Rotten Tomatoes
Movies Tv shows RT App News Showtimes
Critics list

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
Over Your Dead Body (2026) 68% 3/4 EDIT “The setup and payoff of the remake more than overcome a sloggy and unnecessarily uncomfortable middle section. Hilariously over-the-top violent with Segel and Weaving matched by the welcome energy of Olyphant and Lewis.” – Movie Madness Podcast Apr 29, 2026 Full Review Apex (2026) 67% 3.5/4 EDIT “As Aussie throwback wilderness thrillers go this is certainly one of the better ones with Theron as a tough but vulnerable heroine and Egerton as a pure psycho. But Kormákur’s command of the landscape and FX make the climbing and rafting scenes top tier.” – Movie Madness Podcast Apr 28, 2026 Full Review Mother Mary (2026) 72% 3/4 EDIT “The supernatural element distracts from the already compelling two-hander between Hathaway & Coel, but these performances and Lowery’s consistently top notch visual sense still holds us in his grip.” – Movie Madness Podcast Apr 27, 2026 Full Review Fuze (2025) 73% 1/4 EDIT “A film that starts with an intriguing setup only to derail into the kind of twist-filled nonsense from the era of the films trying to replicate The Usual Suspects and Wild Things.” – Movie Madness Podcast Apr 25, 2026 Full Review Michael (2026) 39% 0.5/4 EDIT “There is plenty wrong with this biopic that has nothing to do with what was left out. Though it certainly does not help the cause of a film with no interest in what drove Michael’s artistry, his eccentricities or if he even loved any of it.” – Movie Madness Podcast Apr 25, 2026 Full Review Outcome (2026) 28% 2/4 EDIT “The screenplay bounces between satire and solemn introspection, including a genuinely great scene with Martin Scorsese, but it writes its main character as a blank forced to listen to who he is rather than showing any signs of it with the miscast Reeves.” – Movie Madness Podcast Apr 21, 2026 Full Review Lee Cronin's The Mummy (2026) 47% 1/4 EDIT “The film surrounds itself with the dumbest, most uncaring people in the world reacting like no other human would in any given situation that it becomes impossible to offer any empathy yourself as to what has happened to this poor girl.” – Movie Madness Podcast Apr 20, 2026 Full Review Normal (2025) 76% 2/4 EDIT “Once the film reveals its purpose it is hard to not think the creators just saw the final act of Hot Fuzz and how you would be better off just watching that.” – Movie Madness Podcast Apr 19, 2026 Full Review Our Hero, Balthazar (2025) 93% 3.5/4 EDIT “Many recent films have tried (and failed) to deal with school shootings through humor & satire. This one manages to do that while taking a good, hard look at the weaponization of detached masculinity and never losing touch with the horrors it has amassed.” – Movie Madness Podcast Apr 18, 2026 Full Review Cover-Up (2025) 98% 3.5/4 EDIT “Between this and The Stringer there have been some essential films reminding us of the importance of journalism and having members of the press power through the BS to find the truth at all costs.” – Movie Madness Podcast Apr 10, 2026 Full Review Fantasy Life (2025) 81% 3/4 EDIT “Amanda Peet gives one of her best performances amongst a strong cast in a film that avoids taking us through sitcom cliches in favor of characters with believable neuroses. ” – Movie Madness Podcast Apr 9, 2026 Full Review Pillion (2025) 99% 3.5/4 EDIT “Consensual toxicity actually becomes something sweet, funny and enlightening through two very strong performances by Melling and Skarsgard. ” – Movie Madness Podcast Apr 8, 2026 Full Review The Truth and Tragedy of Moriah Wilson (2026) 3/4 EDIT “The breakdown of the criminal investigation is fascinating to watch and perhaps even more intimately detailed than the life of this young woman whose story sometimes takes a backseat to her killer.” – Movie Madness Podcast Apr 6, 2026 Full Review Pizza Movie (2026) 79% 3/4 EDIT “The constant creativity displayed by Nick Kocher & Brian Mcelhaney to find weird new elements of the drug to overcome while still offering commentary on social behavior is a high not often found in stoner comedies.” – Movie Madness Podcast Apr 5, 2026 Full Review The Drama (2026) 76% 2.5/4 EDIT “Robert Pattinson’s performance is wonderfully suited for the Seinfeld-ian farce lying beneath the surface of this misshapen comedy that leaves too many angles dangling which reduce Zendaya’s character to more of a subject than participant.” – Movie Madness Podcast Apr 4, 2026 Full Review 1000 Women in Horror (2025) 100% 3/4 EDIT “90 minutes is not enough time to cover a topic worthy of a multi-part documentary, especially when it comes down to being a book promotion. But that doesn’t mean its examination isn’t interesting even with a fraction of the women represented.” – Movie Madness Podcast Apr 3, 2026 Full Review Pretty Lethal (2026) 57% 1.5/4 EDIT “Not only does the film fail to live up to its premise outside of a single action sequence, it’s an ugly film that wastes Uma Thurman and sidelines the great Millicent Simmonds away in a room for a lengthy portion.” – Movie Madness Podcast Apr 2, 2026 Full Review Alpha (2025) 58% 2/4 EDIT “Ducournau has crafted a metaphor in search of a film that is often surrounded with repetitive visuals and situations inserted into a timeline designed more for a gotcha than a meaningful commentary or emotional payoff.” – Movie Madness Podcast Apr 1, 2026 Full Review You're Dating a Narcissist! (2025) 52% 0/4 EDIT “Because the movie never wants to grapple with the deep-seated issues of its protagonist, Marisa Tomei ends up portraying the most grating character of her career who would be a straight-up villain in another film.” – Movie Madness Podcast Mar 31, 2026 Full Review They Will Kill You (2026) 65% 2/4 EDIT “The first attack sequence gets our attention, but apart from the dexterity of a severed eyeball, the film does not have any more ideas about its own mythology or ratchet up the stakes and the action leaving each successive battle a further afterthought.” – Movie Madness Podcast Mar 30, 2026 Full Review Forbidden Fruits (2026) 74% 1.5/4 EDIT “A film that follows the Heathers/Mean Girls setup, throws in a bit of The Craft and then inexplicably concludes like Final Destination with very little to engage with throughout all of it.” – Movie Madness Podcast Mar 29, 2026 Full Review Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice (2026) 76% 3/4 EDIT “The references and needle drops will be catnip to anyone who grew up in the ‘80s but Grabinski and his cast are still having a blast around it with some well-staged action and Vaughn doing what he does best and doubly so.” – Movie Madness Podcast Mar 28, 2026 Full Review Youngblood (2025) 65% 2/4 EDIT “It doesn’t take much to improve on the abhorrent Rob Lowe fighting film masquerading as a hockey one, but this one only expands as far as forgettable mediocrity.” – Movie Madness Podcast Mar 23, 2026 Full Review War Machine (2026) 68% 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) 74% 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
No Reviews Yet
Load More