Sean Axmaker
Tomatometer-approved critic
Sean Axmaker writes the weekly newspaper column Stream On Demand and the companion website Stream On Demand at Home, is a contributing writer for Turner Classic Movies Online and Noir City, and the editor of Parallax View. He was a film critic for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer for nine years and a longtime home video columnist for IMDb and MSN Movies, and his work has appeared in Indiewire, Today.com, The Stranger, Seattle Weekly, Senses of Cinema, Asian Cult Cinema, Filmfax, Psychotronic Video, and "The Scarecrow Video Guide."
And now the important stuff: My favorite director: Howard Hawks My director obsession: Orson Welles My favorite films: choose from The Searchers (John Ford, 1956), Gun Crazy (Joseph H. Lewis, 1949), French Can-Can (Jean Renoir, 1955), Touch of Evil (Orson Wells, 1958), Kings of the Road (Wim Wenders, 1976), Vertigo (Alfred Hitchcock, 1958), and any number of Howard Hawks films ? Only Angels Have Wings (1939), Red River (1948), The Thing From Another World (1951), Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953), Rio Bravo (1959), and the vastly under-appreciated Hatari! (1962) Favorite performer: Burt Lancaster and his million dollar smile.
Seattle, WA
http://www.streamondemandathome.com
Movies reviews only
| Rating | T-Meter | Title | Year | Review |
|---|---|---|---|
|
|
Peter Pan (2003) |
You may feel like you’ve stepped into the pages of a storybook illustrated by Maxfield Parrish when you fly off to Neverland in... P.J. Hogan’s deft and delightful take on the oft-filmed J.M. Barrie classic. - Stream on Demand
Read More
| Posted May 06, 2023
|
|
|
|
Attack the Block (2011) |
... both far smarter than it looks on the surface, and more indebted to the drive-in horror movie culture than has been acknowledged. Cornish manages the balance well... - Stream on Demand
Read More
| Posted May 06, 2023
|
|
|
|
The Freshman (1925) |
His mix of spunky resilience and wide-eyed obliviousness makes him both admirable and pathetic, at least until the energetic naïf proves himself in the big football game. - Stream on Demand
Read More
| Posted May 06, 2023
|
|
|
|
Definitely, Maybe (2008) |
It feels overworked at times, a gimmick saved largely by the chemistry of its players. But this high-concept tale of modern love is also sweet and sour in the best ways. - Stream on Demand
Read More
| Posted May 06, 2023
|
|
|
|
Demonlover (2002) |
From the first voyeuristic peak into the ruthless world to the haunting, accusatory, unforgettable final image, it’s a brilliant, stunning piece of work, perhaps not his best, but certainly his most fearless and impassioned. - Stream on Demand
Read More
| Posted May 06, 2023
|
|
|
|
Moonrise Kingdom (2012) |
It’s funny, it’s playful, it’s full of nostalgic blasts and period trappings, but most of all it is loving: accepting of the headstrong kids determined to find their place in the world, forgiving of the oblivious adults around them... - Stream on Demand
Read More
| Posted May 06, 2023
|
|
|
|
The Man From Laramie (1955) |
... a frontier “King Lear” by way of director Anthony Mann’s favorite themes of splintered families and filial betrayal. - Stream on Demand
Read More
| Posted May 06, 2023
|
|
|
|
Risky Business (1983) |
It’s sexy, smart and funny, but also stylish and filled with social satire and commentary on the culture of money. Under the sexual fantasies is an anxiety about sex and success and a superbly cynical portrait of capitalist enterprise... - Stream on Demand
Read More
| Posted May 06, 2023
|
|
|
|
The Pianist (2002) |
This is not a portrait of war heroism (though he never does anyone ill by accident or by design) but of primal survival instincts and Brody sheds all of his actor’s instincts to show Szpilman slowly slide into animalistic self-preservation. - Stream on Demand
Read More
| Posted May 06, 2023
|
|
|
|
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004) |
The wacky sight gags and psycho-drama slapstick is tinged with melancholy and regret ... - Stream on Demand
Read More
| Posted May 06, 2023
|
|
|
|
Pete's Dragon (2016) |
There’s an authentic gentleness to the story and a joyous thrill to the bucolic adventure. - Stream on Demand
Read More
| Posted May 06, 2023
|
|
|
|
Cool Hand Luke (1967) |
There’s more than a bit of Christ allegory in the imagery but it’s the character of the scruffy prisoners in the impoverished prison... that gives the film its juice. - Stream on Demand
Read More
| Posted May 06, 2023
|
|
|
|
Between the Lines (1977) |
It’s quite a time capsule, recalling an era of independent weekly newspapers and investigative journalism that challenged the more conservative approach of daily newspapers. - Stream on Demand
Read More
| Posted May 06, 2023
|
|
|
|
Finding Dory (2016) |
Apart from the obvious visual wonders of the animated aquarium that is Dory, Pixar once again builds a swift, funny, and engaging story on handicapped characters who discover they can live full and loving lives like anyone else. - Stream on Demand
