Erik Childress Movie Reviews & Previews

Critics » Erik Childress

Send Email
Official Websites:
efilmcritic.com

Erik Childress

""I would give anything if you were two people, so I can call up the one who's my friend and tell her about the one that I like SO much." - Albert Brooks, Broadcast News "We...are going...to DIE!!!" Harrison Ford, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom"

Agrees with the Tomatometer 72% of the time.

Biography:: Erik started reviewing films as a frequent guest on the Jonathon Brandmeier Radio Showgram (105.9 FM in Chicago / 97.1 FM in LA) back in 1998 through 2001, which led to a mailing list over the Internet of his reviews to listeners of the radio show. Known as "Erik the Movieman", these appearances also attracted the attention of another Chicago radio show host, Nick Digilio (WGN 720 AM in Chicago, 11-3 AM Fri, 1-4 AM Sat, 12-2 AM Sun) where he's now become a regular guest on his Sunday night show to finish up the movie discussion. He is also on to discuss impending awards, top ten lists, new articles, etc...) Erik was also heard on Buzz Kilman & Wendy Snyder's midday show in Chicago (105.9 FM WCKG, 11-2 PM Mon-Fri) from Jan 2001-Mar 2002. Erik writes for eFilmCritic.com and has been a member of the Online Film Critics Society since February 2000 and also became the first online writer inducted into the Chicago Film Critics Association alongside such names as Roger Ebert, Michael Wilmington and Dann Gire.
Favorites:: Back to the Future, JFK, the Star Wars films, the Indiana Jones films, E.T., pretty much anything directed by Steven Spielberg, Aliens, Broadcast News, Die Hard, Flash Gordon (1980) (Hey - I was a kid!)
Publications:: Cinematical , eFilmCritic.com , Hollywood Bitchslap
Critics' Group:: Chicago Film Critics Association, Online Film Critics Society

Total Reviews:: 1168
Total QuickRatings:: 23

Location:: Elk Grove Village, IL (Chicago)

