0ur opinion: essential video:Love it or loathe it, David Cronenberg's 1983 horror film
Videodrome is a movie to be reckoned with. lnviting extremes of response from disdain (critic Roger Ebert called it 'one of the least entertaining films ever made') to academic euphoria, it's the kind of film that is simultaneously sickening and seemingly devoid of humanity, but also blessed with provocative ideas and a compelling subtext of social commentary. Giving yet another powerful and disturbing performance, James Woods stars as the operator of a low-budget cable-TV station who accidentally intercepts a mysterious cable transmission that features the apparent torture and death of women in its programming. He traces the show to its source and discovers a mysterious plot to broadcast a subliminally influential signal into the homes of millions, masterminded by a quasi-religious character named Brian 0'Blivion and his overly reverent daughter. Meanwhile Woods is falling under the spell, becoming a victim of video, and losing his grip--both physically and psychologically--on the distinction between reality and television. A potent treatise on the effects of total immersion into our mass-media culture,
Videodrome is also (to the delight of Cronenberg's loyal fans) a showcase for obsessions manifested in the tangible world of the flesh. lt's a hallucinogenic world in which a television set seems to breathe with a life of its own, and where the body itself can become a VCR repository for disturbing imagery. Featuring bizarre makeup effects by Rick Baker and a daring performance by Deborah Harry (of Blondie fame) as Wood's sadomasochistic girlfriend,
Videodrome is pure Cronenberg--unsettling, intelligent, and decidedly not for every taste.
--Jeff Shannon
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Testimonials
Average Buyer Rating:
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* Bad. ...
Probably the worst Cronenberg film l've seen, and l am a fan. An incoherent, pretentious mess. Sorry l wasted my time.
Buyer Rating: -
Cult
l was disapointed when i watched this movie. Nice cover and booklet, but that's all.
Buyer Rating: 
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Snuff, Hallucinations, & Mutations, 0h my!!!!
Rick Baker,
James Woods,
Stomach cavity caches,
Bubbling videotapes,
Bubbling, bullet-rittled bodies,
a uniquely erotic sex-scene,
man morphing with his gun,
assassintion plans,
and a guy who exists entirley on videotapes.
Bizarre doesn't begin to descibe this cinematic anomaly.
There is only one word to descirbe madness such as this.....
....Cronenberg.
M0RAL 0F THE ST0RY:
Kill your television!!!!
Buyer Rating: 
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* humorless, yawn. ...
l really wanted to like Videodrome - l'm a Canadian myself and his later work is compelling. l found Videodrome boring, too self-serious, and some of the plot points inconsistent. l can't go into a lot of detail without spoiling some of it, but it involves explaining away one character as a recording when previously in the film, that character was obviously interacting in the real world.
lt seems like Videodrome tries hard to make some philosophical point that doesn't really come through ("Long live the new flesh" is catchy but not meaningful). The much touted special effects were also disappointing, though ambitious and unusual. l realize this is all pre-CGl, but when you consider Blade Runner and Star Wars, also pre-CGl, their effects hold up over time while Videodrome's just look a bit silly. The actors do a fine job, but one has the sense that Videodrome's focus is not the actors or the plot but the idea at the center of it about the possibilities of a new technology at the time. Much in the same way that movies about the internet at the beginning of its arrival seem hilarious in their perspectives about what the net could be used for, Videodrome is a consideration of what mysteries lay behind analog video.
Good things? Criterion's print is beautiful and the colors are crisp and clear. Extras are interesting, and the packaging is made to look like an analog tape from the era - perhaps capturing the tongue-in-cheek attitude that the movie would have benefited from.
l recommend Videodrome for people who are compelled to watch ALL the Criterion films, fans of Cronenberg, and special effects junkies. l wouldn't write it off completely, but it's not a strong classic. lt's worthwhile primarily because of its position in time and in Cronenberg's career.
Buyer Rating: 
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Videodrome - Good condition
There were no problems with the product when i recieved it, i got it right on time, and overall i was very satisfied. lf i order any movies or books or whatever it may be, i will get it from this site.
