Fast Times at Ridgemont High (Widescreen Special Edition)

Amazon.com essential video

Before he became an overrated filmmaker, Cameron Crowe (Jerry Maguire) was a reporter for Rolling Stone who was so youthful looking that he could go undercover for a year at a California high school and write a book about it. He wrote the script for this film, based on that book, and it launched the careers of several young actors, including Jennifer Jason Leigh, Judge Reinhold, Phoebe Cates, and, above all, Sean Penn. The story line is episodic, dealing with the lives of iconic teen types: one of the school's cool kids, a nerd, a teen queen, and, most enjoyably, the class stoner (Penn), who finds himself at odds with a strict history teacher (a wonderfully spiky Ray Walston). This is not a great movie but very entertaining and, for a certain age group, a seminal movie experience. --Marshall Fine

Customer Reviews:

Falls just short of true greatness.......2007-09-08

The first time I remember even hearing about this movie was in 9th grade. My 9th grade religion teacher was on his favorite topic: how awful pre-marital sex was. For one reason or another this is one of those speeches that stuck in my memory, and I think I remember him pretty much verbatim:

"Hollywood movies always portray sex as glamorous. It's not glamorous. The only movie I ever saw that portrayed sex accurately was 'Fast Times at Ridgemont High'. And I can't recommend it to you because it's rated R, and it's rated R for some very good reasons. But there's a scene in the movie where a high school girl is on a date, and the guy only has one thing on his mind. And they end up having sex in the baseball bleachers and he's on top of her and she just has this look of horror on her face like 'what have I gotten myself into'."

My second encounter with this movie was back in the early days of the internet. We had a prodigy subscription at our house (remember Prodigy?) and I use to waste a lot of time on their movie review archive reading about movies I hadn't seen yet. (Scary how we never grow out of some of these childhood bad habits, isn't it? I still waste a lot of time reading junk on-line).

The prodigy review compared this movie to all the other teen sex flicks in the late 70s early 80s which featured a group of boys (the reviewer claimed "usually Southern") who went on several amorous adventures and glorious conquests. By contrast "Fast Times at Ridgemont High" provided a much more realistic look by focusing on the unglamorous side of teen sexuality: the disappointing first sexual encounter, the sister's friend walking in on the brother masturbating, and the lady's man who suffers from premature ejaculation. Not to mention the pregnancy and the abortion.

Based on these descriptions I always thought "Fast Times" would be a gritty somber flick. But then I began to notice I would usually hear it referenced alongside all of the other feel-good teen comedies of the 80s.

Over the years I caught bits and pieces of it on TV, but never managed to catch the whole thing straight through. I even sat through a good chunk of a dubbed version on late night Japanese TV, but didn't understand most of it.

And so the other day, when I saw it in my video store, I thought I might as well rent it and watch the whole thing beginning to end to see what this film was all about anyway.

I suspect I was probably the last person on earth who hasn't seen this film, but just in case there is anyone more out of touch than me let me recount the premise.

Journalist and child prodigy Cameron Crowe (whose own autobiographical story is told in the movie "Almost Famous") went back to high school at 22. He pretended to be a high school student and wrote a book about the kids he saw around him. Hollywood bought the rights to the book, and made the movie.

The book apparently takes a few liberties with the truth (composite characters, a few things switched around) and the movie takes a few liberties with the book, so it is a few steps removed from the real thing, but it is usually marketed as an unflinching look at high school reality.

This is a hard movie to classify. Part of it wants to be a serious look at high school problems. Part of it wants to be just another teen comedy. It's a movie that flirts with greatness, but ultimately doesn't really rise to the next level.

The DVD extras and the directors commentary offer some interesting insight into the battle with studio executives that helps to explain this. The studio wanted a nice generic teen comedy, and the director and writer had to battle them on a lot of points. Also it was interesting to hear that the director hated most of the songs on the soundtrack as much as I did. The studio insisted all those cheesy soft rock ballads be used in the movie. (Although there are some cool songs snuck in there as well. Another interesting tidbit from the DVD commentary is that it is virtually impossible to get Led Zeppelin songs for sound tracks, but because of Cameron Crowe's relationship with Zeppelin as a rock journalist, they obliged and gave him "Kashmir").

The film follows several different characters, which helps to keep it interesting, although as a consequence of that none of the plotlines are developed as much as I would have liked. And the Hollywood ending seems a bit tacked on.

The film does show the unglamorous side of teen sexuality, but it does not take a puritanical view, and I imagine there is a lot in here my 9th grade religion teacher would disapprove of. The film makers themselves (again on the DVD commentary) say the only reason the film could get make in the first place is that they got in right before the conservative 80s backlash got up to full strength.

But well the film may ultimately end on an unsatisfying note, it is certainly an entertaining movie to watch. Like a lot of teen movies, it showcases a lot of young future stars before they became famous.

More from the 70's than from the 80's!!.......2007-09-06

There is NO DOUBTH that this movie is from the 80's ! but it was released in 1982 so the kids have the 70's in mind and the "hair metal band" were not THAT famous back then, (they became more famous in 1984).