Listing Of All Reviews & Articles

Showing 1 - 50 of 1168

Previous | Next

Rating	T-Meter	Title \| Year	Add Date
2/4	41%	Dark Shadows (2012)	" Much like watching the Monday episode of a weekly soap opera with its 4-5 storylines all competing for dominance and then realizing that the mess of a screenplay is not going to give us the Tuesday-Friday wrap-ups." — eFilmCritic.com Posted May 11, 2012
1/4	36%	Lockout (2012)	" I suspect many people will be on board, as I was, with Lockout for about 5 minutes. Fortunately, anyone can go to YouTube and see them without seeing what comes next: 85 minutes of shoddy plotting, direction and full-on boredom." — eFilmCritic.com Posted Apr 13, 2012
3/4	90%	The Cabin in the Woods (2012)	" For the first two acts, it works better when it is going for laughs rather than scares, but by the time the climactic battle comes around all bets are off as the film turns into a Willy Wonka funhouse of homage and carnage that is most satisfying." — eFilmCritic.com Posted Apr 13, 2012
1.5/4	25%	Wrath of the Titans (2012)	" Virtually no rooting interest in the heroes or their journey or even a worthy villain worth jeering. Watching it is like listening to Del Griffith try to tell you an anecdote; shifting from point to point with nary the thinnest of connections. " — eFilmCritic.com Posted Mar 30, 2012
1.5/4	——	The Babymakers (2012)	" Broad humor has served Chandrasekhar and his clan in the past, but this is a project that should have been aborted on the cover page once he read as far as 'by Peter Gaulke and Gerry Swallow.'" — eFilmCritic.com Posted Mar 28, 2012
3.5/4	84%	The Hunger Games (2012)	" Gary Ross made a real movie. Not dumbed down and not just pandering to a PG-13 teenage audience. By visually telling the story entirely through Katniss' point of view he cleverly gets around many of the potential obstacles and objections one might have." — eFilmCritic.com Posted Mar 23, 2012
2/4	52%	John Carter (2012)	" The difference with Indiana Jones or Pirates of the Caribbean is that most of their action is memorable and filtered through a charismatic hero who fills in the downtime. The flat turns the story takes make it more The Adjustment Bureau meets Spaceballs." — eFilmCritic.com Posted Mar 8, 2012
3/4	——	Beauty Is Embarrassing ()	" The film cannot help but be described as colorful just based on the visualizations of White's work alone, but his persona matches his creations as he tries to prove that art does not have to be uber-serious and can just be fun." — eFilmCritic.com Posted Mar 8, 2012
3/4	——	Bad Brains: Band In DC ()	" There is an impressive amount of archival material here, in line with Cameron Crowe's amazing Pearl Jam Twenty, and if a barely casual observer of the music scene can take interest, true hardcores will find a lot to love here." — eFilmCritic.com Posted Mar 8, 2012
3/4	——	We Are Legion: The Story Of The Hacktivists ()	" A fascinating documentary that is scary no matter whom you side with. " — eFilmCritic.com Posted Mar 8, 2012
3/4	——	Scarlet Road ()	" The best aspects of the film involve Rachel and the clients; a true human interest story that should reach beyond any moral objections one has towards however people want to label her." — eFilmCritic.com Posted Mar 8, 2012
3/4	66%	God Bless America (2012)	" We may be ready to crown Goldthwait as the modern Frank Capra for the America that we have created. " — eFilmCritic.com Posted Mar 8, 2012
3/4	60%	Wanderlust (2012)	" Consistently funny throughout, it's a great ensemble that is enlivened by Paul Rudd having some of the funniest moments of his already stellar career." — eFilmCritic.com Posted Feb 24, 2012
0.5/4	11%	Gone (2012)	" Imagine Tyler Perry directing the lamest remake of Kiss the Girls imaginable and you can get a sense of how flat-out awful the storytelling and character development is in this one." — eFilmCritic.com Posted Feb 24, 2012
4/4	100%	West of Memphis ()	" Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh coupled with director Amy Berg (responsible for the excellent Deliver Us From Evil) have delivered a stand-alone treatment of this injustice that outshined any narrative I saw at Sundance this year." — eFilmCritic.com Posted Feb 16, 2012
3.5/4	84%	The Raid: Redemption (2012)	" One of those great movies to experience with an audience starved for the kind of action meant to elicit applause like the end of an opera number. The action is certainly stop-and-start throughout, but once it starts there is no way you want it to stop." — eFilmCritic.com Posted Feb 16, 2012
