Movie Reviews, Digital HD Reviews, and Television Reviews

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 classics.

Gravity

(Chris Rebholz) 2/24/2014 11:05 AM EDT
It began with a simple image: an astronaut, topping end over end, adrift in space. Over the next four years, that image evolved into Gravity: a breathtaking cinematic marvel, a stunning technical achievement and an incredibly powerful human drama worthy of winning every one of the ten Academy Awards for which it's nominated. Director Alfonso Cu... Read More

The Americans: Season One

(Chris Rebholz) 2/24/2014 10:45 AM EDT
Every family has a skeleton or two in its closet, but what if that skeleton were in fact a fully flesh and blood body—like a secret identity? While The Americans may seem on its face to be slightly ridiculous, positing a couple of Soviet era KGB agents who have integrated into American society as a typical suburban couple (replete with kids w... Read More

The Fifth Estate

(Chris Rebholz) 2/19/2014 2:45 PM EDT
Bill Condon's The Fifth Estate is a strangely groggy, awkwardly generic Julian Assange biopic; a made-for-TV-quality misfire with aspirations of Social Network greatness destined instead to share bargain bin real estate with the likes of Swordfish and Antitrust. Benedict Cumberbatch is miscast as a stringy haired, marble mouthed Assange... or p... Read More

Baggage Claim

(Chris Rebholz) 2/19/2014 10:07 AM EDT
Pray tell, has Tyler Perry started working under pseudonyms other than Madea? For all intents and purposes, Baggage Claim could be yet another Perry enterprise, for it depicts glamorous, upscale African Americans confronting a host of supposedly comedic issues, with nary a hint of real character or even much story to propel the film along. This is ... Read More

Free Birds

(Chris Rebholz) 2/19/2014 9:55 AM EDT
It's probably a good thing that the creative staff behind Free Birds decided not to go with the film's original title, Turkeys, a name which more or less would have invited snarky critical commentary. Free Birds is indeed a turkey, a kind of overly plumped and stuffed entertainment that is flightless and badly proportioned. Summing up Free ... Read More

Metallica: Through the Never

(Chris Rebholz) 2/13/2014 10:04 AM EDT
It's tough out there for a concert film these days. Ever since Miley Cyrus brought Hannah Montana to box office gold in 2008, Hollywood has been chasing the big money with efforts devoted to The Jonas Brothers, Katy Perry, Justin Bieber, and One Direction. The genre receives a much needed kick in the behind with "Metallica: Through the Never,&... Read More

Million Dollar Baby

(Chris Rebholz) 2/13/2014 9:07 AM EDT
For the tenth anniversary of Clint Eastwood's multi-Oscar-winning Million Dollar Baby, Warner Home Video is reissuing the title on Blu-ray, having previously released it in November 2006, in the format's early days. However, Blu-ray fans will be disappointed to learn that, despite over seven years of advances in the technology and craft of ... Read More

Enough Said

(Chris Rebholz) 1/27/2014 4:24 PM EDT
Will James Gandolfini be the latest recipient of a posthumous Academy Award nomination? The Academy Awards haven't been shy about recognizing deceased performers and behind the scenes craftsmen from literally the first year the statuettes were handed out. Many other less generally known names have received at least nominations through the years... Read More

Archer: The Complete Season Four

(Chris Rebholz) 1/27/2014 4:07 PM EDT
It's been a longstanding conceit for television shows featuring the same production houses or other creative staff to occasionally cross-promote themselves by having various characters show up on sibling series. The incestuous "rural" comedies that were CBS' mainstay in the 1960s are a prime example, with various characters in The... Read More

Carrie

(Chris Rebholz) 1/20/2014 9:58 AM EDT
Interviewed about the 2010 remake of A Nightmare on Elm Street, actor Jackie Earle Haley was asked why anyone would want to step into the shoes of Robert Englund in the iconic role of Freddy Krueger. Haley gave an interesting answer. He pointed out that the studio was going to remake the film whether or not he took the role. Why not see what he cou... Read More