You hear the kids talking about Van Halen, Blue Oyster Cult, Cheap Trick, Led Zeppelin and Earth Wind & Fire. Not olny that, there is a grafitti in a bridge that say's "disco sucks" and one of the kids was driving a "Firebird" car which was wery popular back in the 70's.

If you are looking for a crazy teen stoner movie of the 80's the this one is not perfect! Try looking for one that was made in the mid or late 80's or maybe if you know about a present teen stoner movie based on the mid 80's then that one would be great.

But don't get me wrong, this movie is great for stoner movies! Try also Dazed and Confused which is the same as this one but based on 1976.

Adios.

its more dirty on tv.......2007-08-16

i lv this movie but they cut all the bad parts out on this disk and did not add them to the bonus features i dont know why they did but tv hey show them im confused

Classic Comedy About High School Life.......2007-08-04

This is a classic to say the least. Very funny, and somewhat emotional at times. If you want to see the only movie Sean Penn was in that's worth watching, then get this one. Nothing else he's ever done other than this movie is worth seeing. Judge Reinhold is excellent also. Phoebe Cates coming out of the pool is worth the price of the movie. Get it and love it without a doubt.

High School Rules.......2007-07-23

This is the epitome of the 80's high school genre. With Sean Penn playing Jeff Spicola, is just down right funny. Watching the going on of teenagers working in the holidays and trying out sex is a great jump into the angst of these exploits that we watch them all go through. Including first time sex, pregnancy, realtionship breakups, or just bumming around in school, this movie offers almost everything you can expect from high school in the 80's. A must have in any dvd collection.

Average customer rating:

This is a GOOD horror/action movie!
Quite possibly the worst film ever made
A very bad joke for fans of the game!
Resident Evil Reigns in Action/Horror!
The best adaptation

Resident Evil (Deluxe Edition)
Starring: Milla Jovovich , Michelle Rodriguez , Eric Mabius , James Purefoy , and Martin Crewes
Director: Paul W.S. Anderson
Manufacturer: Sony Pictures
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B0002J4X1Q
Release Date: 2004-09-07

Product Description

Something rotten is brewing beneath the industrial mecca known as Raccoon City. Unknown to its millions of residents, a huge underground bioengineering facility known as The Hive has accidentally unleashed the deadly and mutating T-virus, killing all of its employees. To contain the leak, the governing supercomputer, Red Queen, has sealed all entrances and exits. Now a team of highly-trained super commandos including Rain (Michelle Rodriguez - The Fast and the Furious, Girlfight), Alice (Milla Jovovich - The Fifth Element) and Matt (Eric Mabius - Cruel Intentions) must race to penetrate The Hive in order to isolate the T-virus before it overwhelms humanity. To do so, they must get past the Red Queen's deadly defenses, face the flesh-eating undead employees, fight killer mutant dogs and battle The Licker, a genetically mutated savage beast whose strength increases with each of its slain victims.

System Requirements:
Running Time: 100 Min.

Format: DVD MOVIE

Amazon.com

Marilyn Manson worked on the soundtrack, so it's no surprise that Resident Evil is best enjoyed by headbangers, goth guys, and PlayStation junkies. Like the interactive game it's based on, this horror hybrid pits a small band of SWAT-like commandos (including Milla Jovovich and Girlfight's Michelle Rodriguez) against a ravenous hoard of zombies, resulting in a gorefest that only sociopaths could love. The tenacious heroes are trapped inside the Hive--an underground complex where an evil corporation conducts illegal research with a deadly virus--and the zombies (reanimated corpses of sacrificed employees) are fodder for endless rounds of gunfire. It's utter nonsense (not unlike director Paul W.S. Anderson's previous Event Horizon), so your best defense is to wallow in it or avoid this trash altogether. A few cool sequences are borrowed from better films (that slice-and-dice laser is cribbed from the 1998 Canadian shocker Cube), but if you're in the mood for heavy-metal carnage, this movie's for you. --Jeff Shannon

Customer Reviews:

This is a GOOD horror/action movie!.......2007-08-29

Yes, it's based off of a video game. Yes, the plot is thin. Were you expecting effin' Shakespeare? This is the best video game to movie adaptation there is. Also, one of the better zombie movies. It's a hell of a lot better than 28 Days Later. And, for my money, better than the remake of Dawn of the Dead. Which was good. This is a movie for people who want to see things shot, blown up, etc. That's why people make/watch these. If you expect more, then you only have yourself to blame and shouldn't trash the movie because of it. All in all this is a great movie as well as the sequel.

Quite possibly the worst film ever made.......2007-08-14

You watch an Ed Wood film, it's bad, but it's fun. It's fun because the director cared, and despite the fact that Ed Wood wasn't a good director, his personality and care is evident in his films.

Resident Evil is made by Paul Anderson, and he quite obviously doesn't care.

Forget what all of you are saying about 'It's another silly zombie movie' or 'It's from a game so I suppose it was always going to be bad'.

The reality is, the games are extremely well executed, as are George A Romero films (G.A.R being the original guy who was to direct this.)

A great story is in the telling, this story was not told well. It could not have been told worse. This guy, quite obviously, has no idea of how to tell a story or direct a film. I trusted him due to Mortal Kombat and Event Horizon, but after Resident Evil and the appauling AVP, it would appear that those first two films are only as good as they are due to good producers and scripts.