3.5/4	100%	Compliance (2012)	" Craig Zobel fashions tough, challenging material in the guise of a dark comic thriller and those too willing to dismiss it or drum up unnecessary controversy are part of the problem and not the solution." — eFilmCritic.com Posted Feb 16, 2012
3.5/4	——	The End of Love ()	" Not sure if The End of Love's Mark Webber got that callback from Paul Thomas Anderson, but the Mark Webber who made The End of Love deserves to be getting a few." — eFilmCritic.com Posted Feb 16, 2012
3/4	60%	Save The Date ()	" After so much emotional dishonesty inherent in Sundance films like Hello I Must Be Going and Celeste & Jesse Forever, Save the Date had a welcome air of truth about it." — eFilmCritic.com Posted Feb 16, 2012
3/4	50%	Red Lights (2012)	" This is the second horror subgenre that Cortes has injected fresh life into and no matter what side of the debate you come down on in Red Lights, you cannot deny that he is a talent worth anticipating." — eFilmCritic.com Posted Feb 16, 2012
3/4	——	Young & Wild ()	" A film that respects sex and the emotional consequences that follow once the heat wears off. It also is not a condemnation piece about religion even as it calmly exposes the hypocrisies of suppressing the natural order in order to let go of one's ego." — eFilmCritic.com Posted Feb 16, 2012
3/4	100%	The Surrogate ()	" Using a healthy dose of humor and some very winning performances, The Surrogate makes for a perfectly nice, if not challenging, film." — eFilmCritic.com Posted Feb 16, 2012
3/4	100%	For a Good Time, Call... (2012)	" It may not be as great as Bridesmaids or even as outrageous and sharp as Zack & Miri Make A Porno, but of all the female-centric comedies at Sundance this year, this was certainly the funniest. " — eFilmCritic.com Posted Feb 16, 2012
3/4	100%	Safety Not Guaranteed (2012)	" Safety Not Guaranteed succeeds on its own merits by adapting our expectations towards more basic ideas of human nature rather than the fantastical sci-fi notions of the mind." — eFilmCritic.com Posted Feb 16, 2012
3/4	——	Room 237 ()	" Hopefully Ascher will continue this trend by examining all the hidden tricks, gimmicks and stylings of other brain-twisting cinematic treats as they can provide genuine insight into the work of a director. Even if it's all just nonsense." — eFilmCritic.com Posted Feb 16, 2012
3/4	100%	Sleepwalk With Me (2012)	" Birbiglia has a very matter-of-fact charm about him and gives the simplest of observations wonderfully sardonic weight." — eFilmCritic.com Posted Feb 16, 2012
3/4	83%	Excision ()	" A dark comedy that may not quite be Lucky McKee's masterful May but should earn fans along the lines of Ginger Snaps and Teeth" — eFilmCritic.com Posted Feb 16, 2012
1.5/4	36%	The Thing (2011)	" The Thing becomes its own beast; a thawed out creature from the past desperately trying to survive by imitating those that melted it down in the first place for their own selfish path to fame and fortune." — eFilmCritic.com Posted Oct 14, 2011
2/5	32%	All Good Things (2010)	— eFilmCritic.com Posted Oct 14, 2011
3.5/4	83%	My Week with Marilyn (2011)	" Unlike Me and Orson Welles from a few years ago, this is more than just an interesting footnote in history wrapped around a performance. And the star of it all is Williams, who from second one on screen IS Marilyn Monroe in a performance for the ages." — eFilmCritic.com Posted Oct 11, 2011
3/4	76%	We Need to Talk About Kevin (2012)	" If ever a movie gave you a hankering for jam and a vasectomy in one sitting, it would certainly be Lynne Ramsay's latest." — eFilmCritic.com Posted Oct 11, 2011
2/4	60%	Real Steel (2011)	" Most viewers over the age of 12 will feel they have stepped into a confused, unambitious piece of futurama weighed down by Shawn Levy's uninspired and limp direction." — eFilmCritic.com Posted Oct 6, 2011
3/4	93%	50/50 (2011)	" 50/50 is not just another crude piece of mockery. Crude at times, yes, but at its occasionally uneven soul is a very funny and bluntly moving tale of living within the fringes of potential death." — eFilmCritic.com Posted Oct 6, 2011
4/4	95%	Moneyball (2011)	" Baseball is more than just America's pasttime or America's game. It IS America. Moneyball should leave outsiders more appreciative of the game through an exceptionally crafted piece of work and true baseball lovers in seventh heaven." — eFilmCritic.com Posted Sep 21, 2011
