Critics » Erik Childress » Fresh
Erik Childress

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 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:
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)

Best Reviewed Films

Showing 1 - 50 of 1166
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Rating T-Meter Title | Year Add Date
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
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 92% 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
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
4/4 96% Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 2 (2011) " The continuous flow of the two movies will hopefully be molded into a single 4-hour plus experience on Blu-ray (where Eduardo Serra's cinematography will really pop) and solidify its place as one of the best final chapters of any movie franchise ever." — eFilmCritic.com
Posted Jul 13, 2011
4/4 88% Rango (2011) " It is only the first week of March and we are still getting over last year's award season. But the race for 2011's Best Animated Feature may have just begun. And may have just ended." — eFilmCritic.com
Posted Mar 4, 2011
4/4 93% 127 Hours (2010) " The manner in which Boyle stages and Franco portrays his eventual march to the first people he has seen in five days is reminiscent of George Bailey's triumphant run through Bedford Falls in It's a Wonderful Life and no less powerful." — eFilmCritic.com
Posted Oct 13, 2010
5/5 —— Deliver Us From Evil (Fri os fra det onde) (2009) — eFilmCritic.com
Posted Oct 11, 2010
4/4 96% The Social Network (2010) " Sorkin has stripped down the Facebook experience and presents the overlying and often unspoken commitment to its usage. How do others view us?" — eFilmCritic.com
Posted Oct 1, 2010
4/4 86% Inception (2010) " A masterpiece on a grand scale that is not just an ingenious work of science fiction but may be the best film since Rear Window to play along with your mind's eye on how we view movies altogether." — eFilmCritic.com
Posted Jul 14, 2010
4/4 99% Toy Story 3 (2010) " A true circle of life that may end as the credits roll here but, as all good souls do, finds a way to begin again in a film that is every bit as wonderful as its predecessors." — eFilmCritic.com
Posted Jun 18, 2010
4/4 69% Shutter Island (2010) " An incidental nod of surrender and a devastating final line should haunt you on your way out of the film and as painful as it might be, you will want to go back to Shutter Island as soon as possible just to clear your head." — eFilmCritic.com
Posted Feb 18, 2010
4/4 93% The Tillman Story (2010) " This is one of the more probing indictments of the post-9/11 government and is not inspired by liberal red state hatred but by a family who had a true American taken away from them way too soon. And for what?" — eFilmCritic.com
Posted Feb 1, 2010
4/4 94% Winter's Bone (2010) " The temptation to call Debra Granik's latest film, Frozen River Jr., will be great. But the longer the buzz builds for it and for Jennifer Lawrence's star-making performance, it will become abundantly clear that this is the Senior of the two films." — eFilmCritic.com
Posted Jan 31, 2010
4/4 73% Where the Wild Things Are (2009) " The sort of innovative storytelling that will see Where the Wild Things Are mentioned in the same breath as some of the best family films ever made." — eFilmCritic.com
Posted Oct 15, 2009
4/4 57% The Invention of Lying (2009) " The Invention of Lying deserves to take its place as a modern American comedy classic right alongside such worthy counterparts as Groundhog Day and Idiocracy." — eFilmCritic.com
Posted Sep 22, 2009
4/4 87% (500) Days of Summer (2009) " Probably the closest this generation has come to having their own Annie Hall." — eFilmCritic.com
Posted Jul 15, 2009
4/4 84% Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2009) " A film that stands on its own, The Half-Blood Prince is the purest example of virtuoso storytelling we have seen all summer and maybe all year joining a short list that includes Up, Away We Go and The Hurt Locker." — eFilmCritic.com
Posted Jul 13, 2009
4/4 67% 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
4/4 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
4/4 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
4/4 69% 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
4/4 94% The Dark Knight (2008) " The most brilliantly complex, perfectly paced, nerve-jangling, moral-wrangling film ever based on a graphically detailed literary work and, dare I say, one of the most important American films to be made in years." — eFilmCritic.com
Posted Jul 16, 2008
4/4 96% WALL-E (2008) " Not since Titanic will you have heard two prospective partners cry out each other's names with as much longing (and frequency) and if there's any karma, fate, or pure love out there to believe in than WALL-E will equal its attendance and then some." — eFilmCritic.com
Posted Jun 26, 2008
4/4 77% Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008) " To all of the wannabes, imposters and posers out there - it's time to go back to school and learn how a real adventure picture is made." — eFilmCritic.com
Posted May 19, 2008
4/4 94% Juno (2007) " Has all the rhythms that made films like Little Miss Sunshine and Garden State so beloved by audiences and critics alike, but invents its own rhyme to buck familiarity thanks to its brilliantly funny and exceptionally wise screenplay by Diablo Cody." — eFilmCritic.com
Posted Dec 5, 2007