Stay away, stay well away.

An absolute travesty in every sense. To think of the millions of lives you could save with the money that was wasted on this garbage.

A very bad joke for fans of the game!.......2007-08-14

This movie is a real nightmare. I'm still hoping to wake up one day and realise that it was just a bad dream. That Paul Anderson never made this movie or that it was made by somebody who actually respected the work of the game creators and the devoted fans. I don't understand what was so hard. The characters and the story were already there. Why did he have to change it completly? Too simple? Even better. S.D. Perry made a good book out of the game. Anderson could have taken some ideas from the book but, noooo! That would've been too easy! Simply change the name of Umbrella, take out the licker and the dogs, then change the name of the movie and nobody will notice that it was suppose to be the adaptation of the game Resident Evil. I hate to admit that it is an entertaining movie but, it's not RE.

Resident Evil Reigns in Action/Horror!.......2007-07-29

This 1st Resident Evil movie directed by AVP director Paul W. S. Anderson was actually pretty darn good. Much better than the next movie in this trilogy, Apocalypse. (But the next one, Extinction, looks the very best!)

But this 1st movie was a thrill ride with solid acting and good action sequences, some never seen before, which is always a good thing. And it ends with a shocker! Leaving the movie watcher wanting more.

Milla Jovovich does her best acting thus far in this movie, carrying the movie that most action women can't do. She didn't do the 2nd movie justice, and didn't look as good either. But then, the whole 2nd movie was a mess. Bad B movie.

This is a B-movie that looks and acts like a grade A movie.

And the third one - Extinction - coming out this September looks like the biggest and best one thus far. Looking forward to it.

The best adaptation.......2007-07-06

I am about ten years from retirement to give you an idea of my age. And yet I enjoy many of the new horror movies if they have something besides all head banging music and tons of gore. This movie will rock your world no matter what age you are. Many adaptations of games do not make it in my replayable list. This one excels there. This is one you will find yourself regularly popping in the player for a revisit of the haunting music, great acting, and scary as hell zombies and other creatures. This is by far one of my favorite horror movies. Well thought out screenplay, excellent directing, and super music score. I give it a high recommendation. I haven't owned a console game since the first Nintendo, but this movie has tempted me to buy a new one even though I prefer the PC versions. By the way I did not care for the last Final Fantasy movie, but I'm sure game console gamers may. This movie although possibly not as appreciated by those with game consoles, will definitely be appreciated by Horror/SciFi movie fans. I recommend the sequel as well. Although not quite as scary, still quite good in the action department.

Average customer rating:

wonderful/memorys
una serie honesta
Hill Street Blues Season 1
My Number One TV Series
A Great Show That Has Held Up

Hill Street Blues - Season 1
Starring: Barbara Babcock , Robert Prosky , Megan Gallagher , Lindsay Crouse , and Robert Clohessy
Director: Lawrence Levy (II) , Jack Starrett , Mark Frost , John D. Hancock , and Scott Brazil
Manufacturer: 20th Century Fox
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ASIN: B000BOH8YG
Release Date: 2006-01-31

Description

"LET'S BE CAREFUL OUT THERE." So ends each roll call session at the Hill Street station house. As the cops and detectives head out to the streets, Captain Frank Furillo begins the delicate balancing act of providing enough protection for the law-abiding citizens without inciting the neighborhood gangs and local criminal elements who are openly hostile towards any police presence. Yet as dangerous as his inner city precinct can be, Furillo's biggest battles often involve protecting his own cops from the Public Defender's office, self-serving bureaucrats, and even each other.

Amazon.com essential video

Created by Steven Bochco and one of television's most influential series, Hill Street Blues was not your father's cop show. The Emmy-winning pilot episode, "Hill Street Station," immediately established the series as less a police procedural than an up-close and personal "interface with the police experience." To establish gritty, documentary-like realism, the show featured sequences, such as the pre-credit roll call, that were filmed with a hand-held camera. There was chaotic, overlapping dialogue. There were sudden, shocking bursts of violence that claimed popular characters. Story lines were not wrapped up at the end of the hour, but instead, unfolded serially throughout the season. It's no wonder that Hill Street, while championed by most critics, was initially not embraced by viewers. It was, in the beginning, one of television's lowest rated shows, its case not helped by NBC's criminal practice of juggling it in its primetime schedule). But there is justice in Hollywood. Hill Street Blues won the Emmy for best drama in its first season. Also honored were several members of the ensemble, including Daniel J. Travanti as the compassionate and incorruptible Precinct Capt. Frank Furillo, Michael Conrad as the avuncular Sgt. Phil Esterhaus (whose cautionary, "Let's be careful out there," became the show's pop culture signature), and Barbara Babcock as the wildly sexual Grace Gardner, who rocks Esterhaus's world (particularly in the episode that earned her her statuette, "Fecund Hand Rose").

