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| 1/27/12
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Toy Story 3 (Randy Newman)
- Updated Review, With Additional Album |
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Buy it... |
if you have always appreciated the hyperactive action romps and funny regional references that
Randy Newman provided for the first two films in this franchise, a combined technique that
dominates the third entry as well.
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Avoid it... |
if, conversely, you've been bothered by Newman's total inability to assign the concept some
memorable thematic attribution in his scores, because Toy Story 3 is, despite its predictable
affability, another disappointingly anonymous work.
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Buy it... |
if inoffensive, conservative holiday drama and a dash of occasional prancing comedy soothe
your spirit without risking boredom.
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Avoid it... |
if you figure you're going to hear vivacious enthusiasm from Michael Giacchino for this topic,
a personality mostly absent from the composition and drained completely by a muted, lifeless
recording.
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Buy it... |
if you have embraced Alberto Iglesias' previous and often understated scores for topics of
drama and intrigue, for this entry's extremely restrained atmosphere requires patience to
appreciate on its hour-long album.
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Avoid it... |
if you lament the fact that Iglesias did not adequately extend the intelligently layered
noir-like personality of his melody for the primary character into the remainder of the
otherwise dull score.
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| 1/24/12
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Batman Forever (Elliot Goldenthal)
- Updated Review, With Additional Album |
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Buy it... |
if you're open-minded about the wildly flashy direction that the franchise took with this film
and generally appreciate Elliot Goldenthal's extremely intelligent capabilities, even if he
badly overplays the comical aspect of this concept in the process.
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Avoid it... |
if you expect Goldenthal to have taken the franchise as seriously as Danny Elfman had, because
Batman Forever is an occasionally insufferable carnival ride of wildly inconsistent musical
personalities at war.
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Buy it... |
if heart-warming orchestral fantasy music for the holidays raises your spirits all year,
because Harry Gregson-Williams' last minute replacement score contains a steady stream of
engaging action and awe-inspired beauty.
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Avoid it... |
if you consider many rousing children's scores to be blandly tonal sonic wallpaper, in which
case this well executed music may not contain enough unique thematic structures or other
characteristics to distinguish itself.
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Buy it... |
if you have a high tolerance for challengingly manipulated and unpleasant exhibitions of sound
design in your film music, especially if they utilize noises so awkwardly weird at times that
they give you the giggles.
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Avoid it... |
if you have no wish to embrace arguably John Ottman's worst career score to this point, an
unfortunately lifeless accompaniment to the extreme sexual depravity that may have kept this
movie out of American cinemas.
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| 1/21/12
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Wolfen (James Horner)
- Updated Review, With Additional Album |
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Buy it... |
if you are curious about the origins of James Horner's most familiar structures and
techniques, many of which evident in Wolfen and culminating in an interesting (if not
marginally entertaining) listening experience.
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Avoid it... |
if you expect to hear much of anything original on the long-standing bootleg that contains
both Wolfen and Deadly Blessing, the latter overshadowing some decent pastoral writing with
harrowing and painfully obvious references to Jerry Goldsmith's The Omen.
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Buy it... |
only if you are completing your set of "Star Trek" feature film scores and you can forgive the
hopelessly upbeat tone, thematic incoherency, and badly dated elements of Leonard Rosenman's
wayward and stubborn entry.
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Avoid it... |
if the word lame isn't what you want to think of when hearing the albums for the otherwise
respectable collection of creative and robust film scores for this franchise.
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| 1/19/12
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Man to Man (Patrick Doyle)
- All New Review |
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Buy it... |
if you consistently appreciate Patrick Doyle's fully orchestral drama mode, his predictably
optimistic tone and instrumental techniques providing respect and glory to this tale of
intellectual exploration.
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Avoid it... |
if you have difficulty embracing the enthusiastic tone of Doyle's melodramatic lyricism and
bright fanfares, especially with the surprising absence of much native African influence in
this work.
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Buy it... |
if you seek a more focused and sophisticated version of John Powell's music for The Bourne
Identity, with fewer erratic and obnoxious synthetic sequences distracting from the narrative
flow.
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Avoid it... |
if you appreciate the raw, slashing action tone of the preceding score in the franchise and
find the hints of warmer character development in the sequel's music to distract from the mood
that you seek from Powell's otherwise harsh ostinato motifs.
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