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Movies / Upcoming / 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

US Box Office: $0

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 critic A-Z; Australian critics are listed first)
Text View | 1 2 3 >> >|
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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

Cronenberg, whose Max Renn might be seen as some sort of alter ego, however absolves technology from its share of responsibility for media-induced alienation.

Full Review Source: rec.arts.movies.reviews | comment Comment
01/01/00
Dragan Antulov
Dragan Antulov
rec.arts.movies.reviews

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

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

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

Required viewing for any cult, horror, sci-fi, cyberpunk, or philosophical film fan.

Full Review Source: Mike Bracken's Horror Films | comment Comment
02/13/01
Mike Bracken
Mike Bracken
Mike Bracken's Horror Films

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

Home to the delicious Miltonic idea that what Adam dreams he wakes to find real.

Full Review Source: Film Freak Central | comment Comment
03/09/03
Walter Chaw
Walter Chaw
Film Freak Central

A showcase for some of the most unforgettable special makeup effects work ever to see a movie screen.

Full Review Source: Bryant Frazer's Deep Focus | comment Comment
01/01/00
Bryant Frazer
Bryant Frazer
Bryant Frazer's Deep Focus

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

[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

A horror film of unusual substance and vision -- the first film from David Cronenberg that announced his true importance as a filmmaker.

Full Review Source: Mountain Xpress (Asheville, NC) | comment Comment
05/12/03
Ken Hanke
Ken Hanke
Mountain Xpress (Asheville, NC)

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

it feels like Cronenberg started with a great idea, and just wasn't sure what to do with it

Full Review Source: Q Network Film Desk | comment Comment
02/27/01
James Kendrick
James Kendrick
Q Network Film Desk

Nearly twenty years after Videodrome was shot, it still feels contemporary.

Full Review Source: Flipside Movie Emporium | comment Comment
10/24/01
Jeremiah Kipp
Jeremiah Kipp
Flipside Movie Emporium

Cronenberg continues his growth out of more obvious horror realms and ups the stakes with heavier philosophical entreaties for his characters to endure.

Full Review Source: Jam! Movies | comment Comment
01/01/00
Bruce Kirkland
Bruce Kirkland
Jam! Movies

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

Full Review Source: New York Times | comment Comment
08/30/04
Janet Maslin
Janet Maslin
New York Times
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

frequently nonsensical, but was years before its time

Full Review Source: Filmcritic.com | comment Comment
02/16/03
Christopher Null
Christopher Null
Filmcritic.com

If weirdness is what you want, then you can't do any wrong seeing a David Cronenberg film.

Full Review Source: Sci-Fi Movie Page | comment Comment
01/01/00
James O'Ehley
James O'Ehley
Sci-Fi Movie Page

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

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
 
 
1 - 20 (sorted by critic A-Z; Australian 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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