There were no big stars on Hill Street Blues (or, for that matter, no little stars, as one of the cast members jokes during a near-hour-long reunion featurette included as a bonus feature on this three double-sided disc set). Each was an indelible character, among them Charles Haid as cowboy cop Andy Renko, Veronica Hammel as sexy public defender Joyce Davenport, Bruce Weitz as the untamed, animalistic Belker, Keil Martin as LaRue, whose descent into alcoholism is one of the season's most compelling dramatic arcs, and James Sikking as the gung-ho Howard Hunter. Once daring, Hill Street Blues seems almost quaint today, with none of the graphic sex or language that scandalized NYPD Blue (in one episode, a captured cat burglar, portrayed by a pre-L.A. Law Michael Tucker, makes a reference to "wolf pee-pee"). The ethnic portrayals, too, are not exactly nuanced. But the human dramas at the heart of Hill Street still make for arresting television. --Donald Liebenson

Customer Reviews:

wonderful/memorys.......2007-09-10

in good quilty,an condittion.its fun to watch,the story lines are well writen.its almost like a real police dept.iv been a policeman for 23 years.about the time you get one problem solved,a nother takes it place.its well worth the money. mike purdom

una serie honesta.......2007-08-18

Frank Furillo encabeza a un grupo de policías a veces muy irreverentes pero altamente eficaces, con defectos y virtudes pero sin lanzarlos a lo alto del pedestal de los héroes urbanos. Los policías de USA son seres tan corruptos como los de cualquier otro país y en esta serie lo podemos constatar.
Serie sin grandes efectos a lo Hollywood con una ambientación muy especial que hace del espectador un protagonista mas.
Pionera en esta técnica que dará pie a numerosas series posteriores.

Hill Street Blues Season 1.......2007-08-11

I loved this series so many years ago and can now rewatch them again. I wish they would have come out sooner. There are a few incidents of audio/video mismatch, but still I am very happy with my purchase. I have watched all episodes.

My Number One TV Series.......2007-05-07

May I say that I wish that those who list the actors at Amazon, stop listing cast names alphabetically, but list them in starring roles. For example the name Daniel J Traventi should appear FIRST in any listing related to the great Hill Street Blues. Frank Furillo was the captain of the the Hill Street Station, and any company wanting to train staff in leadership skills etc should include episodes of Hill Strrett Blues as compulsory viewing. Furillo was a wonderful leader and human being.
Next was Michael Conrad who played Sgt Phil Esterhaus who left the series in Series three (I think) when the actor was too ill (cancer) to work any longer. His parting warning to his team "Now let's be careful out there," was always the last thing he said to those heading out on patrol at the beginning of every episode.
Was there anyone in Television more stunning than Veronica Hamel ? Does anyone remember she was living with another Hill Street actor Taurean Blaque (Det Neil Washington) at that time ?
Another item of note about Hill Street - how much class the African American officers displayed, and what wonderful roles were written for them. Officer Bobby Hill (Michael Warren) who had to deal with his partner, the complaining Renko (Charles Haid) and teach him to grow up, whilst Det Washington (Taurean Blaque) had the lyin' La Rue alias John JD LaRue (Kiel Martin) to constantly cover for, as his partner womanized and drank to excess, and went awol from jobs.
Other characters/actors of note in this series were James B Sikking as Lt Howard Hunter, the military misfit, and Joe Spano as the gentle Henry Goldblume the real right hand man to Furillo.
I love this series as much today as I did back then and agree with those many on here who say the quality of the transfer to DVD and general packaging could have been a lot better.
However, after waiting so long for the series to appear on DVD we will just have to put up with what we're given.
Question : How long before Series Three ? It's been a couple of years already.

A Great Show That Has Held Up.......2007-04-02

I was not born in 1981 when this show originally aired. My parents talked about it and I heard it referred to in relation to other shows I like so I decided to see what the hype was about. For once the hype was right, this is a really good show. It can even pull in a first time watcher when it is about 26 years out of date. The reason this show holds up so well is that the characters are so interesting. I am currently watching season 2 and hope the rest of the series will be released on DVD so I can get caught up. I'd think it make for a good family tv night (with teenage or up children) during the summer hiatus. A great show for people who love tv and great characters. Good even if its the first time around.

Average customer rating:

Perennial greatest TV series candidate
A suggestion to Fox. RELEASE SEASON 3 NOW!!!!
Memories
Please, Say It Isn't So
where's season 3?

Hill Street Blues - Season 2
Starring: Robert Clohessy , Megan Gallagher , Lisa Sutton , Robert Prosky , and Barbara Bosson
Director: Edwin Sherin , Don Weis , and Ben Bolt (II)
Manufacturer: 20th Century Fox
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B000EHSVC8
Release Date: 2006-05-16

Amazon.com

Despite critical acclaim, Hill Street Blues could not get arrested ratings-wise its first season. Far from being careful out there, the superb second season did nothing to tinker with the integrity of this groundbreaking series to make it more audience friendly. Multiple storylines, overlapping dialogue, gritty language, and a pseudo-documentary style capture the palpable chaos and tension of what one character calls "the rat-infested, poverty-stricken urban reality." From the precinct-house shooting rampage that opens the season to a hijacked hearse in the season-ending episode, Hill Street Blues deftly walks the line between police procedural and personal drama, further fleshing out its gallery of compelling and colorful characters. Belker (Bruce Weitz) is still a growling mad dog who takes bites out of perps. But in one of the series' most memorable story arcs, he forms a surprising bond with the delusional costumed citizen Captain Freedom (Dennis Dugan), Public defender Joyce (Victoria Hamel)'s steamroller persona breaks down when a colleague is murdered and the case is thrown out because of a technicality.

