Rating of
2/4
"The Number 23" by Yojimbo
Yojimbo - wrote on 01/07/17
An ordinary guy receives a book that seems to strangely echo his own life, leading to his descent into obsession and paranoia. The Number 23 is yet another of those twist-based psychological thrillers of the type upon which M. Night Shyamalan made his name. Fans of Stephen king will find a lot of his familiar ingredients in the plot as every twist and turn lumbers onto screen directly on cue while Joel Schumacher exercises his usual visual overkill and all round lack of subtlety. To be fair, the story maintained my interest as along as I was entertaining myself by guessing the "big twist", but The Number 23 certainly would not stand up to repeated viewing. Not the worst example of the genre and fans of Stephen King may find some amusement in its rather adolescent Twilight Zone style musings on destiny versus free will, but its clumsy visual trappings and naive plotting means that it looks terribly dated even now.
