ROTTEN TOMATOES: Erik Childress

Official Websites:
eFilmCritic
Nick Digilio (WGN Radio)

ERIK CHILDRESS

"One of these days I�ll be making films of my own, as I have several screenplays completed and many more in the works. And when that day comes I hope everyone will remember me here and praise my films to the largest audience possible. Until then, I will continue to envy the great films and skewer the bad ones.

(For all the people who always wanted me to mention them on the air or to people I just wanna thank for everything up to now � Jonathon Brandmeier, Buzz Kilman, Nick DiGilio, Dann Gire, Gary & Michelle Mitchell, Erik Laws, Gino & Chris Falcone, Gwen Mayers, Joanna Juneau, Dan & Nicki Styka, Jerry Rushing, Nora Lenihan, Kevin Flozak, Ken Carollo, Tom Badon, Matt Crisci, Jeff Kahn � and the Family, Jack and Pat Childress, Jennifer and Kim Childress (Sisters), Genevieve and Ed Tomashewski.)"

Agrees with the Tomatometer 71% 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: Apollo Guide, eFilmCritic.com

Critics' Group: Online Film Critics Society, Chicago Film Critics Association

Total Reviews: 964
Total QuickRatings: 22

Location: Elk Grove Village, IL (Chicago)

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Rating	T-Meter	Title \| Year	Add Date (default)