Other dramatic developments: LaRue (Keil Martin) falls off the wagon and endangers his partner, Washington (Taurean Blacque), during a drug bust ("Zen and the Art of Law Enforcement"); Goldblume (Joe Spano) gets personally involved in the case of an abusive slumlord ("Of Mouse and Man," featuring future Miami Vice star Edward James Olmos as a threatened tenant); Esterhaus (Michael Conrad) is still bedeviled by sexual siren Grace Gardner (Barbara Babcock); and Precinct Capt. Frank Furillo (Daniel J. Travanti, who earned his second Emmy for Best Actor) and Joyce bring their clandestine affair out into the open. Other ongoing storylines involve realistic depictions of police corruption and inter-partner race relations. Hill Street's second season fulfilled the promise of its auspicious first, and repeated as TV's Outstanding Drama Series at the Emmy Awards. No roll call of classic, trendsetting TV series would be complete without it. --Donald Liebenson

Description

Created by Steven Bochco (?Murder One,? ?NYPD Blue?) and Michael Kozoll, and featuring an ensemble cast including Daniel J. Travanti, Veronica Hamel, Bruce Weitz, Charles Haid, Betty Thomas and James Sikking, each episode chronicled a day-in-the-life of the cops on the beat, starting with the infamous morning roll call and ending with a recap of the day?s events. The first hard-hitting series of its kind, ?Hill Street Blues? garnered 26 Emmy® Awards ? including four for Outstanding Drama ? won two Golden Globes®, and is credited with inspiring beloved dramas such as ?St. Elsewhere,? ?Law & Order? and ?NYPD Blue.?

Customer Reviews:

Perennial greatest TV series candidate.......2007-08-08

Great characters. Great writing and directing. Great story-lines. Hill Street Blues passes the "stands up after time" standard. It's been long enough, FOX: RELEASE SEASON THREE!

A suggestion to Fox. RELEASE SEASON 3 NOW!!!!.......2007-07-03

The only reason I can see for Fox to drag their feet in releasing Season 3 is that Season 1 sold great and Season 2's sales fell way below the studio's expectations based on Season 1's sales. Having said this, if this is the case, I would hope that Fox would consider continuing to release seasons of this show and just manufacture far fewer units so that at least the true blue fans of the show can get it in it's entirety. I know Fox did this with The Mary Tyler Moore Show, so they can do it with Hill Street Blues as well.

Memories.......2007-06-27

Brings back a lot of memories. You just can't catch reruns of this show on TV...

Please, Say It Isn't So.......2007-06-23

Hill Street Blues wasn't just a great police drama, it was one of the greatest, most ground-breaking drama series of all-time. The scripts, the characters, the acting; everything about this show was first rate and absolutely memorable. Shows like this just don't come around often enough on television.

I was amazed at how long it took the studio to finally release Season One of this fantastic series and snatched it up immediately. I then eagerly awaited the release of Season Two, which I also purchased immediately. However, it has been over a year since Season Two was released. Please tell me they are going to release the remaining seasons of this fantastic series!!! I'm afraid that sales of Season Two fell short of expectations and that the studio has decided not to release any more seasons. Please say it isn't so!!!

where's season 3?.......2007-06-17

Please, please release season 3 and the other seasons of Hill Street Blues. The first two season were excellent and I want more!

Other fans, please click on my review as helpful so the powers that be can see we want more HSB.

Average customer rating:

This is a GOOD horror/action movie!
Quite possibly the worst film ever made
A very bad joke for fans of the game!
Resident Evil Reigns in Action/Horror!
The best adaptation

Resident Evil (Special Edition)
Starring: Milla Jovovich , James Purefoy , Indra Ové , Colin Salmon , and Eric Mabius
Manufacturer: Sony Pictures
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B00005JL3A
Release Date: 2002-07-30

Amazon.com

Customer Reviews:

This is a GOOD horror/action movie!.......2007-08-29

Quite possibly the worst film ever made.......2007-08-14

A very bad joke for fans of the game!.......2007-08-14

Resident Evil Reigns in Action/Horror!.......2007-07-29

The best adaptation.......2007-07-06

Average customer rating:

Brilliant would be an understatement
Film on TV
Videodrome
In Short...wowtf!
Don't Touch That Dial

Videodrome
Starring: James Woods , Sonja Smits , Deborah Harry , Peter Dvorsky , and Leslie Carlson
Director: David Cronenberg
Manufacturer: Universal Studios
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: 0783228457
Release Date: 1998-09-08

Amazon.com essential video

Love it or loathe it, David Cronenberg's 1983 horror film Videodrome is a movie to be reckoned with. Inviting 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 O'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. It'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

Customer Reviews:

Brilliant would be an understatement.......2007-08-12

Searching for logic in a Cronenburg movie can sometimes feel like searching for a needle in a haystack. You know there is a message somewhere, but it could possibly take forever to find it.
I think there are two questions this movie is asking it's viewers.
The first being; Why do people subject themselves to watching this kind of cinema and television?
And the second being ; What effect does this kind of cinema and television have on it's viewers?
In those questions themselves lies the answer; Depends on the viewer.

