Movie Reviews, Digital HD Reviews, and Television Reviews

Reviews By Chris Rebholz

Here at FlickDirect, our goal is to provide up-to-date reviews on theatrical, home entertainment, and television series. Check out the scoop on upcoming films or programming, and even our take on the classsics from our critics and Rotten Tomatoes Approved, Allison Rose.

A Perfect Murder

(Chris Rebholz) 7/26/2012 8:46 PM EDT
A Perfect Murder is based on the same 1952 stage play by Frederick Knott that Alfred Hitchcock memorably filmed as Dial M for Murder. Hitchcock kept the play's title and much of its dialogue, and he also retained its limited setting, where most of the action was confined to a London apartment inhabited by an unfaithful wife and her homicidally ... Read More

The Astronaut's Wife

(Chris Rebholz) 7/26/2012 9:15 AM EDT
The Astronaut's Wife isn't Rosemary's Baby in Space but it does inch awfully close, though. So close that it invites a host of unfavorable comparisons to Roman Polanski's critically acclaimed 1968 classic. Yes, writer/director Rand Ravich's slow sci-fi chiller sort of works, particularly as it follows Charlize Theron on a rather... Read More

Phenomenon

(Chris Rebholz) 7/25/2012 8:43 AM EDT
In 1994 John Travolta was rescued from the Look Who's Talking sequels when Pulp Fiction reminded everyone of the unique magnetism with which he could invest almost any character. For the next six years—that is, until Battlefield Earth put some doubt in our minds—Travolta racked up one success after another, if not always financially... Read More

The Horse Whisper

(Chris Rebholz) 7/24/2012 10:14 AM EDT
Toward the middle of "The Horse Whisperer," Robert Redford locks eyes with his co-star. They stare at each other for a long time without speaking, as if the depth of their feeling can't be expressed in words. Redford has had this intense chemistry with many actresses over the years, but in this case the eyes he is looking into be... Read More

Evita

(Chris Rebholz) 7/17/2012 3:30 PM EDT
Evita's stature has grown with the passage of time, and even if you feel (as many fans do) that Alan Parker's 1996 film adaptation doesn't capture the electricity of the stage musical at its best, the movie remains one of the most effective stage-to-screen adaptations of the last thirty years. For all the attention she garnered dur... Read More

Treasure Planet

(Chris Rebholz) 7/9/2012 11:25 AM EDT
The 2002 animated sci-fi/fantasy adventure film from Disney, Treasure Planet, is loosely based on the Robert Louis Stevenson novel Treasure Island, but how well the Stevenson's seafaring adventure translates as an alien populated space adventure is debatable. While Disney's experiments with mixed hand-drawn and CG animation seem to work rather well... Read More

Chariots of Fire

(Chris Rebholz) 7/6/2012 8:32 AM EDT
Atlantic City. Chariots of Fire. On Golden Pond. Raiders of the Lost Ark. Reds. These are the five films nominated for Best Picture in 1981, and it was Chariots of Fire that walked away with the honor. Chariots of Fire isn't fully deserving of that prestigious win, but none of the other four films on the list leap out at as being more worthy of... Read More

People Like Us

(Chris Rebholz) 7/1/2012 10:40 AM EDT
"People Like Us" is the story of two siblings' responses to their father's death. The first five minutes add up to a well crafted character study, as whip-smart salesman Sam (Chris Pine) is stunned by the news that his father has died suddenly. Still resentful of his emotionally distant old man, Sam reluctantly heads home to ... Read More

Deliverance

(Chris Rebholz) 6/28/2012 11:27 AM EDT
This is the weekend they didn't play golf. That's the tag line for a film that has seared itself into the minds of a generation of fans. Deliverance has lasted for over three decades as lesson one of a Northerner's introduction to the South. Showing the backwoods and a laid back lifestyle, almost to the point of being inbred, thos... Read More

Wilfred: The Complete First Season

(Chris Rebholz) 6/28/2012 11:15 AM EDT
Series co-creator and co-star Jason Gann describes Wilfred as "Donnie Darko meets Russell Crowe on a bender." That gets you at least halfway there. The show, which is based on Gann's Australian TV comedy of the same name, revolves around the old imaginary friend/talking animal conceit of Mr. Ed and the Jimmy Stewart classic Harvey wit... Read More