'Swept Away' Swept Straight To Video

The movie "Swept Away" has been swept aside in a nation that likes to think of its star, Madonna, as one of its own.

The singer's latest film, directed by her British husband, Guy Ritchie, won't screen at theaters in Britain because it flopped so badly across the Atlantic, its distributor said Friday.

"Following the disappointing box office results in the U.S., Guy Ritchie's 'Swept Away' will not be released theatrically in the U.K.," Columbia Tristar said in a statement.

The film, a remake of a 1974 Italian movie of the same name, had been scheduled to open in theaters in March, but instead will go straight to video, the company said.

The movie bombed on its release in America last month, taking in $375,000 at 196 theaters on its first weekend, an average of $1,913 per theater.

By contrast, "Red Dragon," the third in the "Silence of the Lambs" series, raked in $17.6 million the same weekend.

Critics have savaged "Swept Away," in which Madonna plays a spoiled socialite who goes on a Mediterranean cruise and becomes stranded on a deserted island with a sailor she'd tormented on board. He beats her into submission and they fall in love, only to have reality rip them apart once they're rescued.

The Associated Press called it a "cinematic shipwreck" and said it "completely lacks the imagination and spark of (Ritchie's) two previous films." Madonna, the AP review said, turns in "her most wooden, self-conscious performance since 'Shanghai Surprise."'

Not that bad reviews in the past have dented Madonna's box office pull in Britain: In May, she made her West End debut in an Australian play, "Up For Grabs," that was roundly trounced by critics — and sold out every performance.