MURDER BY NUMBERS (DVD/S) [2002]

Homicide detectives Cassie Mayweather (Sandra Bullock) and Sam Kennedy (Ben Chin) are called in to investigate a murder, and soon find clues that point to school caretaker Ray (Chris Penn). Cassie then goes to Ray's house to look for further clues, but is violently attacked by his pet baboon and hospitalised. Upon her recovery, Cassie discovers that the case has been closed and that Ray is now dead, apparently having committed suicide. Nevertheless, despite what her colleagues say, Cassie is convinced that justice has not been done, and resolves to get to the bottom of the matter. .co.uk Review ------------- Murder by Numbers is a satisfying, if hardly earth-shattering, addition to Sandy Bullock's CV and the thriller genre in general. While director Barbet Schroeder ratcheted up the tension in his Single White Female, here the action coasts along at a more sedate pace with a tale of teenage murderers that's loosely based on a real incident. (The same incident was the basis for two other movies: Rope ( /exec/obidos/ASIN/B00005EAX9/${0} ) and Compulsion.) Bullock plays seasoned cop Cassie Mayweather, who links the murder of a young woman in Los Angeles to two high-school students. Cassie and her partner (Ben Chin) engage in the obligatory game of cat-and-mouse with the two teenagers before the ludicrous finale. It could have been a good film, but Murder by Numbers continually misses the interesting point that this was a crime committed by highly intelligent young men simply for the intellectual thrill of it; instead, it serves up a by-the-numbers thriller with all the trappings of a TV movie. The performances are solid (especially that by Ryan Gosling, who plays one of the murderous teens) but there are so many gaping holes in both plot and logic that the film pretty much manages to disappear into them. On the DVD: Murder by Numbers gets a by-the-numbers DVD release. The normally commentary-friendly Ms Bullock is absent from the chit-chat here, and the director and editor really don't throw up anything of significant interest beyond discussing an extra scene that they cl is included on the DVD but in fact seems absent and giving the reasons why they couldn't use the high school locations originally planned. The DVD also includes the trailer. A good sharp transfer and strong Dolby 5.1 mix are the plus points. --Jon Weir

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