Read More
| Posted May 06, 2023
|
|
|
|
The Gold Rush (1925) |
Charlie Chaplin’s frozen north classic is just as funny today as it was seventy years ago, and just as mawkishly sentimental. - Stream on Demand
Read More
| Posted May 06, 2023
|
|
|
|
Experimenter (2015) |
[Director Michael] Almereyda wants us to be aware that this is a fiction even as he explores the ideas with great intelligence and the life of Milgram with curiosity. - Stream on Demand
Read More
| Posted May 06, 2023
|
|
|
|
Married to the Mob (1988) |
[Jonathan] Demme revs the film up with outsized characters and tacky fashions colliding with the freewheeling multicultural energy of Pfeiffer’s new home, a way of life that invigorates her in a way the insular mob life never did... - Stream on Demand
Read More
| Posted May 06, 2023
|
|
|
|
Ghost World (2001) |
[Director Terry Zwigoff] has a gift for understated moments of wry humor and a sensitivity to the ennui surrounding the lost Generation Y girls so busy sniping and skewering the “losers” around them to find any direction in their own floating lives - Stream on Demand
Read More
| Posted May 06, 2023
|
|
|
|
Lost Highway (1997) |
It’s a metaphysical mystery that defies literal explanation yet has a weird and haunting emotional and thematic logic to it, like a dream or a nightmare. - Stream on Demand
Read More
| Posted May 06, 2023
|
|
|
|
Psycho (1960) |
The granddaddy of all slasher films and psycho-thrillers will never have the same impact as it did on first release.... But Hitchcock’s craft is breathtaking. - Stream on Demand
Read More
| Posted May 06, 2023
|
|
|
|
Dirty Pretty Things (2002) |
The poetic justice is a bit precious for a film otherwise grounded in a tough reality, but there is a guilty satisfaction to it all, and Ejiofor’s haunting performance burns itself into the film... - Stream on Demand
Read More
| Posted May 06, 2023
|
|
|
|
The Wicker Man (1973) |
Director Robin Hardy creates an uneasy atmosphere, filling in the sunny island paradise with sensuous imagery and drawing attention to the phallic symbols, while presenting the Mother Earth worship with sincerity. - Stream on Demand
Read More
| Posted May 06, 2023
|
|
|
|
Spring Breakers (2012) |
It’s Bonnie and Bonnie and Bonnie and Clyde with Day-Glo color, teen exhibitionism, and gangsta street violence, with a pop music score and a hip-hop mixmaster soundtrack and editing style. - Stream on Demand
Read More
| Posted May 06, 2023
|
|
|
|
Steamboat Bill, Jr. (1928) |
[U]nder the spectacle is a love between father and son that neither can express except through action and a nervous city boy who transforms from an oblivious klutz into a mechanical genius... - Stream on Demand
Read More
| Posted May 06, 2023
|
|
|
|
Planet of the Apes (1968) |
It’s pop sci-fi done up with style by director Franklin J. Schaffner, who makes the most of his savage landscapes and superb art direction and creates vivid, fully rounded characters from his simian cast... - Stream on Demand
Read More
| Posted May 06, 2023
|
|
|
|
Lucy (2014) |
It's basically a fantasy wrapped in the guise of science and used as an excuse for an action thriller, but what a thriller. This is a kinetic explosion at its best with Johansson striding through it with a sense of drive and assuredness... - Stream on Demand
Read More
| Posted May 06, 2023
|
|
|
|
Haywire (2011) |
Steven Soderbergh’s drive-in assassin action movie by way of a sleek art-house conspiracy thriller. - Stream on Demand
Read More
| Posted May 06, 2023
|
|
|
|
Hatfields & Mccoys (2016) |
These aren’t the backwards hillbillies of so many comic incarnations but rural folk with strong clan allegiances who tangle the law and the state governments into their fight... - Stream on Demand
Read More
| Posted May 06, 2023
|
|
|
|
Mud (2013) |
... a story of childhood adventure steeped in the rural culture of life on the Mississippi and the mythology of Huckleberry Finn, but this boy’s adventure is also tangled in the world of adults and family bonds. - Stream on Demand
Read More
| Posted May 06, 2023
|
|
|
|
Mad Max (1979) |
It's a tough little piece, just a little grimy, full of ambiance (love the crumbling sign over "Hall of Justice") and attitude and occasionally sparked by an inspired flourish. - Stream on Demand
Read More
| Posted May 06, 2023
|
|
|
|
The Passion of the Christ (2004) |
It is perhaps testament to the material that the film can be read both as a literal illustration of the story of Christ’s suffering at the hands of the Romans... an anti-authoritarian tract that questions the very assumptions of guilt and blame... - Seanax.com
Read More
| Posted May 06, 2023
|
|
|
|
Guardians of the Galaxy (2014) |
[James] Gunn does make the journey a lot of fun, with an oddball cast of renegades who, tossed together in a deep space prison, team up to escape and wind up staying together because it suits their purposes, but really because it sucks to be alone. - Stream on Demand
