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"Pi" is out on VHS and DVD 74

Posted by CmdrTaco from the stuff-to-see dept.
D.Schmidt writes "The movie "Pi" came out on DVD and VHS several days ago. Its web site is pithemovie.com. Good luck finding it- my friends and I have not been able to find a video store that has it yet. " Normally I wouldn't mention something like this, but Pi is just a bizarre movie, definitely something any self respecting Geek should go see. Keep an eye out for it.
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"Pi" is out on VHS and DVD More

"Pi" is out on VHS and DVD

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  • this is definitely a must see.....
  • I bought a Panasonic A-110 because I read it is a popular balance between price and quality. I have been very satisfied with it.

    You might want to check out rec.video.dvd and ask around there.

    ---
    mjt
    -----------
  • Posted by Charles Bronson:

    I have to say that I find it kind of strange that this was posted on Slashdot, despite the disclaimer. Regardless, Pi was a friggin' awesome movie. I used my movie theater-working friend to get me in to see it three times, and it kept getting better. Not a date movie, though.

    I had no idea that Pi had a geek following, but thinking about it now, it seems logical.
  • Posted by antivert:

    They do it to screw Blockbuster and the other rental chains. That's also why DVDs are cheaper once a film has gone out of print. I wonder, if they start renting all DVDs, if they'll also be $90 when they first come out. :(
  • Posted by silvari:

    Just saw it tonight at Knapps's Video, corner of Kirkland and Beacon, Somerville, MA., USA. They had 2 copies. I had never heard of it, didn't know what to think so I didn't bother. Apparently, that was a hasty decision...

    -Silvari
  • Posted by Buckaroo Banzai:

    Ok, I'm guessing that people who didn't like the movie didn't comment. So I want to balance it out a bit.

    I didn't like the movie all that much - no, I didn't hate it, but I just don't think it was that good!

    1) I didn't like a single character in the whole movie - partly from bad acting, partly from bad script. Sure, at an intellectual level I can see where the protaganist is coming from, but there's nothing too compelling about him, or any character (with the possible exception of the Rabbi)

    2) The director must assume we are idiots - there is NO SUBTLETY at all in the film. If there are symbols, they are shoved in your face. I mean, the guy finds a brain in the subway, and this absurd scene plays out in which you can just imagine the director kicking and screaming for us to catch the message he's trying to convey. Please, we get it already!

    Now, for some good points. The ideas ARE interesting, just not conveyed well. The music is excellent - actually I heard the music first (and the fact that it's about math) made me want to see it. Geeks should see it - but I found myself cringing in my seat on multiple occasions.
  • i've never heard of the movie and the website is a disaster of confusion. what's the movie about? why should i [or anybody] see it? thanks.
  • I liked it...but it was pretty dark. I appreciated it for it's math stuff, but in terms of imagery, it's not exactly a "date flick". I tend to be more sensitive to this kind of stuff, so maybe it affects me more...I don't know. YMMV.

    <tim><
  • I must say i saw Pi in the theatre and i LOVED it. I absolutely adore the movie. I wish i could have seen it a couple more times but time constraints didn't allow it. im definatly buying it and would highly recommend it to anyone else!!!

    Margaret

  • It came to mind when I saw that Pi was for sale. it was another interesting movie of 98.
  • I forget where it was, but I seem to recall some TV program (I think it was) about this show called Sundance, where amateur directors/producers get to present movies. I guess lots of people high up in Hollywood attend Sundance and offer contracts, etc.


    Anyway, this program I was watching was really old, but it was talking about how Pi wouldn't make Sundance that year, however, it went on to say at the end that it took 1st place the _next_ year. Supposdly this guy had to go around begging for computer hardware/software and money. I think they were in debt big time, but since the movie took off so well, they're in great shape now.

    Does anyone know what I'm talking about? If not, just smile and nod.

    It looked like they had some pretty snazzy Macs to me. Now only if they had Avid Videoshop for Linux....


