 |
|
|
|
|
 |
Orchestrated by:
|
Brad Dechter
Frank Bennett
|
|
|
|
|
Release Date:
|
September 19th, 2000
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Availability:
Regular U.S. release.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
Filmtracks Editorial Review:
 |
| | Debney | |
|
The Replacements: (John Debney) Sometimes, you just have to sit and
wonder... This film, a football comedy about the 1987 NFL players' strike, in
which Keanu Reeves plays a scab quarterback on the losing end of a career while
coach Gene Hackman and team owner Jack Warden lord over the unfortunate
proceedings, has shaky merits at best. There is no way kind to say that a movie
sucks, but this one does. To its credit, though, the producers of the film spent
a enormous wealth of money to garner the rights to parade dozens of well known
songs over the speakers during the film. Many of them were sports related, but
in total, they all represent a certain in-your-face attitude that the film
wanted to exploit. People who saw the film came away with the collection of
songs fresh on their mind, and immediately flocked to buy the soundtrack. What
they found, however, was an absurd score by John Debney and only one or two of
the songs that they really wanted. Thus, after selling well at record stores
initially, the album for The Replacements has become one of the most
frequent occurances in used CD bins of recent memory.
From a film score enthusiast's perspective, if you would have been told a few
years back that John Debney would eventually score a Gene Hackman film, The
Replacements is not the kind of movie that would have come to mind. Squeezed
in between the massive array of famous songs is a substantially long Debney
score. Unfortunately, it is so unlistenable that it borders on embarassing. We
had a foreshadowing that Debney could compose a score like this when the IMAX
film about Michael Jordan featured his pulsating, electronic score just a few
months earlier. But for The Replacements, Debney goes off the deep end
experimenting with harsh techno rhythms and speaker-busting electronics, often
producing music that is simply intolerable to the ears. Mixed in are echoing
quotes from the film, pounding percussion, orgasmic cheerleaders chanting,
screeching guitars, and keyboarding by a madman. For good measure, Debney throws
a studio orchestra mix in with these techno elements, but you never here it
beyond the four or five solo minutes of rather subdued underscore from the
orchestra. Sports movies can be scored fantastically with electronics, but with
or without Gene Hackman, The Replacements is no Hoosiers, though I
suspect from very brief bars of great music in The Replacements that
Debney is more than capable of producing more serious sports music with
keyboards. I also uspect that for this project, Debney responded to an idiotic
film with an equally idiotic score, and so the job was done.
But the album fails for an entirely different reason. Film music fans: you can
shoot me for saying this, but The Replacements album needed less score
and far more songs. Debney's work for the project certainly won't appeal to the
Cutthroat Island crowd of Debney fans, nor will it be of any interest to
those who wanted the songs. "I Will Survive," "Rock and Roll II," and "Bust a
Move" are the only appealing songs for that crowd, and yet the album is missing
the majority of key songs, including "Heros" by David Bowie, "Blinded by
Rainbows" by the Rolling Stones, "Ziplock," by LIT, "We Will Rock You" by Queen,
and "Every Move You Make" by the Police... The list goes on. So in the end, this
album won't satisfy anyone. The Debney score is embarassing and unlistenable in
many parts, and the important songs are all missing. Now I'm sure much of this
was due to budgetary restrictions (to put together a proper song album would
have been incredibly expensive for Varèse Sarabande). Ironically,
Varèse might even make a good profit on this CD, but it will piss off a
good number of people in the process. A bust all around. *
 |
|
Viewer Ratings and Comments:
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
• 1. The Replacements Remix (5:48)
• 2. I Don't Want to be Your Girlfriend - Kelli Owens (3:29)
• 3. Second Chance - Bret Domrose (4:10)
• 4. Bust a Move - Young MC (4:25)
• 5. I Will Survive - Gloria Gaynor (7:54)
• 6. The Dallas Game (2:00)
• 7. Falco (2:50)
• 8. Strikebreakers - Font 48 (6:12)
| |
• 9. Wild Yam/The Look in Your Eyes (4:19)
• 10. R.O.W.D.I.E./Sample Play - Font 48 (1:38)
• 11. Chicks Dig Scars (2:11)
• 12. Training Camp (1:35)
• 13. Football: Replacements Style (3:50)
• 14. Rock and Roll Part II - Gary Glitter (3:00)
• 15. Falco Changes the Play (2:30)
• 16. Martel Crossed (4:02)
|
Insert includes no extra information about the score or film.
|
