THE NUMBER 23 - 2007
ContraFilm / New Line Cinema
Ratings: USA R |
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THE NUMBER 23 - 2007
Some have criticized THE NUMBER 23 for having such a silly concept as being possessed by numbers, but the psychosis of numbers is real and has been covered in other stories and even movies before (PI). That fact that it looks silly to an outsider is not an excuse to dismiss this movie, as every addiction looks ridiculous to someone who doesn't share that addiction.
To an outsider, the cure for an addiction seems simple. Are you obese? Stop eating so much. Are you an alcoholic? Stop drinking. Are you addicted to gambling? Stop betting. THE NUMBER 23 could have fit any addiction into the storyline and it would have worked, but by giving us a rarity such as this, it draws us in with its alien nature. Like PI, the majority of the movie is all inner monologue as Walter tells us of his life in his own words, a la Walter Mitty.
The Viral Thought Pattern of 23 has infected well known people such as William S. Burroughs, Umberto Eco, H.R. Giger, Robert Anton Wilson, and is incredibly easy to slip into because it plays on our natural paradoxical thought patterns (paradoxical thought patterns have been researched exhaustively over the last 40 years). Most of you are probably aware of the famous Polar Bear experiment. Tell someone to go for a whole week without thinking of a polar bear, and by the end of the week you will find that said person can't get the thought of polar bears out of his or her mind. In such ways do obsessive compulsive disorders manifest themselves (though "bear" in mind that I'm painting in broad strokes here).
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is famous for having his detective say, "When you have ruled out the alternatives, then whatever remains, however improbable, is the answer."
This kind of illogic is absurd to everyone but the obsessive. Most people can see that there is no possible way any person can know all of the alternatives to a mystery (if you did, then it couldn't be a mystery). But Doyle believed it and he was a well-known sucker for any supernatural scam to come down the pike. So much so that he ended his days with much of his hard won, hard earned wealth stolen by frauds. If you are one of these kinds of people, have I got a treat for you!
On February 23, 2007, I turned 46.
46÷2 (February is the 2nd month) = 23.
The 4th weekend of the month in the year 2007.
20+07=27
27 - 4 (4th weekend) = 23.
The movie THE NUMBER 23 was released on February 23. I saw it on the 2nd month of the year on Sunday, the 3rd day of release - 23. The friend I saw it with was half my age, 23.
I'm a huge Horror fan, obviously. The best selling Horror writer alive is Stephen King. King lives in Bangor, Maine, the 23rd state in the Union.
My wife works in the 23rd district of Los Angeles.
My real name contains three letters that are two strokes up and three strokes down, or three strokes up and two strokes down (23 reversed).
The letter W, in my name is the 23rd
letter of the alphabet.
It is the only letter that takes 3 syllables to pronounce and its very name describes double "u"s. 2 "u"s, 3 syllables, 23.
2 pen strokes down and 3 up, 23.
I have two "M"s in my name. Three pen strokes down and two pen strokes up: 23 reversed.
Two "M"s, 23 reversed twice: 46. Which is how old I was on February 23rd, the day that THE NUMBER 23 was released.
This is our 491st movie review.
The lowest common denominator of 4 is 2.
The lowest common denominator of 9 is 3 - 23!
And the last of the three digits is a 1, which numerically precedes 2 and 3!
RESULT - Coincidence of Evidence = Causation: the accuracy of the Number 23 enigma is all too real. AMAZING, RIGHT?
No.
While everything I wrote prior to my result is 100% true, it also conveniently leaves out everything ELSE that occurred that can't tie in with the number 23. I made the facts fit my theory by excluding all other relevant facts. So what remains, however improbable, is NOT the truth: which brings us back to my point.
Still not convinced that the 23 Enigma is B.S.? Watch how you can work the same convoluted logic to mean anything:
Walter Mitty is a daydreaming man created in story by the legendary humorist, James Thurber.
The protagonist of this movie is Walter Sparrow and he goes through life in a "Walter Mitty" daydream.
Reporter Andrew Sparrow, of the Telegraph, wrote an article on how Tom Kelly exposed the late David Kelly as a "Walter Mitty fantasist".
The 2000 children's book, The Adventures Of Sparrowboy , is the tale of a young child who fantasizes that he is a superhero.
Captain Jack Sparrow of PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN, imagines himself to be a great seafaring Captain, when in actuality he makes his first appearance in the series standing proud aboard a sinking dinghy.
In the 1970s, NBC ran a cartoon called Waldo Kitty, which was an animated take-off on James Thurber's: The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. Waldo would imagine himself to be a superhero called Catman. His sidekick was Sparrow. Waldo Kitty's delusion was also a riff on the comic book, Batman: a wealthy but otherwise physically normal human who pretends to be a superhero, though in reality has no super powers. His sidekick is also named after a small bird, Robin. In THE NUMBER 23, Walter Sparrow's son is named Robin. Batman originally appeared as a caped crusader in Detective Comics. The detective in Walter's book uses the fctional name of "Fingerling". A fingerling is a metal ear band used to ID bats.
EXTRAORDINARY, RIGHT?
No.
Again, I'm stringing along all manner of situations to create the illusion of coincidence and thus causation, ignoring anything that doesn't fit within the formula I'm using.
See? You can create coincidence out of thin air and use the 23 Enigma formula to give meaning to anything you want. Like Human induced global warming! But that doesn't make it real, it only means that you are gullible. But even saying that you are gullible, like Arthur Conan Doyle, doesn't take into account all the potential alternatives, including the possibility that the writer of THE NUMBER 23, Fernley Phillips, might be SERIOUSLY f*cking with our heads! ;-)
In the U.S. Military, a "Walt" is slang for someone who poses as someone else - usually someone more exciting. Walter Sparrow believes that the cool detective in his book is a metaphor for his own life.
This review
copyright 2007 E.C.McMullen Jr.
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