Read More
| Posted May 06, 2023
|
|
|
|
1984 (1984) |
While Radford never fully captures the devastating ordeal of mental and physical torture of Orwell’s novel, it is an admirable effort and a fine film in its own right... - Stream on Demand
Read More
| Posted Apr 14, 2023
|
|
|
|
Safety Last (1923) |
... apart from the long shots featuring a stuntman, that’s Lloyd himself scrambling up the bricks and cornices, thanks to a mix of nervy stuntsmanship and ingenious location shooting.... - Stream on Demand
Read More
| Posted Apr 14, 2023
|
|
|
|
In a Lonely Place (1950) |
This is film noir without guns and gangsters, with no robberies or blackmail schemes, where the only crime on screen is a couple of alcohol-fueled assault... and yet it is among the most devastating noir dramas you’ll ever see. - Stream on Demand
Read More
| Posted Apr 14, 2023
|
|
|
|
Mary and The Witch's Flower (2017) |
[Director Hiromasa] Yonebayashi was an animator for Hayao Miyazaki at Studio Ghibli and he honors the master’s work with his sweet, playful film (adapted from a children’s novel by British author Mary Stewart) and his young heroine. - Stream on Demand
Read More
| Posted Apr 14, 2023
|
|
|
|
Safe in Hell (1931) |
The film’s title is no exaggeration; imagine 'Casablanca' as a lice-infested backwater run by mercenary opportunists and filled with the sleaziest criminals to escape a manhunt. - Stream on Demand
Read More
| Posted Apr 14, 2023
|
|
|
|
Wanted (2008) |
There’s no smarts behind it, merely style and spectacle, and Bekmambetov just runs with it. He’s not concerned with making it look real, just with making it look really cool and letting the audience decide if they’re in the mood to play his game. - Stream on Demand
Read More
| Posted Apr 14, 2023
|
|
|
|
Over the Hedge (2006) |
The story is slim and somewhat dubiously built on a confused moral but the script is snappy and the films moves with a fluid rhythm that charges up to a rollercoaster pace... - Stream on Demand
Read More
| Posted Apr 14, 2023
|
|
|
|
A.I.: Artificial Intelligence (2001) |
... a dark, visionary fairy tale. Call it a cyberpunk 'Pinocchio' with a robot boy who wants to be human despite the cruelty and hate he finds on his odyssey. - Stream on Demand
Read More
| Posted Apr 14, 2023
|
|
|
|
Taxi Driver (1976) |
Martin Scorsese’s incendiary masterpiece of alienation and anger and urban anxiety may be the most maverick vision of seventies American cinema. It is certainly one of the most visceral portraits of the American urban underbelly ever put on film... - Stream on Demand
Read More
| Posted Apr 14, 2023
|
|
|
|
The Station Agent (2003) |
For the first time in his career, [Peter] Dinklage was allowed to play someone with dimension, passion, and an identity beyond his physical attributes, and he makes the most of it. - Stream on Demand
Read More
| Posted Apr 14, 2023
|
|
|
|
Moon (2009) |
Essentially a one-man, two character piece, 'Moon' could be an old 'Twilight Zone' episode nurtured into a feature. - Stream on Demand
Read More
| Posted Apr 14, 2023
|
|
|
|
A Woman Is a Woman (1960) |
[Jean-Luc] Godard’s third feature is a bizarro New Wave musical done up with Godard’s usual jagged style and offbeat humor. - Stream on Demand
Read More
| Posted Apr 14, 2023
|
|
|
|
The Mummy Returns (2001) |
[Stephen] Sommers is a pure pop Stephen Spielberg but this chapter is less 'Raiders of the Lost Ark' than 'Gunga Din,' a pulp update of old Hollywood action movies. - Stream on Demand
Read More
| Posted Apr 14, 2023
|
|
|
|
The Mummy (1999) |
... plenty of 1930s style, humor, and attitude (including a decidedly dated sense of cultural sensitivity), more Indiana Jones than Gothic horror. - Stream on Demand
Read More
| Posted Apr 14, 2023
|
|
|
|
Scary Movie 3 (2003) |
Not everything hits the target and the pop-culture spoofing is over a decade out of date... but he tosses so many of them off with a wink and a grin that they catch you by surprise. - Stream on Demand
Read More
| Posted Apr 14, 2023
|
|
|
|
The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl (2005) |
The film’s naïve charm, filtered through Rodriguez’s big kid-in-a-candy-store filmmaking sensibility, engages on the level of childlike—and at times defiantly, delightfully childish—imagination. - Stream on Demand
Read More
| Posted Apr 14, 2023
|
|
|
|
Hot Fuzz (2007) |
... the madcap shoot-outs that erupt in the cute little country village... is both a surreal parody of urban action spectacle and seventies TV cop clichés and a marvelous bit of comic action in its own right. - Stream on Demand
Read More
| Posted Apr 14, 2023
|
|
|
|
The Lives of Others (2006) |
'The Lives of Others' is dark, but burning beneath the scathing political exposé of the GDR’s despotic paranoia and the personal tragedy of the drama is a bracing story of idealism, disillusionment, and defiance. - Stream on Demand
Read More
| Posted Apr 14, 2023
|