Murder by Numbers
The body of a young woman is found in a ditch in the woods of the small California coastal town of San Benito. The two gifted high school students who thought they had executed the 'perfect' murder must become engaged in an intellectual contest with a seasoned homicide detective.
12 November 1980, London, Ontario, Canada
17 August 1953, USA
16 August 1985, Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA
6 February 1971, Cleveland, Ohio, USA
31 July 1970, London, England, UK
10 October 1965, Los Angeles, California, USA
8 June 1962, Paterson, New Jersey, USA
13 June 1950, Buffalo, New York, USA
December 26, 2010
Predictable thriller is definitely not for kids.
January 07, 2004
... It leaves you feeling that it could have been so much more.
May 17, 2002
It's well worth catching for its interesting twists on the Leopold and Loeb story.
February 08, 2003
The literal cliffhanger ending is far too overblown to be convincing, but most of what comes before it deserves praise.
April 22, 2002
Bullock is good, the script is not.
June 01, 2002
We're less in suspense over how (or if) the killers will be caught than we are over the question of just who this tough, hedonistic detective is.
April 19, 2002
Turns potentially forgettable formula into something strangely diverting.
April 23, 2002
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.
June 25, 2004
The problem is that there's no real mystery to this mystery.
October 26, 2002
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.
July 20, 2002
The outline of Murder by Numbers may be familiar, but the filmmakers and Bullock do an expert job of filling in the colors.
August 01, 2003
Lesson learned: Never ask Ben Chaplin to lose his British accent.