    -dave
    :wq
  • www.bestbuy.com has "Pi" on DVD for $12.49 plus $2.49 for shipping ($14.98 total). Which is cheaper than amazon or any other place that I found it. Unfortunately, although I ordered my copy the first day it was available, I have yet to get it...yargh!
  • Just Wondering if anyone else noticed that Sean Gullette (writer and actor) also did the website for "Pi". Wow...talented feller.
  • I agree with the poster above who didn't like the movie. But I'm not sure if its for the same reason.

    When I first heard about the film playing at the local CinemaStar (a promising investment for anyone interested - ticker LUXY) ... it blew me away ... here was a movie ... artsy or otherwise that was going to try to portray a guy trying to understand complexity. This could be the most important subject in the history of the world, because its about unlocking the nature of the world itself ... or complexity could be the modern fountain of youth ... always just out of reach because of the nature of chaotic systems.

    I truly believe that we (as geeks) are best poised to pursue this complex issue. We have access to hardware that screams so fast trying to simulate reality vis-a-vis 3D games, but how many of these monster CPUs get applied trying to understand reality?

    I think its about a 50/50 issue. The behavior of complex systems like the stock market may never be unraveled, or it may one day be a home Beowulf or even someone like distributed.net may do it ... and that's going to make the world a fundamentally different place.

    These are profound issues ... Issues that get to the heart of the nature of the universe ... but you know what ... the movie Pi missed that ... it wrapped itself up in artsy-fartsy (which can be okay) and never really got the big issue involved. That's what bugged me about the flick. It had possibilities, but just didn't get it.

    Thank's for listening ... now, how the hell do I get down off this soapbox?

    David Clatfelter

  • Zone 4 (Score:1)

    by acb ( 2797 )
    I suppose the DVD is Zone 1 only... any idea when (if ever) a Zone 4 disc will come out?

    Not that I have a DVD... there's about a dozen titles available in Australia, and most of them aren't worth seeing. Zoning sucks.

  • Also available at Hollywood Video here in Mesa, Az. (Only 2 copies and both were gone.) Guess I have to wait my turn.

  • I saw it last night (Saturday) at a Blockbuster in (funky) Pasadena, MD. I wanted to rent it, but I got vetoed. :-(
  • When I saw this was out, I surfed over to Reel.com [reel.com] to check out pricing. Hmm, DVD is 17.99 with a saving of $7, but VHS is $90.99 with a saving of $16. So my question is: who's selling the VHS version for $107? And if VHS tapes are going up in price this much, I need to start looking around for a DVD player...

    Yes, I know it's a typo, I've already sent a mail to them asking for the correct price. I just found it funny.
  • > I guess I am alone in thinking this movie is an over-hyper, under-written, and poorly plotted movie.

    The plot and content aren't the point. They really don't stand up to much examination by themselves. What is remarkable is the direction and design of the movie - they are very much unusual. If you let yourself be drawn into the film they are very effectlve.

    To me, it's more about taking you into a state of mind than anything else.
  • "definitely something any self respecting Geek should go see."

    I'm not going to argue that I am not a geek, cause I don't care if I am or not. I would just like to comment on that train of thought. You know, the whole "I AM A SLASHDOT SUBSCRIBER" thing. It's kinda strange that people beging to think of themselves that way, assosiating themselves with a web page or being a geek. It's like, just live, do what you will, stop grouping everything.

    JUST A THOUGHT FROM THE "CAN'T WE ALL JUST GET ALONG" DEPARTMENT.
  • Just a couple things I'd like to say, and, rather than reply to each particular message, it was much easier for me to post 'em all in one spot (sorry)...

    1) People have been debating if we know the exact value of pi, and contending the claims of the movie on this issue...
    I think the movie's point, is that pi is such a basic quantity, and we know exactly what it represents, that there sure as hell should be someway to express it simply... but there isn't, and that's what makes it interesting, and that's why looking for patterns in it might be a compelling pursuit.

    2) People have been criticizing the acting in the film. As a theatre (well, and astrophysics) major, I've been taught that acting is highly subjective. Personally I thought the acting was well done in the movie, the individual styles appropriate to the surrealistic qualities of the film. And the fact that remains, is that the acting will seem different to each individual who views it, so the actor just does the best that he/she can, hoping to find a performance that the majority will find plausible, but, perhaps most importantly, will be satisfying to him/her-self.

