Everything I've seen from Joel Schumacher I've enjoyed. Most people can't say the same, but I'm open to his excess, trashiness, and his diet-Verhoeven aesthetic (minus the satire). I don't appreciate whatever he's doing here with The Number 23. There are far dumber films out there, whether purposefully or sincere in their stupidity, but I've seldom watched a film that actually made me dumber by the end. Obtuse to the nth degree, The Number 23 is a film about Jim Carrey coming across a novel about a detective investigating a murder involving the 23 enigma that eerily mirrors aspects of his own life. From there he starts to see 23 everywhere he goes, slowly driving him and the rest of his family insane. Cool concept, right? How's that execution though? Lame and ugly and, oh yeah, real fucking stupid. In the 2000s there was a surge of psychological mystery thrillers with interesting gimmicks and twists coming out of Hollywood — Mulholland Drive, Memento, Saw, The Butterfly Effect, 1408, Stay, and basically everything Richard Kelly released, and this one might just get the prestigious award for worst of the bunch. You can't even enjoy this ironically or as camp, it's playing itself too seriously. You can tell Jim Carrey genuinely thinks he deserves to live. Real grim shit, Schumacher, real grim.
Everything I've seen from Joel Schumacher I've enjoyed. Most people can't say the same, but I'm open to his excess, trashiness, and his diet-Verhoeven aesthetic (minus the satire). I don't appreciate whatever he's doing here with The Number 23. There are far dumber films out there, whether purposefully or sincere in their stupidity, but I've seldom watched a film that actually made me dumber by the end. Obtuse to the nth degree, The Number 23 is a film about Jim Carrey coming across a novel about a detective investigating a murder involving the 23 enigma that eerily mirrors aspects of his own life. From there he starts to see 23 everywhere he goes, slowly driving him and the rest of his family insane. Cool concept, right? How's that execution though? Lame and ugly and, oh yeah, real fucking stupid. In the 2000s there was a surge of psychological mystery thrillers with interesting gimmicks and twists coming out of Hollywood — Mulholland Drive, Memento, Saw, The Butterfly Effect, 1408, Stay, and basically everything Richard Kelly released, and this one might just get the prestigious award for worst of the bunch. You can't even enjoy this ironically or as camp, it's playing itself too seriously. You can tell Jim Carrey genuinely thinks he deserves to live. Real grim shit, Schumacher, real grim.