4/4	93%	Drive (2011)	" Drive is quite simply the best film that Michael Mann never made in the period where Thief, Manhunter and the scores of Giorgio Moroder and Tangerine Dream secreted off the screen and into our veins." — eFilmCritic.com Posted Sep 16, 2011
3.5/4	84%	Contagion (2011)	" Steven Soderbergh is given the opportunity to scare us and it is the calm with which he does it that should frighten us all the more." — eFilmCritic.com Posted Sep 9, 2011
4/4	83%	Warrior (2011)	" The way it cobbles together the multiple storylines and relationships makes Warrior a more emotionally satisfying film than The Fighter. Lionsgate may want to get the train going on an Oscar campaign for Nolte." — eFilmCritic.com Posted Sep 6, 2011
0/4	0%	Swinging With The Finkels (2011)	" If you make it to the so-called happy ending, think aloud if Swinging with the Finkels would have lived up to its name better if the titular couple ended their relationship on the business side of a noose." — eFilmCritic.com Posted Aug 26, 2011
1/4	5%	The Family Tree (2011)	" Think Overboard with masturbating, asphyxiated teens, gun-toting/weed-smoking priests, lesbian high school teachers preying on her students, a parade of wasted talent, and Bow Wow." — eFilmCritic.com Posted Aug 26, 2011
3/4	59%	Don't Be Afraid Of The Dark (2011)	" Occasional visitors into the haunted house fray may want to peek their head in, if only to see how quickly they peek out." — eFilmCritic.com Posted Aug 26, 2011
3/4	74%	Fright Night (2011)	" It really comes into its own thanks to a great ensemble, an underlying theme about growing pains that should embolden the hypnotized Twilight fans and a rare, genuine mix of horror and comedy that complement each other as well as it did 26 years ago. " — eFilmCritic.com Posted Aug 18, 2011
2.5/4	60%	Final Destination 5 (2011)	" Maybe the filmmakers just got a little lazy, but it was disappointing to watch it wrap itself by becoming just another killer-in-human-form thriller." — eFilmCritic.com Posted Aug 11, 2011
2/4	76%	The Help (2011)	" Almost succeeds solely on the strength of its acting, but The Help cannot escape the central hypocrisy that should have been easy-as-pie to fix." — eFilmCritic.com Posted Aug 10, 2011
0/4	25%	The Change-Up (2011)	" A screenplay that should equally insult every single AND married man who witnesses this catastrophe. They say you have to hit rock bottom before you can find clarity. Well, after their Hangover, Lucas & Moore certainly did it with The Change-Up." — eFilmCritic.com Posted Aug 5, 2011
2.5/4	79%	Captain America: The First Avenger (2011)	" Those who want to accentuate Captain America as a blueprint for how comic book movies should be made, must footnote such hyperbolic statements with an asterisk referring to the first half. Cause the second half puts a noose onto all its momentum." — eFilmCritic.com Posted Jul 21, 2011
3/4	88%	The Hedgehog (2011)	" Develops into a deeply charming and smile-worthy little film with Balasko drawing us in bit-by-bit as she opens up to Kakuro's more-than-casual advances. And if you leave with ten minutes left to spare, you will be able to hold onto those feelings. " — eFilmCritic.com Posted Jul 21, 2011
1.5/4	60%	The Women On The 6th Floor (Les Femmes Du Sixi�me �tage) ()	" Over an hour in, the film would like to be some kind of reverse Ball of Fire, but none of it is remotely believable nor funny. Luchini is a big dud and Verbeke has a nice smile, but has nowhere to take it except the kitchen and upstairs." — eFilmCritic.com Posted Jul 21, 2011
2/4	84%	Romantics Anonymous (2011)	" Carr� and Poelvoorde are nice and cute in their scenes together, but just as it seems it is going to make some concessions in its second act, it is already over." — eFilmCritic.com Posted Jul 21, 2011
3/4	71%	Friends With Benefits (2011)	" There are many connections we can make to No Strings Attached, but easily the most favorable is that like the former, it also turns out to be a really sharp and funny surprise that treats its vulgarity in adult terms rather than childish shock value." — eFilmCritic.com Posted Jul 21, 2011

Showing 1 - 50 of 1168

Previous | Next

Sort by Rating:

Sort results by this critic's rating. This option is only available for critics with a rating system (4 star, letter grade, 1-10, etc.)
Sort by T-meter:

Sort results by the Tomatometer (percentage of critics recommending a certain movie)