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Movies / On DVD / Videodrome
Videodrome

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Videodrome (1983)

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Reviews Counted:45

Fresh:36

Rotten:9

Average Rating:7.2/10

Consensus: Visually audacious, disorienting, and just plain weird, Videodrome's musings on technology, entertainment, and politics still feel fresh today.

Runtime: 1 hr 47 mins

Genre: Television

Synopsis: Max Renn runs an unauthorized cable channel in Toronto that caters to viewers demanding increasingly violent and pornographic material. One night, in search of new programming fodder, he stumbles... Max Renn runs an unauthorized cable channel in Toronto that caters to viewers demanding increasingly violent and pornographic material. One night, in search of new programming fodder, he stumbles across a scrambled satellite transmission emanating from unknown regions -- a startlingly graphic broadcast that routinely depicts the brutal torture and murder of women. Excited by his find, Renn attempts to track the show to its origins, but he continually encounters resistance, including a warning from one of his programming suppliers that the broadcasts are not dramatizations but depictions of actual murders. Undaunted, Renn finally traces the show to Pittsburgh, where he encounters the transmissions of a Messianic madman known as Brian O'Blivion. Although O'Blivion is dead, his daughter continues to spread his twisted gospel by broadcasting old videotapes of his sermons, encouraging people to embrace the barbarous new TV world as reality. Eventually Renn finds the man who is controlling all the hallucinatory video violence. But by then, Max has begun his own descent into madness, an insanity culminating in physical manifestations of the exploitative sleaze he has profited from over the years. [More]

Starring: James Woods, Deborah Harry, Peter Dvorsky, Les Carlson

Starring: James Woods, Deborah Harry, Peter Dvorsky, Les Carlson

Director: David Cronenberg

Director: David Cronenberg
Screenwriter: David Cronenberg
Producer: Claude Heroux

[See More Credits]

Reviews for Videodrome

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1 - 20 (sorted by date; UK critics are listed first)
Text View | 1 2 3 >> >|
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There are distinct signs of strain in the plot convolutions, not least in the spectator's loss of faith over indiscriminate and cheating use of hallucination; what certainly survives is Cronenberg's wholesale disgust with the world in general.

Full Review Source: Time Out | comment Comment
01/26/06
Time Out
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

No review available.

comment Comment
11/01/03
Rich Cline
Rich Cline
Shadows on the Wall

On a line starting with quality and ending with incompetence.

Full Review Source: BBC | comment Comment
04/17/01
Michael Thomson
Michael Thomson
BBC
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

... Videodrome is as contemporary and relevant as ever.

Full Review Source: Seanax.com | comment Comment
10/30/08
Sean Axmaker
Sean Axmaker
Seanax.com

[I]t stands out as one of Cronenberg's very best.

Full Review Source: ESplatter | comment Comment
06/19/08
Lucius Gore
Lucius Gore
ESplatter

No review available.

comment Comment
02/23/08
Cole Smithey
Cole Smithey
ColeSmithey.com

Film is dotted with video jargon and ideology which proves more fascinating than distancing. And Cronenberg amplifies the freaky situation with a series of stunning visual effects.

Full Review Source: Variety | comment Comment
06/06/07
Variety Staff
Variety Staff
Variety
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

David Cronenberg's most visionary and audacious film up to the time of its making, Videodrome is a fascinating rumination on humanity, technology, entertainment, sex, and politics that is virtually incomprehensible on first viewing.

Full Review Source: TV Guide's Movie Guide | comment Comment
06/06/07
TV Guide's Movie Guide
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Never coherent and frequently pretentious, the film remains an audacious attempt to place obsessive personal images before a popular audience -- a kind of Kenneth Anger version of Star Wars.

Full Review Source: Chicago Reader | comment 1 Comment
06/06/07
Dave Kehr
Dave Kehr
Chicago Reader

No review available.

comment Comment
05/07/07
Chuck O'Leary
Chuck O'Leary
FulvueDrive-in.com

Veers from being risible to sinister as it explores how viewers are brainwashed by TV.

Full Review Source: Ozus' World Movie Reviews | comment 1 Comment
03/03/07
Dennis Schwartz
Dennis Schwartz
Ozus' World Movie Reviews

Videodrome is arguably one of Cronenberg's best horror films, and it holds up brilliantly.

Full Review Source: About.com | comment Comment
07/12/06
Staci Layne Wilson
Staci Layne Wilson
About.com

The director captures the worst-case scenario of what might happen at the dawn of the video era, going all the way back to our parents' warning us not to sit too close to the television.

Full Review Source: Combustible Celluloid | comment Comment
09/26/05
Jeffrey M. Anderson
Jeffrey M. Anderson
Combustible Celluloid

No review available.

comment Comment
07/21/05
Emanuel Levy
Emanuel Levy
EmanuelLevy.Com

No review available.

comment Comment
06/11/05
Jake Euker
Jake Euker
F5 (Wichita, KS)

No review available.

comment Comment
04/13/05
Thomas Delapa
Thomas Delapa
Boulder Weekly

Underbaked, but you can't argue with its otherworldly aura. One disappointment: we don't get to see the belly-slit sex organs Baker designed for the never-used orgy finale.

Full Review Source: Seattle Weekly | comment 1 Comment
03/09/05
Tim Appelo
Tim Appelo
Seattle Weekly

By the time it reaches its...inevitable-feeling conclusion, 'Videodrome' has become more than a mere horror film--it's an indictment of everyone represented by its characters.

Full Review Source: culturevulture.net | comment Comment
09/29/04
Phil Freeman
Phil Freeman
culturevulture.net

Cronenberg was ahead of his time with this gross-out horror flick.

Full Review Source: Reno Gazette-Journal | comment Comment
09/20/04
Mark Robison
Mark Robison
Reno Gazette-Journal

Thematically, it connects easily with most other titles in the Cronenberg oeuvre, with the added treat of having been released far ahead of its time.

Full Review Source: Creative Loafing | comment Comment
09/01/04
Matt Brunson
Matt Brunson
Creative Loafing
 
 
1 - 20 (sorted by date; UK critics are listed first)
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all

Latest News for Videodrome

April 27, 2009: Uni Preps New Videodrome Opens in new window
Universal has announced plans to remake David Cronenberg's "Videodrome," with Ehren Kruger set to write and produce. More...

March 01, 2007: "Saw" Maker to Tackle "Scanners" Remake
Darren Lynn Bousman, director of "Saw 2," "Saw 3," and the upcoming "Saw 4," will soon be helming a remake of David Cronenberg's... More...

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