Rotten 0/4	Rotten 10%	I Love You, Beth Cooper (2009)	" A film so badly executed that you have to wonder if Larry Doyle (who serves as screenwriter) ever read his own book, let alone wrote it." — eFilmCritic.com Posted Jul 9, 2009
Rotten 2.5/4	Fresh 71%	Bruno (2009)	" While there are some big laughs to be had, Bruno ultimately fails at its more grandiose intentions as a sharp satire about our obsessions with celebrity and tendencies towards homophobia." — eFilmCritic.com Posted Jul 9, 2009
Fresh 3/4	Fresh 100%	The Square (2008)	" Those who seek it out, I suspect, will have no problem in another decade citing the names of the Coens, the Wachowskis and the Edgertons on their list of siblings who used noir to find the light towards a successful and acclaimed filmmaking resume." — eFilmCritic.com Posted Jul 2, 2009
Rotten 2/4	Fresh 66%	Public Enemies (2009)	" We've been left with a film that can't settle on which history it wants to tell and ends up dispelling the myth that a new film by Michael Mann is a cause worth celebrating." — eFilmCritic.com Posted Jul 1, 2009
Rotten 0/4	Rotten 19%	Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (2009)	" This is the single worst film to be released thus far in the summer of 2009 and that's a whole helluva pile of bad to overcome in achieving that title." — eFilmCritic.com Posted Jun 24, 2009
Rotten 1/4	Rotten 46%	The Proposal (2009)	" Anne Fletcher has practically established herself as the anti-feminist, playing more to the hopeless ring chasers out there rather than those who might be insulted at the prospect of independent women needing a man in their lives to complete them." — eFilmCritic.com Posted Jun 19, 2009
Rotten 1.5/4	Rotten 50%	The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 (2009)	" Is this some statement on what happens to white collar criminals in prison? They come out and interject sodomy jokes when they're trying to be taken seriously? Is this how we should expect Gordon Gekko to be in the Wall Street sequel?" — eFilmCritic.com Posted Jun 12, 2009
Fresh 4/4	Fresh 66%	Away We Go (2009)	" The debut screenplay of Dave Eggers and Vendela Vida have given Sam Mendes quite the gift in just one of the many pieces that make this one of the best films of 2009." — eFilmCritic.com Posted Jun 12, 2009
Rotten 0.5/4	Fresh 78%	The Hangover (2009)	" With The Hangover Todd Phillips has officially become the Uwe Boll of comedy." — eFilmCritic.com Posted Jun 5, 2009
Rotten 1.5/4	Rotten 28%	Land of the Lost (2009)	" Land of the Lost will have kids asking if they can just go see Up again. Hopefully mom and dad have a little money left after blowing it on this." — eFilmCritic.com Posted Jun 5, 2009
Rotten 2.5/4	Fresh 93%	Drag Me To Hell (2009)	" Raimi's fans will no doubt be pleased that he's whipping out the greatest hits. But just the same, it's the greatest hits package equivalent to Peter Gabriel's best-of album not including In Your Eyes." — eFilmCritic.com Posted May 28, 2009
Fresh 3.5/4	Fresh 97%	Up (2009)	" Saying Up ranks somewhere right in the middle is like dissing the bottom half of the top 10 titles that any genre has to offer. And if that is where Up appears on the list of 2009's best films, then so be it." — eFilmCritic.com Posted May 26, 2009
Rotten 1.5/4	Rotten 32%	Terminator Salvation (2009)	" By the time it looks like Richard Dawson's Running Man crew created another stunt body double to get audiences all riled up, all the nostaglia has been sucked out thanks to a script unworthy of a direct-to-video sequel." — eFilmCritic.com Posted May 20, 2009
Rotten 1.5/4	Rotten 37%	Angels & Demons (2009)	" Angels & Demons only exemplifies the problems with both movies and, thanks in part to a headsmacker of a third act, winds up being worse than its predecessor." — eFilmCritic.com Posted May 14, 2009
Rotten 1/4	Rotten 14%	Powder Blue (2009)	" Few will remember Powder Blue as a desperate copy job of Paul Thomas Anderson's brilliant Magnolia but rather as the film where Jessica Biel finally took it all off." — eFilmCritic.com Posted May 7, 2009
Rotten 1/4	Rotten 33%	The Limits of Control (2009)	" At 15 minutes, it might be deemed an interesting experiment. At ONE-HUNDRED and 15 minutes you have a film that tests the limits of the audience's control to stay awake and in their seats." — eFilmCritic.com Posted May 7, 2009
Rotten 2/4	Fresh 95%	Star Trek (2009)	" For nearly its first hour, I felt I was witnessing Abrams hitting every beat just right, only to see him and his writers spend the final hour getting just about everything wrong." — eFilmCritic.com Posted May 7, 2009
Rotten 1.5/4	Rotten 36%	X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009)	" May not be the final drop in the X-Men cash bucket but its clear that whatever creative well fans wished upon for their beloved series has been officially dried up." — eFilmCritic.com Posted Apr 30, 2009