    3) In the end, I thought pi was a great, intense, film. And I think some people here are taking it a little too literally (harping on the math, etc.) and failing to see that the whole film is layered metaphors and, essentially, about the human psyche and fanatical pursuit of a goal. Just because something has deep underlying meaning, and is done in an unconventional style doesn't make it "artsy" or pretentious... IT just is finding different ways to speak more clearly to the human soul.
    So there. ;-)

    Wombat
  • Blockbuster has it. saw it yesterday...wow!
  • Film rental places adjacent to college campuses are also excellent places to find foreign/cult films. They're usually cheaper than Blockbuster, too...
  • It won the Director Award at Sundance in 1998. :) It's an outstanding movie, and they have made good use of the extra DVD space to put in commentaries, a music video, and "lost scenes," including a video test for a special camera (which would have been really cool if used, just because it adds to the effect of being inside Max's head).
  • Pi has only just come out (on the arthouse circuit) in the cinema in the UK.

    Haven't seen it yet, but I definitely intend to!

  • mmmmOrbital. I think it's time for some orbital. Thanks for reminding me :)
  • Ya, geek factor was high in pi. Gotta love the grungy decorum. I found the movie confused...the mysticism was pretty sketchy. It was kind of like an X-files episode really. Know the saddest part? Him listening to his next door neighbour have sex. This is NOT something anyone should aspire to. :)

  • At First Run Video. Didn't know what it was when I saw it, but will probably invest the $2.99 to see it. Why not?


    Northeast USA Computer Show Schedule
  • Well, the counterculture undercurrents in the movie are so poorly represented in mass-market movies that they alone make the movie worth seeing.

    That is, of course, you can stand the clausterphobic setting. Most people (including me) found that the setting of the movie ( the apartment, the big computer, black and white ) was the best in ages.

    Besides, if Raster liked it ( see his page of random cruft at http://www.labs.redhat.com/~raster), how could it be that bad?
  • Did he really drill his brain, or was that a dream sequence? At the end of the movie, when the little Asian girl asked him to race the calculator, was he dreaming, dead (and in the afterlife), or alive with a partially drilled brain? My girlfriend and I continue to debate this question. Any interpretations?

  • Complexity is easy. Simplicity is hard. You can deal with complexity by organizing it into simpler elements. That only takes time. But to find a useful simplification takes experience and a wisdom which only comes from repeatedly risking failure. Life is never just a simple matter of programming.


    This, as I see it, is the message of the movie. It's a little scary to see people taking its protagonist as a role model...


    -Ed

  • I see that DVD Express [dvdexpress.com] looks to have just got a big shipment of PI (they indicate 545 copies on their web site, and last week it was listed as 'Out of Stock'). I've had good luck ordering from them. Their fulfillment house has mailed me stuff within a day of ordering from their LA warehouse.

    I'm not affiliated with them in any way, but thought I'd pass along a direct link to a dependable (my own personal experience, anyways) DVD shop on the web (unlike 800.com which has not shipped me discs order 6 weeks ago).

    PI Link [dvdexpress.com] at DVD Express.

    Roy

  • I work(ed) for Video Update [videoupdate.com]. They have 800ish stores nationwide, and at the location I just quit (Redmond, WA) they had 12 copies for rent.

    Excellent film.

  • I had the same feeling... that I had to build something.

    It was kind of screwed up though once I started talking to people. Social interaction and intense, obsessive drive don't mix well.

    The soundtrack is still one of my favorites when I am building something.

  • The website is purposely confusing. The movie itself is confusing. Ostensibly the movie is about a brilliant mathematician's drive to solve a very hard, or even impossible problem. There are a lot of layers and twists though. I've been told that it's strongly reminiscent of a David Lynch movie.

    Does anybody think there's a Godel string for the human mind? :-)

  • You're right, but I think better acting and better writing would've detracted from the movie. Some movies just aren't about their plots.