Now that I've gotten all the phsycological stuff out of the way, lets talk about the movie itself.

James Woods might possibly give the best perfomance I've ever seen in a horror movie, along with the rest of the cast. Everything in my opinion is absolutely perfect, from facial expressions, to hand movements, to dioluge, is just perfect in every way possible, and I could not ask for anything more.

The special effects are mind-blowing. We have, pulsating TV screens, torture, a torso that eats (don't ask), multiple gun shot scenes, and one scene of a man literally melting that make Scanners seem like a kids movie. There is a lot more also that I won't go in to, but there is no shortage on gore, I can assure you of that.

This Criteion print is, for lack of a better word, beautiful. There are two audio commentaries, one by the director and one by actors James Woods and Deborah Harry. A 40-page booklet featuring multiple essay's by film critics. Featuretes on the special effects of Videodrome, and my favorite feature, a roundtable discussion with directors John Carpenter, Mick Garris, John Landis, and David Cronenburg from 1982 discussing horror films in general.

This movie is extremely ahead of it's time, and although it was made in 1982, it feels like it could easily been made in the late 90's. This is without a doubt in my top ten horror films ever made.

The fact that I'm sitting here reviewing a film with such passion that was made before I was born speaks for itself.
GO BUY THIS NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Film on TV.......2007-07-26

David Cronenberg is a unique filmmaker whose vision of the world is somewhat skewed as compared with the rest of us. In Videodrome he investigates the possible insidious and damaging effects that a continuous stream of torture and death from a TV screen could have upon an individual. Well that is one possible interpretation of this film, in fact he could equally just be pushing the boundaries a bit further himself.

The film was made in 1982 when Video was just beginning to boom all over the world. It stars James Woods as Max Renn, who gives one of his best ever performances, as an executive for a small cable TV station who in searching for something new to air on the station. He discovers Videodrome, or is a duped into discovering it, and from that point on starts to hallucinate. Beyond this point it becomes difficult to know what is real and what isn't. Suffice to say, if you are not familiar with Cronenberg, things turn pretty nasty and although some of the special effects look a little dated now this certainly isn't for the squeamish.

Unless you have read a detailed synopsis by Cronenberg himself, you are likely to get to the end of this movie and wonder what it all means, which is pretty much how I felt. However its done with a style that is largely missing from a lot Hollywood movies, and that is not surprising. Cronenberg is Canadian and this is a Canadian film. It has a different feel to Hollywood movies, perhaps more akin to a European movie. I agree with the previous reviewer that towards the end the typical Cronenberg 'horror' element was overplayed, but overall this is a thought-provoking and strangely entertaining movie that I look forward to watching again.

Videodrome.......2007-07-10

Leave it to Canadian horror maven Cronenberg to concoct a bizarre but intelligent paranoid chiller involving televisual mind-control, sadomasochism, and a mysterious leader named Brian O'Blivion. Cronenberg's cunning black wit and obsession with technology and flesh are in ample evidence, as we're treated to throbbing TV screens, oozing gadgets, and gruesome images of body horror. Woods is impeccable playing a man whose fetishes and voyeuristic tendencies in some ways mirror our own. Blondie singer Deborah Harry is also surprisingly strong as Renn's kinky girlfriend. Offering pointed lessons for a culture even more besotted with images of sex and violence today, "Videodrome" is a disturbing fable about the breakdown of reality in the media age.

In Short...wowtf!.......2007-04-02

i just don't know what to say about this movie...

It's good, don't get me wrong, just that it's one of those movies that messes with your head.

watch this if you need to feel normal...

Don't Touch That Dial.......2007-02-16

"Videodrome" is 24 years old, but the points it makes are just as relevant as ever. Max Renn (masterfully underplayed by a top-of-his-game James Woods) runs a television station that specializes in airing cutting-edge shows (most of which involve pornography and violence). While pirating the airwaves for new, unharvested material, he stumbles across a previously unheard of viewing experience: Videodrome. At first, the show seems like nothing more than a serialized snuff film, but Max soon learns there is more there than meets the eye. Literally.

Like most of Cronenberg's films, "Videodrome" is a viscerally dizzying experience, and one that is bound to leave you scratching your head. For its time, the special effects are well done: televisions pulse like living blocks of veined flesh, guns graft themselves to hands with bone-wires, reality warps and bends until it is completely and utterly unrecognizable. Cronenberg is famous for adopting a sort of gutteral, sinewy take on life, and most of his movies are social commentaries that wield their symbols like gore-covered swords.

"Videodrome" is, most obviously, an unabashed critique of the culture of mass media (and, yes, the movie is aware of the hyper-irony of using a film to decry television). In some ways, this is what makes the flick a wonderful thing to watch -- the underlying message itself isn't spelled out for the viewer. Cronenberg takes pains to blend his motives within his films.

However, the cues he gives the viewer -- the sickening viscera, the fever-dreamish worlds, the overtly metaphorical names (Max, Brian O'Blivion, Nicki Brand, Barry Convex, Moses and Raphael to name a few) -- can sometimes be rather heavy-handed. Cronenberg might be playing around with the audience, but that's not all he's doing, and for viewers with less patience (for those who don't enjoy philosophical sucker-punches, that is) the film may prove more nauseating than entertaining, let alone something to spark thoughtful debate.