Rotten 2/4	Rotten 28%	Ghosts of Girlfriends Past (2009)	" You know you're watching a bare-bones, witless screenplay when the writers can't merge the Dickensian parable with the morals of modern-day casual sex by making a good old-fashioned Yet-To-Come joke about the final ghost." — eFilmCritic.com Posted Apr 30, 2009
Rotten 2.5/4	Fresh 85%	State of Play (2009)	" Ends up, ironically, burying the lead beneath underdeveloped subplots and characters as well as a final act that seemed desperate to wrap itself up to meet its own deadline." — eFilmCritic.com Posted Apr 16, 2009
Rotten 2/4	Fresh 67%	Is Anybody There? (2009)	" Mostly ages us through its sloggy, spoon-fed narrative that has us, like its surrounding characters, just waiting for it all to be over." — eFilmCritic.com Posted Apr 16, 2009
Fresh 3.5/4	Rotten 51%	Observe and Report (2009)	" One of the ballsier comedies to come from a big studio in some time that's likely going to tear at audience's expectations but, hopefully, will have them appreciating its creators." — eFilmCritic.com Posted Apr 9, 2009
Rotten 1/4	Rotten 28%	Fast & Furious (2009)	" It seems deftly appropriate that they would decide to remove the two 'the's from the title, the most replaceable word in the English language and compensate their absence with two of the most transparent ciphers to ever get above-title billing." — eFilmCritic.com Posted Apr 3, 2009
Rotten 2.5/4	Fresh 88%	Adventureland (2009)	" The only real nostaglia on display (much like the overplayed rock soundtrack of the park's speakers) is the feeling that you've just seen and heard this story all before." — eFilmCritic.com Posted Apr 3, 2009
Fresh 3/4	Rotten 38%	Gigantic (2008)	" For a film that only flirts with the idea of closure it may be best to just keep an open mind and enjoy the company of some fine actors playing funny characters trying to find the same answers that all of us are." — eFilmCritic.com Posted Apr 2, 2009
Fresh 3.5/4	N/A	Slammin' Salmon (2009)	" I couldn't list ten pure comedies from 2008 that produced as many laughs as The Slammin' Salmon and the way this year has started, it's hard to think that wouldn't hold true for 2009 either." — eFilmCritic.com Posted Mar 25, 2009
Fresh 3.5/4	Fresh 82%	I Love You, Man (2009)	" I Love You, Man doesn't need the 'talk' to speak to the guys in the audience, because just about everything that needs to be said is right there on the screen and is usually accompanied by a huge laugh." — eFilmCritic.com Posted Mar 20, 2009
Fresh 3/4	Rotten 42%	The Last House on the Left (2009)	" Craven himself has said that the 2009 is a marked improvement over his film and some fans I know balked at such a statement. Only the truth is they should keep repeating to themselves, 'Craven was right. Craven was right.'" — eFilmCritic.com Posted Mar 12, 2009
Fresh 3/4	Fresh 64%	Watchmen (2009)	" There is much to like about Watchmen. But it's not without its flaws and if the end result is as faithful as adaptations come, they go as far back as the source material." — eFilmCritic.com Posted Mar 5, 2009
Rotten 1/4	Rotten 12%	Crossing Over (2009)	" The only debate that Crossing Over will inspire is whether or not it's supreme awfulness is enough to qualify it for so-bad-its-good status." — eFilmCritic.com Posted Feb 26, 2009
Rotten 0/4	Rotten 23%	Fired Up (2009)	" The Maxim revolution kicks off with Fired Up and the fact that even the now Hammond-less skin mag's name is nowhere to be found on the title, should tell you that even they are trying to maintain some dignity." — eFilmCritic.com Posted Feb 19, 2009
Fresh 3.5/4	Fresh 83%	Humpday (2009)	" Humpday uses it absurd premise for maximum comic discomfort and its this approach that should have audiences unable to look away unless they are doubled over in laughter." — eFilmCritic.com Posted Feb 18, 2009
Rotten 2/4	Rotten 58%	The International (2009)	" The International could have turned out to be a prescient statement about our times instead of one that increasingly droops our eyelids just when it should be opening them." — eFilmCritic.com Posted Feb 12, 2009
Rotten 0.5/4	Rotten 26%	Friday the 13th (2009)	" A miserable failure that maintains no attempt to reimagine the villain, the cliches, or the bloody kills and it becomes a depressing experience that offers zero enjoyment and even less fright." — eFilmCritic.com Posted Feb 12, 2009
Rotten 2/4	Rotten 31%	The Uninvited (2009)	" Once the pieces became clear that directors Charles & Thomas Guard were content on being M. Night Shyamalan instead of Ji-Woon Kim, it's enough to make any purist feeling tainted." — eFilmCritic.com Posted Jan 29, 2009
