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Videodrome

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Videodrome (1983)

80%
50%
80%
N/A
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80 %
Reviews Counted: 45 Fresh: 36  Rotten:9 Average Rating: 7.3/10
 
Consensus: Visually audacious, disorienting, and just plain weird, Videodrome's musings on technology, entertainment, and politics still feel fresh today.
 

How does the Tomatometer work?

The Tomatometer measures the percentage of positive reviews from Approved Tomatometer Critics for a certain movie.[-]

Runtime: 1 hr 47 mins

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 across a scrambled satellite transmission emanating from unknown regions -- a startlingly... 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]

Genre: Television

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

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

DVD Info

Release:

Jul 8, 2006

[DVD Details]

DVD Features:

  • Region 1
  • Keep Case
  • Widescreen - 1.85

Additional Release Material:

  • Audio Commentary - 1. David Cronenberg - Director
  • 2. James Woods - Star
  • 3. Deborah Harry - Star
  • 4. Mark Irwin - Director of Photography
  • Bonus Feature/Short - 1. CAMERA (Dir. David Cronenberg)
  • 2. SAMURAI DREAMS
  • 3. FEAR ON FILM
  • 4. FORMING THE NEW FLESH
  • Featurette
  • Trailers - 1. Original Theatrical Trailer
  • Documentary - 1. FORMING THE NEW FLESH

Text/Photo Galleries:

  • Stills/Photos
  • Additional Text - 1. Essay By Film Critic Carrie Rickey
  • 2. Essay By VIDEODROME Expert Tim Lucas

Reviews

 
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1 - 20 (sorted by date; UK critics are listed first)
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Ratings Image
N/A

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 | comment Comment
01/26/06
Time Out
Top Critic Icon Top Critic
Ratings Image
3/5

No review available.

comment Comment
11/01/03
Rich Cline
Shadows on the Wall
Ratings Image
2/5

On a line starting with quality and ending with incompetence.

Full Review | comment Comment
04/17/01
Michael Thomson
BBC
Top Critic Icon Top Critic
Ratings Image
4/4

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

Full Review | comment Comment
06/19/08
Lucius Gore
ESplatter
Ratings Image
5/5

No review available.

comment Comment
02/23/08
Cole Smithey
ColeSmithey.com
Ratings Image
N/A

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 | comment Comment
06/06/07
Variety Staff
Variety
Top Critic Icon Top Critic
Ratings Image
3.5/4

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 | comment Comment
06/06/07
TV Guide's Movie Guide
Top Critic Icon Top Critic
Ratings Image
N/A

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 | comment Comment
06/06/07
Dave Kehr
Chicago Reader
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2/5

No review available.

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

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

Full Review | comment Comment
03/03/07
Dennis Schwartz
Ozus' World Movie Reviews
Ratings Image
N/A

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

Full Review | comment Comment
07/12/06
Staci Layne Wilson
About.com
Ratings Image
4/4

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 | comment Comment
09/26/05
Jeffrey M. Anderson
Combustible Celluloid
Ratings Image
4/5

No review available.

comment Comment
07/21/05
Emanuel Levy
EmanuelLevy.Com
Ratings Image
2/5

No review available.

comment Comment
06/11/05
Jake Euker
F5 (Wichita, KS)
Ratings Image
2/5

No review available.

comment Comment
04/13/05
Thomas Delapa
Boulder Weekly
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7/10

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 | comment Comment
03/09/05
Tim Appelo
Seattle Weekly
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N/A

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 | comment Comment
09/29/04
Phil Freeman
culturevulture.net
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B

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

Full Review | comment Comment
09/20/04
Mark Robison
Reno Gazette-Journal
Ratings Image
3/4

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 | comment Comment
09/01/04
Matt Brunson
Creative Loafing
Ratings Image
3.5/5

Though Videodrome finally grows grotesque and a little confused, it begins very well and sustains its cleverness for a long while.

Full Review | comment Comment
08/30/04
Janet Maslin
New York Times
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1 - 20 (sorted by date; UK critics are listed first)
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