Painful to Watch

Rating: 1/10 (14 March 1999)

On a recommendation, I rented the video 'Pi' and forced myself to watch it, having to stop the video several times. I think I would have experienced less pain having my wisdom teeth extracted, than watching the 85 minutes of this grainy, psychedelic mess. The film tries to be deep and profound, and I'm sure many people buy into it, and will say I missed the point. Anyone with any knowledge of science in general and is willing to call things like they are, is likely to see how superficial and false the film is. Thrown together with the gritty, black and white visuals and strange camera angles, is a continuous throbbing techno beat, and the dabble into religious mysticism, medical problems, mathematic theorems, and mental illness. I'm sure the film makers hoped this mix would make Max's quest for answers and his journey into madness seem a revelation. I found the film disturbing and slow moving. However, if you're one that likes to dig for meaning that isn't there and can believe a mainframe computer is made of several keyboards and old TV sets tied together, then by all means see this film. My only recommendation is don't make the mistake I did; which was seeing this film sober.