  • ..so, what did you build?

    alex..
  • Pi is a perfect date movie! If she doesn't go "Ewww, whats with all the math stuff, and get a load of the crappy music, theres not even any lyrics!", then she gets a second date. I couldn't think of a better barbie girl filter :-)
  • Yeah I saw the repeat of that, either 48 hours, 20/20, or Dateline, but I'm pretty sure it was 48 hours. They chronicled 3 different groups making movies for the festival and which one actually one the award. The guy was writing letter to everyone he knew and asked for $100 from each of them. He was in major debt, but I think most of the Avid stuff he was using was because he had a friend in the biz doing the graphics stuff on his own hours.
    The music was done also at home by another friend in his apartment I think.

    That bit about running around for hardware was for some of the scenes they shot with lots of old computer hardware all piled up.

    Anyways, the movie either won sundance or won a major award there and they got a $1 million contract pretty much on the spot.

  • Argh!

    The website couldn't be any vaguer if it tried...!
  • Nope, I've got the Toshiba 2008. Not a single artifact yet. I believe they're second-generation now. They don't have composite video output (but they do have SVHS output) and no DTS output, but who wants that? DTS is a stupid move, anyway, if you ask me.

    It's a bare-bones player, but it plays the discs well, as far as I'm concerned.

    -Augie, swears by his Toshiba 2008 and Creative Labs PC-DVD (which can be had for $200 if you're really on a budget and have room in your computer and are running Windows, too.)

  • ???? (Score:1)

    by nester ( 14407 )
    what the hell is the movie ABOUT?? that site is nothing but a bunch of java stuff!

  • I couldn't agree with you more concerning the film. You final remark however...

    So what's the sound of one hand clapping? Does a dog have a Buddha Nature? Who cares? I know why electrons have quantum states and how stellar distances are calculated beyond 100 light years. Go enough. I'd rather know than believe.

    So, you can make a rigid distinction between knowing and believing? I assume you use the Hubble law to calculate the distances. And how do you know that this law is valid? Presumably because it seems to be in agreement with parallax methods for nearby stars. You have to make the assumption that it works the same way outside this range. That's what I would call believing ;)

    Understanding of Buddha nature is more similar to this than you might think, you could even view it as the metaphysical counterpart to science -- you find models for thought instead of for the physical universe. Please don't confuse Zen with pyramidology, scientology, psychoanalysis and the likes. Zen won't ask of you to believe, it's the other way round.

    It's a pity that there are so few good films about science. I'm looking forward to Kubricks next project, A.I. [lehigh.edu] The plot sounds promising...

  • First time I hear about this movie but if it is as stupid as the content on the WebSite, count me out. Here's a shining example from the site:

    "The earliest known written record of the ratio comes from 1650 BCE Egypt, where a scribe calculated the value to be 3.16 (a mere 1% off the true value). Although now, we have methods to calculate the digits of pi (3.1415...) its exact value remains a mystery."

    Wrong. The exact value of pi is known exactly. It's exactly 4 times the arctangent of 1. Or, in simpler words:

    4*(1 + 1/3 - 1/5 + 1/7 - 1/9 + 1/11 - 1/13 ...)

    It's just an infinite sequence, which makes it hard to write down. I guess that's too complicated for the showbusiness industry to comprehend.

    --
    SlashDotLongHair
  • You can rent the movie at BlockBuster. I hate that store but sometimes it caries movies that are worth paying the $3.70 fee. I saw the movie at an indy theatre in Boston. I thought it was going to be more math like since I didn't know what it wass about at the time. It wasn't a 'must see' but I did like the music.
  • I dunno... my SO thought of "Sneakers", "Braveheart", and the like as date movies so I guess it depends on who your date is. :)

  • Microsoft does NOT have a Year 2000 problem. We HAVE it. ( using M$ products )
  • A couple of months ago, the NYT had a long story following up on some of those rocket science investment firms. According to the story, they're not being terribly profitable. And they were, I think, severely hammered by the unpredictable ups and downs of 1998.
    Those are the big unpredictable activities, like devaluation, etc., of 1998, which are arguably not predictable in a chaos model based on the prior 2 years of data.
    (I'm not sure if they were in this article, but the firm with the highest profile is probably The Prediction Company, in the Santa Fe area, run by Farmer and other chaos gurus from the Santa Fe Institute.)

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