4/4 74% The Mist (2007) " Frank Darabont's The Mist is easily the best horror film since The Blair Witch Project and the most socially frightening statement about humanity in the post 9/11 era." — eFilmCritic.com
Posted Nov 20, 2007
4/4 71% Beowulf (2007) " Robert Zemeckis doesn't just give English classes new interpretations to discuss but advances the technological limitations of animation to a level that makes high-definition look like a Falkirk Transmitter." — eFilmCritic.com
Posted Nov 15, 2007
4/4 95% No Country for Old Men (2007) " The Coens have found the perfect source material to continue their dominance of the crime genre while making a second viewing an absolute must to appreciate all the voices involved." — eFilmCritic.com
Posted Nov 8, 2007
4/4 94% Gone Baby Gone (2007) " Gone, Baby, Gone is not just one of the strongest pictures of the year, but one of the best debuts behind the camera for any filmmaker, moviestar or otherwise." — eFilmCritic.com
Posted Oct 18, 2007
4/4 88% Superbad (2007) " Superbad winds up being the best single night comedy since Martin Scorsese's After Hours. You may just be compelled to stick around for the next showing because comedies this great are all too rare." — eFilmCritic.com
Posted Aug 16, 2007
4/4 91% Hot Fuzz (2007) " This is as brilliant a deconstruction of any genre I've seen since Clint Eastwood's Unforgiven." — eFilmCritic.com
Posted Apr 19, 2007
5/5 —— Fall From Grace (2007) — eFilmCritic.com
Posted Mar 24, 2007
4/4 90% Knocked Up (2007) " What do I already know after just one screening? That this belongs on the short list of the best comedies of the last twenty years." — eFilmCritic.com
Posted Mar 21, 2007
4/4 73% Son of Rambow (2007) " There lies a huge, beating heart that leads to a crescendo of joviality so flawlessly accomplished that your mental applause sign may light up before its all over." — eFilmCritic.com
Posted Jan 30, 2007
4/4 54% The Good Shepherd (2006) " The Good Shepherd is drama at its best, a complex meditation on the freedoms we take for granted and proof that just a little information about how we maintain them is way too much." — eFilmCritic.com
Posted Dec 21, 2006
4/4 93% Children of Men (2006) " Alfonso Cuaron rides it out to the bitter end, creating a harsh mirror of our future with violence and some of the most purely exhilarating moments of cinema to be found in all of 2006." — eFilmCritic.com
Posted Dec 21, 2006
4/4 78% Charlotte's Web (2006) " Special stories like this are rare and so are the films which treat them with the respect they deserve. It may ultimately be a story about death, but I like to think of it as one of forever." — eFilmCritic.com
Posted Dec 14, 2006
4/4 75% Happy Feet (2006) " The oddity of Miller's devices helps elevate it to the front line where the Babe films rest as superior family entertainment that is also, arguably, one of the most beautifully rendered animated works I've ever seen." — eFilmCritic.com
Posted Nov 16, 2006
4/4 76% The Prestige (2006) " Nolan has used the same illusionist's ruses to craft an entertainment whose power lies not behind the curtain but right in front of all the types of magic imaginable." — eFilmCritic.com
Posted Oct 19, 2006
4/4 97% The Queen (2006) " Frears' film is often a brilliant comedy of manners laced with the occasionally appalling undertones that we, the people, often embrace." — eFilmCritic.com
Posted Oct 12, 2006
4/4 93% The Departed (2006) " Heaven has come calling for moviegoers to experience the purest, toughest and most unabashed Scorsese film since GoodFellas." — eFilmCritic.com
Posted Oct 5, 2006
4/4 63% Clerks II (2006) " Not just an all-around growth experience for Kevin Smith and his characters but a film that is in several ways actually better than the original." — eFilmCritic.com
Posted Jul 20, 2006
4/4 91% United 93 (2006) " While there are many stories to be told that we haven't heard yet, there will never be a better film made about 9/11 than Paul Greengrass' United 93." — eFilmCritic.com
Posted Apr 27, 2006
4/4 86% Inside Man (2006) " Retains all the elements of a solid caper film, basked in the smarts of a decades old police procedural and leaves us with something greater than forced twists and shoot-outs." — eFilmCritic.com
Posted Mar 23, 2006
4/4 73% V for Vendetta (2006) " Alan Moore, director James McTeigue and the Wachowski Bros. may be using the equivalent of bombs to slam home the point, but occasionally it takes a loud noise to wake us up." — eFilmCritic.com
Posted Mar 23, 2006
4/4 55% Fuck (F*ck) (2005) " Anderson's film should tour as part of an encapsulating trilogy with The Aristocrats & This Film Is Not Yet Rated into the heartland & beyond as an important statement of where we've come and the f***storm we're headed for." — eFilmCritic.com
Posted Mar 9, 2006
4/4 36% Art School Confidential (2006) " Its final shot is a beautiful masterstroke of the separation and desire involved in personally connecting with a piece of art and is the kind of frame-worthy moment that more students should be learning about." — eFilmCritic.com
Posted Feb 2, 2006
4/4 91% Little Miss Sunshine (2006) " A beautiful picture punctuated by a top-notch cast and a laugh quotient that exponentially grows right up to its satiric punctuation mark of a climax." — eFilmCritic.com
Posted Jan 27, 2006
4/4 78% Munich (2005) " Daniel Craig echoes the sentiment of soldiers and architects for peace everywhere, "Let us do our job." That's all Spielberg is doing and he does it better than anyone." — eFilmCritic.com
Posted Dec 22, 2005
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