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Erik Childress

Tomatometer-approved critic
Biography:

Erik Childress got his start as a film critic on the Jonathon Brandmeier show back in 1998 and for over 20 years wrote for eFilmCritic, was a weekly guest on Chicago’s WGN Radio with Nick Digilio (continuing now as The Nick D Podcast) and co-hosted the Bad Mutha Film Show with Sergio Mims on WHPK Radio. Currently he is the host of the Movie Madness podcast, co-host of The Friendship Dilemma podcast and produces the Critic’s Classics series at Elk Grove Cinema. On television he has been featured since 2011 on the Movies & Money segment on Business First AM and writes the weekly box office column for Rotten Tomatoes. He is on the board of the Chicago Film Critics Association and is the founder, a producer and programmer of the annual Chicago Critics Film Festival that began in 2013.

Favorites:

Back to the Future, JFK, Star Wars, Indiana Jones, E.T., Jaws, Aliens, Broadcast News, The Right Stuff, Goodfellas, Die Hard, The Prestige, Flash Gordon

Location:

Elk Grove Village, IL (Chicago)

Official Website:

https://erikthemovieman.substack.com/

Reviews

Movies TV Shows
War Machine (2026) 69% 2/4 EDIT “Substitute a giant metal robot spaceship entity for an ugly alien on the hunt and swap out Schwarzenegger for Reacher and you get the idea. While it certainly bloody enough to not just be another PG-13 FX spectacle it is still about as generic.” – Movie Madness Podcast Mar 22, 2026 Full Review undertone (2025) 72% 1.5/4 EDIT “The arbitrary countdown towards the recordings’ endgame provides some momentary curiosity suspense as to what horror is waiting on the other side. When it finally arrives its as lackluster as most films of its type.” – Movie Madness Podcast Mar 22, 2026 Full Review Ready or Not 2: Here I Come (2026) 76% 1.5/4 EDIT “Added exposition hardly ups the stakes for this sequel that may want to be the John Wick of eat-the-rich-devil-worshipping-horror but handcuffs its heroine to a partner while Radio Silence believes the 12th body explosion is as interesting as the first.” – Movie Madness Podcast Mar 21, 2026 Full Review Project Hail Mary (2026) 95% 3.5/4 EDIT “As engulfing as the story and the visuals are, this is Ryan Gosling’s show delivering a performance with great humor and self-doubt that allow his quiet emotional moments to carry genuine weight in an intelligent sci-fi film that all ages should treasure.” – Movie Madness Podcast Mar 21, 2026 Full Review THE BRIDE! (2026) 57% 3/4 EDIT “Anyone who has hyperbolized that this is the worst film ever need to see more movies because even in some of the messiness there is too much to admire from Gyllenhaal’s revision especially in the performances by Buckley & Bale.” – Movie Madness Podcast Mar 10, 2026 Full Review Protector (2025) 19% 1.5/4 EDIT “A film that begins like Taken, then becomes First Blood, tries to be John Wick only to mind-shift into another noteworthy film that will have you smacking your own head.” – Movie Madness Podcast Mar 9, 2026 Full Review When a Witness Recants (2026) 3.5/4 EDIT “The film transcends its tragic true crime story when it confronts how much is lost when corruption and lies form that narrative. The ignorant lack of self-awareness in one person's role in that loss which climaxes the film is a stunner.” – Movie Madness Podcast Mar 5, 2026 Full Review The Bluff (2026) 54% 2/4 EDIT “A film that wants to play within the same period as the initial Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy but apart from a couple decent action beats is very small scale from the plotting to the characters to the locations.” – Movie Madness Podcast Mar 3, 2026 Full Review In the Blink of an Eye (2026) 17% 1.5/4 EDIT “The film plays like a version of Cloud Atlas that was chopped in half and a 45-minute IMAX film extended into feature length all at the same time and somewhere between life and death we lose interest in everything.” – Movie Madness Podcast Mar 3, 2026 Full Review Scream 7 (2026) 31% 1.5/4 EDIT “The motivation for these mass murders is getting dumber with each film. Maybe that is its way of feeling timely.” – Movie Madness Podcast Mar 2, 2026 Full Review The Dreadful (2026) 37% 1.5/4 EDIT “At some point folk horror set in the middle dark dirty ages all starts to blend together and this variation on The Return of Martin Guerre with the Game of Thrones cast unfortunately lives up to its name.” – Movie Madness Podcast Feb 24, 2026 Full Review How to Make a Killing (2026) 43% 2.5/4 EDIT “Thanks to Margaret Qualley the film does achieve some noirish suspense down the stretch but there is an unwillingness to make its star anything less than likable that dulls the edge it should have” – Movie Madness Podcast Feb 24, 2026 Full Review This Is Not a Test (2025) 43% 1/4 EDIT “They say that you don’t have to be the fastest to survive the bear. Just be faster than the next person. Well in the zombie outbreak just be faster than this breakfast club who certainly did not eat their brain food for their moment of crisis.” – Movie Madness Podcast Feb 23, 2026 Full Review The Mortuary Assistant (2026) 38% 1.5/4 EDIT “The video game sounds like it might be scarier because at least there is a greater potential for surprise when things jump out and make a loud noise which after some early promise is about all the film has left to offer.” – Movie Madness Podcast Feb 18, 2026 Full Review Zootopia 2 (2025) 91% 3/4 EDIT “It’s not quite as good as the first one but the message is pertinent and bigger than the mystery. Plus it is just fun with some great voicework across the board.” – Movie Madness Podcast Feb 18, 2026 Full Review Josephine (2026) 95% 3.5/4 EDIT “The slippery slope of trauma that young Mason Reeves, in an incredible performance, must slide through brings additional sadness knowing that is no switch, lesson or speech her parents can provide to fix her altered worldview.” – Movie Madness Podcast Feb 17, 2026 Full Review Crime 101 (2026) 88% 2/4 EDIT “There is a slickness to its action scenes that makes one wish the connecting tissue with the less interesting characters made us care about the outcome, especially as one could pre-write the way the climax plays out before it happens.” – Movie Madness Podcast Feb 17, 2026 Full Review Everybody To Kenmure Street (2026) 100% 3.5/4 EDIT “The story almost seems quaint compared to the recent U.S. response to immigration and protests (including people doing their job legally and keeping their word) but in many ways make it an urgent lesson in recent history and civil discourse” – Movie Madness Podcast Feb 16, 2026 Full Review Cold Storage (2026) 79% 2/4 EDIT “The film has the right tone for a fun little horror comedy and yet its lack of scale and urgency on top of spending more than half the film looking for the fun prevents it from achieving the requisite amount for a justifiable distraction.” – Movie Madness Podcast Feb 16, 2026 Full Review Good Luck, Have Fun, Don't Die (2025) 82% 2.5/4 EDIT “For the first 45 minutes the film has an interesting approach to blending various forms of sci-fi with one brilliant section of satire. Unfortunately the final 90 are repetitive with an overlong climax that dulls the edge it had in the beginning.” – Movie Madness Podcast Feb 15, 2026 Full Review Wuthering Heights (2026) 57% 1/4 EDIT “Apart from Fennell ignoring the gothic haunting and other crucial elements, it is awash in red as if she just got to the chapter on colors in film school and an immature view of sexuality that is eye-rollingly awful instead of eyebrow raising. ” – Movie Madness Podcast Feb 15, 2026 Full Review The Incomer (2026) 91% 3/4 EDIT “A fanciful yarn in the vein of Local Hero with wonderful work from Gayle Rankin and Grant O’Rourke as the abandoned siblings caught between grown-up responsibility and adolescent discovery with Domhnall Gleeson very funny as the bewildered catalyst.” – Movie Madness Podcast Feb 10, 2026 Full Review The Weight (2026) 94% 4/4 EDIT “Padraic McKinley’s unimpeachably entertaining debut is an adventure that has the tension of Sorcerer with a touch of Southern Comfort led by a never-more-confident Ethan Hawke who just continues to roll through perfectly chosen projects. ” – Movie Madness Podcast Feb 9, 2026 Full Review The Only Living Pickpocket in New York (2026) 100% 3.5/4 EDIT “Noah Segan evokes a classical ‘70s vibe for his analog protagonist and wisely does not cheat the audience on the journey he puts him on, perfectly embodied by John Turturro in another stellar turn with great support from Buscemi, Esposito and Maslany” – Movie Madness Podcast Feb 9, 2026 Full Review Broken English (2025) 91% 3.5/4 EDIT “A refreshingly unique approach to the music biopic which through interviews, footage, debate and live performances gives agency back to the icon that is Marianne Faithfull.” – Movie Madness Podcast Feb 9, 2026 Full Review
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