Rotten 1.5/4	Fresh 72%	The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008)	" David Fincher was simply not the right man for the job and it shows at every turn in a film that is a complete and utter failure at everything it set out to tackle." — eFilmCritic.com Posted Dec 24, 2008
Rotten 1.5/4	Rotten 27%	Seven Pounds (2008)	" Accompanied by one of the worst scores I've heard in some time, Seven Pounds follows its lead by continually trying to bury its final note under another one and constantly sounding like the composer missing the beat over and over and over again." — eFilmCritic.com Posted Dec 18, 2008
Rotten 2/4	Rotten 43%	Yes Man (2008)	" Much like the self-help guru it enables, it exists solely to get your money like a good little follower and then ask you to ignore the doubt that comes with having plunked down exorbitant theater prices for a barely average comedy." — eFilmCritic.com Posted Dec 18, 2008
Rotten 2/4	Fresh 79%	Gran Torino (2008)	" And you thought Walt was kidding when he told his son early on that people would show up after the funeral because he 'suppose they heard there's gonna be a lot of ham.'" — eFilmCritic.com Posted Dec 18, 2008
Rotten 1.5/4	Rotten 20%	The Day the Earth Stood Still (2008)	" An overall lame piece of science-fiction and an even lamer parable that fails to distinguish its own ironies of what's worth saving when filmmakers like Derrickson pee all over something so many of us cherish." — eFilmCritic.com Posted Dec 11, 2008
Rotten 2.5/4	Fresh 78%	Doubt (2008)	" Doubt ends on a note so ridiculous, so heavy-handed and over-the-top that it would have been right at home during some cartoon parody of pretentious Oscar do-gooders trying to shout its message towards your 6-D glasses." — eFilmCritic.com Posted Dec 11, 2008
Rotten 2/4	Rotten 26%	Punisher: War Zone (2008)	" In the spirit of teaming up franchises, if Lions Gate were to continue reviving hope with The Punisher, maybe the next time around he can protect the winner from VH-1's Scream Queens against the other Jigsaw in Saw VI." — eFilmCritic.com Posted Dec 4, 2008
Fresh 4/4	Fresh 92%	Frost/Nixon (2008)	" Without George W. Bush, the Frost/Nixon conversations may have become just another anecdote of remembering when - instead of confronting audiences with the ironies of two wartime Presidents not owning up to the mistakes that were made." — eFilmCritic.com Posted Dec 4, 2008
Rotten 1/4	Rotten 54%	Australia (2008)	" By unnecessarily extending the film (and shortening what should have formed its crux), Australia manages the almost unfeasible feat of becoming a less honest film than Michael Bay's Pearl Harbor." — eFilmCritic.com Posted Nov 25, 2008
Fresh 3/4	Fresh 94%	Milk (2008)	" Skirting somewhere in-between his bombastic, arms-flailing work in the disasterous All the King's Men remake and the man-child of I Am Sam, Penn goes well past impersonation and commands each and every scene with sympathy and determination." — eFilmCritic.com Posted Nov 25, 2008
Fresh 3/4	Fresh 65%	Quantum of Solace (2008)	" It will be curious to see how Casino Royale enthusiasts react to Quantum of Solace. Their action palette will certainly be quenched but they may be thirsty again immediately after." — eFilmCritic.com Posted Nov 13, 2008
Rotten 0/4	Rotten 45%	Soul Men (2008)	" If the Weinsteins had any soul themselves they would take this film and bury it along with every other film they seem to these days instead of trying to cash it in as some misbegotten tribute to Bernie Mac's legacy." — eFilmCritic.com Posted Nov 6, 2008
Fresh 3/4	Fresh 76%	Role Models (2008)	" David Wain's Role Models can both stand proudly alongside the recent spate of vulgar R-rated comedies and provide definitive proof why we no longer laugh at Sandler's films." — eFilmCritic.com Posted Nov 6, 2008
Fresh 4/4	Fresh 94%	Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About His Father (2008)	" Dear Zachary is not just Oscar-worthy material, but Oscar-requisite. If the Academy's documentary branch can't find a way to nominate this film (and then promptly reward it) then there's more than one corruption of justice that needs to be investigated." — eFilmCritic.com Posted Oct 28, 2008
Fresh 4/4	Fresh 67%	Synecdoche, New York (2008)	" It's an intricate piece to the puzzle of self-examination that began in Adaptation and continues into one of the most challenging, exasperating and beautiful works to hit theaters since probably Eternal Sunshine." — eFilmCritic.com Posted Oct 23, 2008

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4/4	Superbad Offsite
3.5/4	Death Sentence Offsite
4/5	3:10 to Yuma Offsite
3/4	The Kingdom Offsite
2.5/4	The Invasion Offsite
3/5	Self-Medicated Offsite
2/4	Stardust Offsite
2/5	Private Property Offsite
1.5/4	We Own The Night Offsite
1/4	Jumper Offsite
0.5/4	Across the Universe Offsite
0/4	The Bucket List Offsite

ERIK CHILDRESS

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