VIDEODROME

* * ½

STARRING: James Woods, Sonja Smits, Deborah Harry, Peter Dvorsky, Jack Creley, Les Carlson

1983, 90 Minutes, Directed by: David Cronenberg

If weirdness is what you want, then you can't do any wrong seeing a David Cronenberg film. After all, this is the man who gave us The Fly, Naked Lunch and Scanners!

This film is no exception as Cronenberg gives us a freakish tale about a pirate cable-TV programmer (a scum bucket excellently played as always by James Woods) who becomes obsessed by a mysterious untraceable transmission with hallucinatory powers. The film's message (that TV is bad for you) is old, the way it is said is not. Cronenberg's imagination goes into overdrive as we are regaled with bizarre surrealist imagery - most memorable of which is Woods inserting a revolver into his stomach.

Not for the squeamish and if you want to see Debbie Harry (ex-lead singer of Blondie) extinguish a cigarette on her thigh then you'll no doubt won't be disappointed . . . although psychiatric treatment may in order in that case.

Voted
# 42
of the
Top 100 Sci-Fi Movies
of all time
by: