Videodrome
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Movie Reviews of Videodrome
Movie Review: Still Terrifying!
Summary: 4 Stars
This is probably the most troubling film that I have ever seen. I have watched it at least 10 times, and each time seems to frighten me more than the first! James Woods is brilliant in this film, while some of the other cast members were a little limp. It's low-budget feel seems to add even more to Woods' performance. I recommend watching this movie in the dark and late at night - you won't regret it!
Movie Review: Videodrome - Good condition
Summary: 4 Stars
There were no problems with the product when i recieved it, i got it right on time, and overall i was very satisfied. If i order any movies or books or whatever it may be, i will get it from this site.Movie Review: Incoherent, Repulsive, and Occasionally Fascinating
Summary: 3 Stars
The notion that television is bad for you received a literal interpretation from director-writer David Cronenberg's VIDEODROME, a film that critics described as incoherent and repulsive. Audiences tended to agree, and the film quickly became one of the major flops of 1983. Thirty years later it has considerable status as a cult film, and the ideas it broaches are intriguing enough to prompt a possible remake. Even so, viewers are every bit as likely to dislike the movie as they did in 1983.
When it was first released VIDEODROME possessed a good deal of sexual "ick" that remains disturbing to this day. Much of this centers on Debbie Harry in the role of Nikki Brand; various scenes show her sexual pleasure in having a needle driven through her ear, putting out a cigarette on her breast, and appearing as a torture victim via sattelite broadcast--and as a television image capable of sexual interaction with her viewer. James Woods, in the role of Max Renn, develops an abdominal slot that looks suspiciously like female sexual organs has a semi-organic gun grow into his hand, while Barry Convex (played by Leslie Carlson) is riddled with tumors. But while these a weird, disquieting fascination, many of the special effects, such as videotapes that seem to breathe and television sets that suddenly show veins and muscle, were pretty silly both then and now, and they tend to undercut the power of the film's overall imagery.
As for the story--Max (Woods) is the driving force behind a small, independent television station that draws audience share by showing softcore porn. He employs a pirate broadcast researcher, Harland (Peter Dvorsky), who discovers a particular distasteful program broadcast from the unlikely point of Pittsburg: something called Videodrome, which has no dialogue and no plot and consists only of torture, mutilation, and murder. Fascinated, Max is desperate to broadcast Videodrome, but his masochistic lover Nikki (Harry) becomes equally fascinated and then disappears while searching for the original broadcast location. Is it possible that the horrors shown on Videodrome are not faked, but real? And if so, to what actual purpose? It becomes increasingly difficult to know what what the characters have experienced and what they have hallucinated; indeed, it becomes difficult to know if some of the characters have existed at all. Near the end of the film one character states that Nikki was killed on Videodrome, which then used her image to seduce Max--a statement that implies the entire story has been nothing more nor less than Max's hallucination.
If this sounds like fascinating stuff, it often is. But it is also extremely disjointed and often too vague for its own good, and the whole thing falls apart at midpoint and never quite recovers. Ultimately, VIDEODROME is intriguing--but there's no getting around the fact that Cronenberg has explored similar material to better effect in DEAD RINGERS and CRASH. Recommended for Cronenberg fans but few others.
GFT, Amazon Reviewer
Movie Review: Wait for the Criterion DVD this August!
Summary: 3 Stars
From Fangoria:* Audio commentary by Cronenberg and cinematographer Mark Irwin
* Audio commentary by stars James Woods and Deborah Harry
* Cronenberg's short film Camera, created for the Toronto Film Festival in 2000 and starring VIDEODROME's Les Carlson
* A new 30-minute documentary by VIDEODROME video FX artist Michael Lennick about the movie's landmark makeup and special FX
* Fear on Film, a half-hour roundtable discussion from 1982 between Cronenberg, John Carpenter and John Landis (all of whom were working on Universal horror films at the time), hosted by director-to-be Mick Garris
* Short promotional featurette from 1982, also created by Garris
* Trailers
* Extensive galleries with makeup test shots, behind-the-scenes photos, publicity stills, marketing materials, etc.
* Samurai Dreams-the fake Japanese soft-porn film seen in the movie, presented in its entirety
* And more!
Movie Review: Good, not great
Summary: 3 Stars
A lot of good movies out there are ruined by their extreme length but here's an example of a good movie that fails because it's too short...at a little over 80 minutes, Videodrome does not wait around for you to catch on and most viewers, I suspect, will be totally lost...on the other hand, James Woods gives an excellent performance (as usual), the special effects are terrific, and I couldn't take my eyes off Deborah Harry the whole ten minutes she was in the movie...