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Filmtracks Recommends: Buy it... if you can never get enough of Jerry Goldsmith's brass blasts, drum machine hits, tense string plucking, and childrens' lullabies. Avoid it... if you have no interest in a watered down version of Basic Instinct's suspense cues. Filmtracks Editorial Review:
The lyrical title theme once again plays to the sensibilities of a small child --and there is one as an important auxiliary character in Malice-- beginning with the style of a music box and evolving into a pretty melody for small adult choir. At first, this theme may seem to defeat the purpose of the film, and indeed, when it opens the end titles after the horrific resolution of the film, it seems a tad out of place, but Goldsmith does temper the generally happy, major-key theme with distinct, percussive strikes later in the performances of the theme. The strikes are decidedly off-key, and their integration into the choral theme eventually becomes dominant as the voices and accompanying ensemble die off at the conclusion. Goldsmith does reference this theme at a few points thoughout the score, but not without some effort to intregrate it with the often minor-key suspense cues that maintains a perpetually disturbed attitude throughout. This suspense music in the underscore shares many direct similarities with Basic Instinct (perhaps a temp-track direction?). The balance between synthesizers and orchestra, with drum machines and tingling sounds of tapping metal often setting rhythms for the layered string section, remains. More distinctly, the piano rumbles in the depths of its lowest notes in almost identical fashion as before. A plucked string rhythm slowly sets the pace in many of the cues, foreshadowing the opening sub-motif of The Shadow. The only stand-out suspense cue in Malice is "Clues," a piece that opens with almost the same barrage of drum machine and brass blasts as "Unending Story" from Basic Instinct, followed by some of Goldsmith's better tense string writing. The lengthy rhythmic cycles in this cue, stopping momentarily to quote the title theme, offer five or so minutes of outstanding Goldsmith thrill and action. The finale of the movie reveals its plot secrets in snapshot succession, causing Goldsmith to pull out several extended crescendos of orchestral hits with the drums at full volume. Overall, the score's title theme is enticing, and the "Clues" cue is a strong candidate for Goldsmith compilations, but the Malice score on its short album presents far more recycled ideas than novel ones. **
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