(The following donated review by Timothy Turner was moved by Filmtracks to this comment section in April, 2007)

Cleopatra: (Trevor Jones) Right after Merlin, Trevor Jones brings another large epic score. Cleopatra is another TV movie from Hallmark Entertainment, this time set in Eygpt and starring Billy Zane, Timothy Dolton, and Leonor Varela. Jones opens the score with the main theme Cleopatra, which is just what you'd expect from him: large, epic, sweeping and grand. Some might say it sounds a tad bit simular to his theme for Last of The Mohicans, and I admit it is sort of familiar to it but only in terms of orchestration, plus Cleopatra is more purcussion based. Played right after the main theme is a soaring performance of the love theme. While this variation of the love theme is effective when played right after the main theme, it sounds much better when played slower on woodwinds and strings.

Cleopatra contains a few Middle Eastern instruments to describe the place setting, including some female Arab vocals performed by Belinda Skyes. We hear her sometimes-annoying voice throughout the score, but usually durning the slow passages --most notably in "Egypt is Yours for Only One Day". This track is interesting because 1) I can't tell if it's a song or not, the vocals are not the typical "ahh"s and "oooh." It's more wavy like "Yaaayayayaaa Yaiii" and sometimes you hear some lyrics in Arabic mixed in... and 2) This track has a very new-age or contemporary feel to it. Other tracks worth mentioning are "The Tomb of Kings" which has a nice secondary theme performed with brass as a kind of fanfare, then immediately repeated by soft woodwinds with a nice soft ethnic beat. A nicer performance of the love theme is also found in this track. "Rome Decress" and "The Roman Forum" are the only real action tracks on the CD; they use the first 2 notes from the main theme as a motif. They are very good, and ecxiting, but don't really meet the spirit of Merlin's action tracks.

Tracks 6-8 are sort of a let down, they are just quiet, and atonal underscore that doesn't go anywhere. I usually skip these tracks, because they never keep me interested. The final 2 tracks "To Speed You on Your Way," a romantic performance of the main and love theme, and "In the Eyes of the Gods We Are One," which is an epic rendition of the main theme to close the score, are very good.

This is a good score, and its worth having especially for Trevor Jones fans (or at least just to have the main theme, which is worth being put on the list of other grand themes that Jones has written). But I can't put it above Merlin; it doesn't have the same grandeur, excitment and awe that Merlin has. But if you can find this in stores, I still recommend it. ****