Dan and Nancy: Now Playing
The Broomfield Enterprise, Broomfield, CO

Sandra Bullock stars as a detective who must try and solve a murder committed by two high school guys. One boy is a popular kid and the other is an outcast, but they come together and are convinced that they have planned the perfect murder and can get away with it. Also starring Ben Chaplin ("Birthday Girl"). Rated ?R' for language, violence, and brief sexuality. Time spent hiding indoors because it was supposed to rain but never really did: 94 minutes.

Nancy's Take: Does the past haunt or heal? "Murder By Numbers" is a murder mystery that will keep you in suspense until the end.
Sandra Bullock is a cop that will stop at nothing to get to the bottom of the truth. Her character struggles with her own secrets from the past, and her superiors feel it's jeopardizing the case. Her aggressiveness will scare most guys away, but her partner tries to help her every step of the way.
Another angle this movie takes is showing how two boys from different worlds share similarities such as murder. With all the violence in schools and between children, this movie gives some insight on the mentality of our youth these days.
Is this movie worth the price of admission? Yes, I liked how there seemed to be two different movies going on and at the end it all comes together to make one. Sandra was funny. Her witty sense of humor kept the movie flowing pretty good. Maybe the guys who see it might not think that. Their male ego might get in the way, or say she sure isn't an easy catch. Would I see it again? No, once is enough. This is a movie that I can see showing on "Lifetime."

Dan's take: I liked this flick quite a bit and not only because, as my sister would say, I have a thing for Sandra Bullock. I do dig her, but what dude my age doesn't? Anyway, I actually enjoyed this flick on many levels. "Murder By Numbers" started with a disturbing tone but became a very interesting flick to watch.
The beginning was disturbing as we see two high school kids plan a murder and talk about suicide. They weren't planning mass murder or even a school killing but it was chilling to think about those two punks at Columbine having the same conversation almost exactly three years earlier. Maybe the timing of the movie's release wasn't planned as well as it could have been as it fell on the day before the third anniversary of the tragedy.
After that this flick became interesting to watch as the two insanely smart teenagers try to commit the perfect crime and then the detectives try to unravel a mess of planted clues. This flick felt like an episode of "CSI" as they pick up tiny clues and piece the puzzle together.
Is "Murder By Numbers" worth the price of admission? Yes. Would I see it again? Yes. I think there are enough subtle details to warrant another view.
I also finally got to see "Frailty" and it was very good. It was another disturbing flick but I didn't lose any sleep over it.

By Dan Marcucci and Nancy Serougi. Broomfield, CO
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