Cronenberg snaps a lot of bones and rends a lot of skin in this film, telling the tale of a man trying to come to terms with the duplicity and manipulativeness of his own art (and I use the word "art" loosely). Max once used the tool of television to mold societies, and now that tool has developed a life of its own, has turned on its maker, has become its own legitimacy. Viewing life through the lens of the T.V. screen, "Videodrome" seems to say, means that it is ever harder to understand just what is real and what is not and whether there's a legitimate difference between the two.

Like Max himself, the viewer is enticed further down the corridors of madness with the old-fashioned carrot-on-a-stick trick. The carrot, in this case, is the promise of meaning and cognizance. Although the movie offers some kind of release at the end, it's not necessarily filling. It poses as many questions as answers. But, again, that's Cronenberg for you. For him, it is the ride that counts, the scenery that spins by on the way, and not the sputtering cough of the engine as it is shut off just before the credits roll.

Didacticism, especially when it is dressed with this kind of throbbing, unsettling flesh, can be distasteful for some, and it goes without saying that, for most, Cronenberg is an acquired taste. But beyond the validity of any point he is trying to make with "Videodrome," it must be said that the way he makes that point is certainly compelling. Films like this don't achieve cult status for nothing. Some people may find "Videodrome" a repellent, disorienting experience.

Others will very likely be sucked right in.

Average customer rating:

Get Down With Jamie Lee
Love it!
Poorest DVD Quality Ever!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Snoresville, MAN.
Returned

Prom Night
Starring: Leslie Nielsen , Jamie Lee Curtis , Casey Stevens , Anne-Marie Martin , and Antoinette Bower
Director: Paul Lynch
Manufacturer: Echo Bridge Home Entertainment
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Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B000244G9U
Release Date: 2004-03-04

Amazon.com

When it comes to an expressive set of lungs for horror, it's hard to match Jamie Lee Curtis, who set the standard for nonstop screaming in Halloween. She built her reputation as a scream queen in such subsequent outings as The Fog, Terror Train, and this similarly themed and relatively subpar horror outing. A progenitor of I Know What You Did Last Summer, this film focuses on four high school friends on prom night who are being stalked by a masked maniac seeking revenge for a death that occurred six years earlier. Guess who lives to tell the tale? --Marshall Fine

Product Description

Directed by Paul Lynch, this cult horror masterpiece starring Leslie Nielsen and scream queen Jamie Lee Curtis paved the way for future slasher films and inspired such blockbusters as Scream and I Know What You Did Last Summer. For six long years, Hamilton High School seniors Kelly (Marybeth Rubins), Jude (Joy Thompson), Wendy (Eddie Benton), and Nick (Casey Stevens) have been hiding the truth of what happened to ten-year-old Robin Hammond the day her broken body was discovered near an old abandoned convent. The foursome kept secret how they taunted Robin - backed her into a corner until, frightened, she stood on a window ledge...and fell to her death. Though an accident, the then-twelve-year-olds feared they'd be held responsible and vowed never to tell. But someone else was there that day...watching. And now, that someone is ready to exact murderous revenge - on prom night.

Customer Reviews:

Get Down With Jamie Lee.......2007-09-03

Prom Night's one of those slasher films that shows the perils of trying to cover up an accidental death long before that crapfest I Know What You Did Last Summer. This film stands a bit outside other films in the genre like Friday the 13th or The Burning coz it actually tries to build up a story. It throws you a few possible suspects and tries to build the relationships with the characters to varying degrees of success. In fact, after awhile you may forget you're watching a horror movie. The first kill doesn't come in till just after the hour mark. I actually didn't mind this buildup, even if the payoff wasn't as brutal as it could have been. Unlike alot of folks, I didn't really find myself bored with the movie-not terrible excited, but not bored stiff either. In today's movie world of rapid fire MTV editing, most moviegoers will find this pacing dumb and boring, but I didn't mind the attempt at building a story. Leslie Nielsen isn't given a whole lot to do, and he kinda just disappears after awhile. Jamie Lee is looking cute and giving Travolta a run for his money on the dance floor(I don't get all the negativity regarding disco scenes. Disco was "in" when this film was made, and it would make sense that a high school prom at this time would have been full of disco music and dancing. Modern day movies with scenes in dance clubs look just as stupid if you ask me), but she seems to be given little to do also. Plus, at the beginning we see that she isn't on the killer's written list of victims, so we're never really concerned about her safety. I've seen this movie numerous times throughout the years, and while it's not my favorite of the genre, I don't mind catching it once in a while. It may not succeed at everything it was trying to accomplish, but I admire the effort. The movie has been influential however on many other horror films. Now of course I'm sure it's time for someone to remake it. Most likely the prom dance scenes will now be at a rave or some ridiculous thing. Hold me back.

Love it!.......2007-09-02

This is one of my favorite horror movies. It does what it was intended to do: entertain and scare. Some of the death sequences are very suspenseful. No, they are not comparable to the modern day, (pulling a baby out of a woman and then beating her head in--thank you "Hills Have Eyes 2" for the utterly disgusting visuals), the scenes are very much rooted in the late 1970's-80's slasher films. If you like movies from this genre, this should be right up your alley. It would be a major plus if you loved disco as well!

