Buy it... if you never tire of stereotypical Jerry Goldsmith action and horror scores, no matter how derivative and predictable they are.

Avoid it... if you lament the lack of a distinct personality in many of the late-era Goldsmith autopilot scores.

Goldsmith

Deep Rising: (Jerry Goldsmith) Somewhere in the process of making Deep Rising, director Stephen Sommers and his crew must have realized that the film was well on its way to failure on a historical level, and that something unique would have to be done to make the whole thing memorable. Apparently, that's where the relentless gore came into the equation, for it's hard to recall any film that shows more grotesque body mutilation than Deep Rising (and that includes Starship Troopers). The setting for this ultimate display of blood spraying is the luxury liner Argonautica, the target of a mercenary group who plans to raid its safes. Unfortunately, some octopuss-like monster of poor CGI rendering has already boarded the ship first, killed most of its inhabitants, and eagerly awaits the fresh blood of B-movie actors. The bad acting and poor plot were only made worse by the really unconvincing presentation of the monster. That, and what's the point of casting Famke Janssen in a wet T-shirt role if she's going to wear a bra? The early 1998 horror flick vanished as quickly as it had become a blip on the radar, receiving far less press than the real-life food poisoning outbreaks on cruise ships that seem far more popular of an event. The laughable qualities of Deep Rising also had a lasting impression on composer Jerry Goldsmith, who decided after his collaboration with Sommers on this and The Mummy the next year that he was tired of earning his money on the backs of such trash. Unfortunately, he would continue scoring trash over the course of his final dozen or so scores before his death, making his fans wish he had come to this conclusion a little earlier. Goldsmith did, however, have the capability of cranking out some fine (or at least interesting) music for these terrible horror and suspense films at times in the late 1990's. Deep Rising, sadly, is not one of those entries. You occasionally hear composers stuck in autopilot mode when they're going through their motions, earning that paycheck, and obviously putting a minimal amount of thought into a score. This is exactly what Goldsmith did for Deep Rising, a score with very few (if any) ideas that the composer's fans haven't heard several times before, and for far better films.

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A score like Deep Rising is really hard to assign a rating to, because it actually has some very well developed ideas and listenable passages. But while there are three easily digestible and somewhat enjoyable major cues in the score, the rest of it is as bland and predictable as anyone could have expected. The memorable cues all involve the three themes that Goldsmith employs in Deep Rising. The first we hear is a throwback brass decent for the monster itself, a two note slur very menacingly presented at the outset of "Underwater Grave" under some striking string dissonance. The film's title theme then erupts with rather heroic brass over a bed of both drum pads and authentic timpani, as well as a heightened mixing of Goldsmith's ever-tingling treble-range electronic rhythm samples. There's a faint sense of the great heroes themes of times past in Goldsmith's career, especially from the 1970's and early 80's, but without the genuine power to back it up with muscle. The monster's theme foreshadows the surprise for the mercenaries at the start of "Boarding," a cue that leads to a solemn snare-backed brass theme for their raiding party. With its surprisingly lyrical construct, this theme is the highlight of the score. A frantic variation of the theme would explode at the opening of "Hang On," during which Goldsmith later uses soft alternations of woodwinds (over an almost tropical percussion rhythm) similar to the mesmerizing performances in Star Trek: Insurrection. That final cue then launches into a reprise of the title theme, this time with the timpani mixed a little more to the forefront, and rides it to the conclusion. The nearly nonstop action music in the rest of Deep Rising is truly Goldsmith on autopilot, with few moments of memorable rhythms to return to. The synthetic effects heard prominently throughout them are very similar to those you'd hear in his final two Star Trek scores, with passages easily interchangeable. A sensitive interlude for solo oboe in "Leila's Gone" is interrupted by drum pads too quickly to satisfyingly change the mood of the overall product. Even at 32 minutes, the all-score album almost plays too long, though it's easy to be attracted back to a simple, thematic rhythm like that in "Boarding" for repeat listens. But the overarching creativity usually present in Goldsmith's music is absent from Deep Rising, leaving the score as a two-dimensional shadow of scores like the related Leviathan, which more effectively convinces you of its evil heart. **   Amazon.com Price Hunt: CD or Download

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For Jerry Goldsmith reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.26 (in 113 reviews) and the average viewer rating is 3.32 (in 133,462 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.