terrible movie, just terrible...

Rating: 1/10 (24 February 2014)

Wow, where to begin. Poor direction, terrible acting, lousy choices in set design... I could go on an on but I wont waste too much time, I wasted enough on this stupid film. While I'm not a mathematician or numerologist I am a smart man who has seen and studied many movies and styles of movies. As far as understanding the movie, there is little to worry about understanding the plot. There is very little information given to outline the plot, and very little plot. It's pretty simple, he is crazy. That doesn't mean he is not also brilliant, but assuredly he is a nut job. This matters little in the end as the story is fleeting and pointless. Now for the acting. The lead actor is one of the worst actors I have ever seen. His portrayal is labored and not believable. I can actually feel as though I can see Aronofsky off to the side saying "OK now get a bit more frantic, and break that computer there! Now look kinda scared and confused..." Ben Shenkman is actually redeemable and somewhat interesting, and Mark Margolis is a terrific actor and is the one actor who shines through. This is not nearly enough to make the film even remotely enjoyable. The woman and her goons that accost him randomly throughout the movie are some of the worst over the top actors I have ever seen, as is the little Asian girl. I don't enjoy bad mouthing a child actor (though she is a grown up by now at any rate) she was just so bad it's atrocious. Friends of mine (with whom I usually agree with when it comes to taste in movies) say this is the early version of requiem for a dream, supposedly requiem being the Hollywood "money" version. I must say I do not see this at all. Requiem is an amazing film, fantastic direction, acting, script, style etc. It is a strong film that shines a light on drug addiction, the pressure of adult life, actions, reactions and consequences. Pi is nothing like this, not even one tiny bit. It is a horrible mess of video and audio, it really does not deserve to be called a movie as it would signify that it has some kind of story and/or cohesion, which it absolutely lacks in every way. To be clear, I am not a hater of independent films or artistic films. I loathe Michael Bay and his ilk of directors. The fact is that good film making is just that, whether it is a low budget gem or a high budget Hollywood gold mine. I have no problem with black and white films either. That being said, filming low budget b/w film doesn't automatically make it deep and rich in texture. Much as you can't put $200,000,000 into a film and guarantee a blockbuster smash hit that gets great reviews, you can't shoot low budget and expect to make a great film based on almost no story and terrible acting.