Poorest DVD Quality Ever!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!.......2007-08-25

I love this film as I'm a big fan of B/grade horror and slasher films. This is just the poorest quality transfer I have ever seen!!!!!! Amazon you should be ashamed to even stock DVD's with such poor quality. I sent an e-mail to your customer service after I received this purchase and they just avoided the topic in their reply!!!!

I see now you're advertising a new version to be released Oct '07. Hope this copy is better!!!

Snoresville, MAN........2007-08-25

Here's an apt summary of this flick: during a particularly demented playtime accident, a little girl falls to her death. The responsible kids swear an oath of secrecy, unaware that her brother witnessed everything. Six years later, this brother goes on a killing spree to avenge his sister's death, harassing the teenage murderers with asinine phone calls before murdering most of them at the prom.

Oh, did I spoil the film for you? Good. Because if it prevents you from ever watching this drivel, I've done a good deed.

"Prom Night" is utterly worthless, a poorly-executed bore of a film that gives cheesy B-movies a bad name. I rented this mess because there was nothing else in my local video store that I either hadn't seen or that looked even remotely palatable. For a couple of examples of the former, even I can only watch "The Thing" or "The Shining" so many times, and late August is hardly suitable for the chilly climes of those two great films. That aside, I readily admit that I set my standards pretty low when settling for this tripe.

Almost all of the "teenagers" in this movie are very obviously in their twenties, especially Curtis. In fact, Melanie Morse was in her early thirties when she starred in this! She looks good, but she's not fooling anyone into thinking she's a teenie! Even in a post-Larry Clark world, the practice of casting twentysomethings as teens persists primarily because so few decent teen actors exist. It's an irritating syndrome, to type the least.

If you're still sore about my spoiler, don't be. Unless you're particularly dense, you would have figured it out halfway through the film. The movie tosses out a lame red herring in the contrived form of a psychotic, deformed, wrongly accused murderer, but nobody with a functioning brain will be fooled by this.

So what does "Prom Night" actually have to offer for whoever's willing to sit through this immediate post-'70s disaster? A decent beheading, a moderately tense chase, a disco scene that's slightly more hilarious than anything featured in Saturday Night Fever and some passable performances by Nielsen and Curtis. And make no mistake, if those two weren't in this ugly little atrocity, it would have remained buried in a film vault forever.

And what doth "Prom Night" implement to take away? Aside from the bland tedium of the underdeveloped plot, the viewer must endure the sight of Nielsen stiffly trying to dance, implied sex between a chubby girl and a bloated, dorky Jewish kid and a lot of excruciatingly bad acting. Never mind that the film's lead actress is one of the great scream queens of all time, but is barely given an opportunity to use those pipes of hers!

To put this into perspective, I love B-movies, especially bad ones, as long as they're lively and entertaining. But this wouldn't even have sufficed as an MST3K target. It's boring, inane and entirely worthless.

This DVD edition is the most minimal disc that I've ever viewed. It includes no special features, and the single screen of scene selections breaks the film into five parts! What bothers me is the poor quality of the disc. It's not so bad that the film stock is grainy, but couldn't they have cleaned up the muddled, hiss-impaired soundtrack? I could have done more to improve the sound of this film with my copy of Audacity.

I don't know what's more incredible to me: that this piece of crap spawned three sequels, that's it's regarded as a cult classic in a few desperate circles or that a remake is currently in production to be released next year. The first fact proves that sequels to bad horror films are always inevitable, the second implies that the standards for mayhem and quality among some are surprisingly low, and the third...well, you know it. There are so few original ideas floating around in Hollywood that they'll remake anything. ANYTHING.

Returned.......2007-05-28

This product was returned due to it not being closed captioned. The movie is great, I have seen it before, but I needed the CC.

Fast Times at Ridgemont High (Full Screen Special Edition)

Average customer rating:

Falls just short of true greatness
More from the 70's than from the 80's!!
its more dirty on tv
Classic Comedy About High School Life
High School Rules

Fast Times at Ridgemont High (Full Screen Special Edition)
Starring: Sean Penn , Jennifer Jason Leigh , Judge Reinhold , Robert Romanus , and Brian Backer
Director: Amy Heckerling
Manufacturer: Universal Studios
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B00029RTCQ
Release Date: 2004-11-02

Amazon.com essential video

Customer Reviews:

Falls just short of true greatness.......2007-09-08

More from the 70's than from the 80's!!.......2007-09-06

its more dirty on tv.......2007-08-16

i lv this movie but they cut all the bad parts out on this disk and did not add them to the bonus features i dont know why they did but tv hey show them im confused

Classic Comedy About High School Life.......2007-08-04

High School Rules.......2007-07-23

Average customer rating:

And About Time Too!!!
Still the best
Loaded with Character
Get yer trousers on, you're nicked.
Before he was Morse John Thaw was Reagan

The Sweeney - The Complete First Series
Director: Ted Childs , Mike Vardy , David Wickes , Graham Baker , and Douglas Camfield
Manufacturer: Bci / Eclipse
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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