Murder By Numbers: Critic Reviews

Murder by Numbers' isn't a great movie, but it's a perfectly acceptable widget.

Turns potentially forgettable formula into something strangely diverting.

As long as Schroeder stays with the kids, the film musters a good deal of restless tabloid intensity, and even the occasional twinge of pathos.

The outline of Murder by Numbers may be familiar, but the filmmakers and Bullock do an expert job of filling in the colors.

It's well worth catching for its interesting twists on the Leopold and Loeb story.

[Gayton's script] telegraphs every discovery and layers on the gloss of convenience.

Predictable thriller is definitely not for kids.

The problem is that there's no real mystery to this mystery.

... It leaves you feeling that it could have been so much more.

Lesson learned: Never ask Ben Chaplin to lose his British accent.

The literal cliffhanger ending is far too overblown to be convincing, but most of what comes before it deserves praise.

Director Barbet Schroeder, whose Barfly (1987) remains one of the most memorable in my mental filmbank, shoots this script with the kind of concentrated power that turns every scene into the most effective tool emotionally as well as expositionally.

Despite the presence of Ms. Bullock, Murder By Numbers doesn't add up to very much, and like those old paint-by-numbers kits, the movie can easily be set aside and forgotten.

Bullock's complete lack of focus and ability quickly derails the film

There are times when the movie plays like a version of Alfred Hitchcock's Rope if the Jimmy Stewart role were replaced with the team from TV's C.S.I.

An interesting idea turned into a movie about too many things. Maybe complexity in today?s dumbed down cinema is good; but complexity is not the same as "too much."

Dizer que "Calculo Mortal" e uma decepcao e constatar o obvio.

Moments of force exist within a work that feels more like product than art, and things end up disturbing for all the wrong reasons.

Only mildly entertaining, "Murder By Numbers" is not as "thrilling" as a thriller should be.

118 - the number of minutes this movies runs. 22 - the number of minutes it took to bore me to death. 116 - the number of minutes I want back.

Murder by Numbers nos obliga a identificarnos no con los representantes de la ley, sino con los autores del crimen.

The debut script by Tony Gayton completely betrays the director's compelling tone.

plods through its psychological murder-mystery trappings like well-worn clothes, and the edges are definitely starting to look frayed

It's an intriguing set-up, but the execution leaves a lot to be desired.

The story has some nice twists but the ending and some of the back-story is a little tired. The performances are all solid; it merely lacks originality to make it a great movie.