that can be accessed by clicking on the gold disc that appears in the screen's upper-left corner.
  
• Fact Track - Standard pop-up trivia track (available for theatrical only). It gives some interesting information, but mostly it's used to point out how the number 23 influenced the film and so on.
  

Easter Eggs

No easter eggs reported for 'The Number 23' yet. Found an egg? Please use our tips form to let us know, and we'll credit you with the find.

Final Thoughts

'The Number 23' is definitely a case of style over substance, but the style can be fun at times. Carrey's acting is mostly spot on, but sometimes veers off into his old 'Ace Ventura' type voices. The video presentation stays true to the stylistic nature of the film, and the audio adds a wonderfully engrossing atmosphere. I'm designating it a rental though, because it doesn't offer much playback value. Once you've watched it, I think you'll be hard-pressed to find another time to play it again.

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