 |
|
|
|
|
 |
Composed, Co-Orchestrated, Conducted, and Performed by:
|
Randy Newman
|
Co-Orchestrated by:
|
Jonathan Sacks
|
Performed by:
|
The Hollywood Studio Symphony
|
|
|
|
|
Release Date:
|
January 11th, 2005
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Availability:
Regular U.S. release.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
Filmtracks Recommends:
Buy it... if you just can't get enough of those lazy, happy Randy
Newman vocals and their fluffy, parody-filled underscore counterparts.
Avoid it... if Newman's singing began making you pull your hair out
several years ago and you don't figure you'll need yet another slight
variation on the Newman happy-happy joy-joy attitude.
Filmtracks Editorial Review:
 |
| | Newman | |
|
Meet the Fockers: (Randy Newman) As an overdue
follow-up to the 2000 hit comedy Meet the Parents, Jay Roach's
Meet the Fockers extends the characters from the first film into the
realm of Greg Focker's (Ben Stiller's) parents. It's an entire film that
analyzes what happens when you put one set of highly controlling and tense
parents at one side of the table and an extremely relaxed set on the other.
Despite a cast of high-power celebrity names, critical consensus on Meet
the Fockers has seemingly dwelled upon a flat lack of energy in the
film, claiming substandard writing as perhaps the primary culprit. But that
certainly did not keep audiences away from the sequel, with several
appearances at the #1 position in box office earning Meet the Fockers
fiscal success at the very least. The original film in 2000 featured a Randy
Newman score and a few songs performed by the modern jazz singer himself. At
the time, Newman was venturing into the animated children's film domain, a
place in which his lazy, happy vocals serve a very noble purpose. After
wearing his welcome on that genre a tad thin by 2003, Newman provided a
refreshingly different score (compared to his usual comedy standard) for
Seabisquit. In a journey down memory lane, though, Meet the
Fockers gives Newman the opportunity to slide right back into ever
familiar territory, with the filmmakers apparently deciding that a nearly
identical effort from Newman's previous entry in the series being the best
method of providing music to the sequel. All new Randy Newman songs appear
over the opening and closing credits of Meet the Fockers, with his
usual comedy underscore writing mirroring the same attitude throughout the
film. Despite the usual, upbeat nature of Newman's involvement, the straight
restocking of music from the first film to the second may be one reason why
critics didn't find Meet the Fockers to be as novel a concept.
Indeed, it would be very surprising if Randy Newman
receives yet another Academy Award nomination for one of his songs from
Meet the Fockers. "We're Gonna Get Married" (over the opening titles)
and "Crazy 'Bout My Baby" (over the closing credits) are a bit more
rock-inspired than Newman's past few film songs, but you nevertheless get
the feeling that you've heard both these songs in no less than five movies
in recent years. He varies his tone, his lyrics, his structures so little
that you begin to wonder if he infringes on his own copyrights at times;
these songs could very well have functioned just as well in A Bug's
Life or Monsters Inc., and for someone who has heard all of these
fluffy songs and scores in the past, Newman's voice at its saturation point
--as hard as it may be to believe-- may start to give a person violent
thoughts. If not irritating, these songs at the very least are boring to
many listeners, and Newman, despite the success he's had in the past with
his niche, has got to come up with a new twist, a new set of rhythms, or
vastly different instrumentation to keep himself viable. Those nifty little
female vocals repeating his lyrics or 'eeewing and ahhhing' behind him have
got to be the real kicker this time. The underscore does do its best to
elevate the comedy of the story by expanding the emotional depth of the
picture. With a few tepid opening tracks, the album would seem hopeless at
first, but in Newman's latter cues, he begins to inject some much-needed
parody personality in the work. An ambitious pirate-inspired brass theme in
"Meet the Fockers" yields to a foreboding and militaristic Godfather
spin-off in "Suspicious Mind." A touch of Hispanic flavour leaks into the
score in "The Shot" and one very strong orchestral outburst steals the final
score cue, "Here's My Plan." On the whole, the Randy Newman underscore
material constitutes about 20 minutes on album. Released by Varèse
Sarabande, the Meet the Fockers album is nearly identical in
structure to Dreamworks' album for Meet the Parents, with the Newman
songs followed by score and several rock songs appearing at the end. The
non-Newman songs on this album reflect the laid-back attitude of the Focker
family quite well. Overall, Newman's underscore shines through at times, but
the man simply has to diversify himself in his own vocal department, because
the same old song over and over again isn't making as many people smile
anymore. **
 |
|
Viewer Ratings and Comments:
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
• 1. We're Gonna Get Married - performed by Randy Newman (2:23)
• 2. Crazy 'Bout My Baby - performed by Randy Newman (2:48)
• 3. Baby and Me (2:11)
• 4. Jack (2:56)
• 5. Meet the Fockers (4:20)
• 6. Suspicious Mind (3:18)
• 7. The Shot (2:12)
• 8. Here's My Plan/It's All Right Now (4:21)
• 9. Going Up the Country - performed by Canned Heat (2:51)
• 10. If I Were a Carpenter - performed by Tim Hardin (2:41)
• 11. Wilderness (Dub) - performed by HeadBone (3:35)
• 12. Dancing - performed by HeadBone (3:42)
| |
|
The insert includes a list of performers, but no extra information about the score or film.
|
