Rating: 
Summary: Very Good Movie!
Review: Seriously, I was discouraged from watching this movie by my sister and by many other people who wrote bad reviews for it. Regardless, I decided that since I like Sandra Bullock and pretty much all the other actors that are in the movie, I'll just watch it and make up my own mind about it. Well, here is what I think. I think that it was a great movie! The acting in this movie is super. The storyline is good too. Don't listen to what anyone tells you about this movie, just watch it and see what you think.
Rating: 
Summary: Great Idea, Not Great Execution
Review: Two highschool boys decide to commit the perfect murder in order to break up the monotony of their pointless lives. They do it, a tough cop investigates. Sounds great, huh?
The problem with this movie was that it focused on the wrong characters. I think Sandra Bullock was terrific in this role, but her character was just not as interesting as the two murderers. I admired the movie for delving deeper into the psyche of the killers than most serial killer movies would. It just should have focused entirely on them.
The two young actors portraying the killers are amazingly good at showing the subleties of their relationship. Ryan Gosling plays Richard, the arrogant popular kid. Michael Pitt plays Justin, the brilliant outcast. These two unlikely friends kidnap and murder a random victim to "free" themselves. There is clearly a lot of sexual tension between them. It seems that Richard is just using Justin most of the time, but there are a few interesting scenes that suggest otherwise. Look, for example, at the scene where Richard sees Justin kissing a girl. He is devastated, practically in tears. That scene in particular was brilliantly acted.
Sandra Bullock and Ben Chaplin do what they can with their roles, but the cops should have been a footnote. Every time Bullock is on screen, you wish you were finding out more about the two kids. All in all, a good unconventional movie. Could have been spectacular.
Rating: 
Summary: Not thrilling at all
Review: This movie really disappointed me when I saw it. I was expecting on the edge of your seat drama, but this movie never delivered. It just plugged along at an excrutiatingly slow pace. Sandra Bullock delivers a pretty good performance of a woman trying to face the demons of her past and coming to grips with that past. That was the best storyline of the movie. The rest of it was pretty unmoving. To me, I enjoy a thriller more when the killers remain obscure to the end. It's just more suspense in not knowing. This movie did have suspense in keeping us in the dark about who really committed the murder. However, watching detectives follow constantly-plotting high schoolers around was just downright boring at times. Also, I felt that the rich kid might have been gay. There was just too much hugging and kissing between the two boys for me. The rich kid was jealous, possessive, and abusive. I just thought that he might have been gay. This is not one of the better movies of 2002 and that's why I give it a D. Peace
Rating: 
Summary: Interesting psychological thriller
Review: Murder by Numbers is an interesting psychological thriller. The story is inspired by the Leopold and Loeb crime of the 1920's and does a good job of using both the main premise of that crime and some of the subtler details. I thought Sandra Bullock did a good job with this dramatic role, which was a nice departure from her more usual romantic comedy. The backstory for Bullock's character added a nice twist to the story, but it could have been incorporated more smoothly.
Rating:
Summary: Filmed in Morro Bay, California
Review: This film was mediocre but I enjoyed watching it because it was filmed in one of my favorite vacation spots -- Morro Bay.
Rating:
Summary: The numbers don't add up
Review: Sandra Bullock as a hard-boiled homicide detective has a few hurdles to jump before the movie begins. This is one of those Leopold and lobe (spelling?) type partner thrill-kill situations to be solved by Bullock. Of course, all the other cops go with the trail of clues, while Bullock's hunches always see the truth. She has some inner-demons, but it wasn't very moving. The story has that feel of we've seen all of this before... and it was done better the last three times. This wasn't all that bad- it just wasn't all that good considering the star and the director. The criminals' story got old fast, and the believibility was strained by the end. Bullock's performance reminded me of Holly Hunter as a detective in Copycat where I never got over the mis-casting. Ok for a movie rental, but if I had seen it in the theater I might be more negative. I like the idea of Bullock trying more gritty drama, but she just doesn't cut it as a tough detective.
Rating:
Summary: Great Irony
Review: My favorite thing about "Murder by Numbers" was the irony: The very thing the guilty boys were doing to mislead the police-red herring after red herring-was the very thing the producers/directors of the movie were doing to mislead the viewers into thinking they were watching a good movie.
Rating:
Summary: Warmed-over TV thriller
Review: Slightly more interesting than your average made-for-TV thriller playing on cable stations Saturday afternoons, Murder By Numbers has a lot of interesting scenarios that end up clashing with each other in a the big, unappetizing stew that is this movie. Only recommended for huge Sandra Bullock fans.
Rating: 
Summary: A decent movie totally ruined by the last 20 minutes.
Review: This movie started very strong, with an interesting plot and an intriguing, yet unpredictable story line. As the movie unfolds, you leave more about Sandra Bullock's history, and about the strange murders conducted by two stereotypical high school students. Their motives, as strange as they are, make the viewer want to keep on watching to see what is going to happen. Throughout these two developing story lines, the movie slowly builds itself up for an almighty climax. One where all the loose ends will come together, and where the viewer would see how the two main story lines are at all relevant to each other. With 20 minutes to go, the movie shifts from being an intellectual, well written, and gripping story to quite possibly the worst 20 minutes of cinema in the last 100 years!!! The movie becomes moronic to say the least. The viewer learns that all the story lines in the movie have absolutely nothing to do with each other. The two high school students turn from being intelligent people with a weird motives to two people performing what I thought was a spoof on thriller movies, and the movie had one sentence that combined the two main story lines together. I have two theories: 1 - The movie ran out of time and money, or 2 - The producer decided to let his summer intern write the last 20 minutes of the movie. Had this been a bad movie from the start I would have OK with that and turned it off, but to see such a great movie with so much potential absolutely collapse the way this one did, drove me crazy.
Rating:
Summary: It goes nowhere at all.....
Review: Well, what a mess. Bullock needs something great fast!!This MURDER BY NUMBERS was a waste of time, I tought it would be so much better. What dissapointment! There's no sense at all about the movie! The two kids are utterly evil, but BUllock' character (Cassie) say to Justin that he was just being "used" by the other guy and was a good boy, because Justin vomitted when taking the body to the jungle!!! Great guy... Also, Cassie is so annoying that you even want to fire her from POlice Department yourself! Ben Chaplin plays a side-kick here and also must take care of his career, after performing on that stupid movie alongside Nicole KIdman. There's the old, (I mean, OLD!) cliche of the police chief who is always in a bad mood.... There are total incoeherences in the plot. THe good loking killer guy is portrayed, according to Cassie, as being rich and adorable by everyone in the high school.. BUt the guy is always smoking, he's not an athlete, he's not surrounded by girls, and one of the reasons he supposedly commits the murder is to gain attention! Useless scenes like the one about this guy (Richard) and Bullock arguing around her car. CHris Penn's role here is also sad...Such a small role, it seems someone in the production team was paying him a favour... In general, this movie leads you nowhere, absolutely nowhere. You can't simpatize with Cassie, you can't simpatize with the killers, you can't simpatize with Chaplin, you can't simpatize with the girl (Lisa) that is seduced by Richard screaming nosense inside his car while listening to Iron Maiden's The Number of The Beast... Horrible
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