SUPPORT FILMTRACKS! WE EARN A
COMMISSION ON WHAT YOU BUY:
Amazon.com
Amazon.co.uk
 eBay
Amazon.ca
Glisten Effect
Editorial Reviews
Scoreboard Forum
Viewer Ratings
Composers
Awards
   CURRENT NUMBER OF:
     • Years Online: 29
    • Editorial Reviews: 2,377
   • Unique Albums Covered: 3,507
  • Reader Messages Posted: 499,183
 • Reader Votes Cast: 2,736,233


   CURRENT BEST-SELLING SCORES:
       1. Top Gun (2-CD)
      2. Avatar: The Way of Water
     3. The Wild Robot
    4. Gladiator (3-CD)
   5. Young Woman and the Sea
  6. Spider-Man 2 (3-CD)
 7. Cutthroat Island (2-CD)
8. Willow (2-CD)
   CURRENT MOST POPULAR REVIEWS:
         1. Spider-Man
        2. Alice in Wonderland
       3. The Matrix
      4. Gladiator
     5. Wicked
    6. Batman (1989)
   7. Raiders of the Lost Ark
  8. The Wild Robot
 9. Beetlejuice Beetlejuice
10. Doctor Strange: Multiverse
Predator: Badlands
Tron: Ares
Play Dirty
Eden
The Thursday Murder Club
Weapons
Covering the best and worst of original film and television music from America's Big Sky Country since 1996, Filmtracks is your spirited home for comprehensive, humorous, and controversial soundtrack reviews. Join our community to support this niche music genre!
On Cue Icon
ON CUE
 VIEW ALL
11/14/25 Falling Down   (James Newton Howard)
All New Review, Separated From Dual Review
Buy it... to study James Newton Howard's intelligent exploration of self-destruction and societal commentary even if it is generally unsatisfying in all its facets.
Avoid it... if you expect any of Howard's compelling modes of self-destruction to last long enough in performance to merit the acquisition of the score's rare albums.
11/12/25 Flatliners   (James Newton Howard)
Updated Review, With Additional Album
Buy it... only if you are prepared to suffer through James Newton Howard's mass of generic, synthetically dominated suspense and horror cues to appreciate the score's absolutely lovely redemption theme.
Avoid it... if a mere ten minutes of tonal salvation of immense stature cannot alone save this whole listening experience, even on the long overdue official 2025 album that replaced years of substandard bootlegs.
11/10/25 Alien: Romulus   (Benjamin Wallfisch)
Updated Review, With Additional Album
Buy it... if you continue to appreciate Benjamin Wallfisch's tendency to approach franchise scores with intelligence, this entry adapting old and new ideas into one of the concept's more compelling film scores.
Avoid it... if you cannot accept any dose of the composer's highly grating electronic manipulation for horror applications, the chasing and confrontation moments in this work completely unlistenable.
11/8/25 Crimson Tide   (Hans Zimmer)
Updated Review, With Additional Album
Buy it... if you seek the superior power anthem and brilliantly-paced suspense that inspired the revolution of the synthetic blockbuster score concept in the late 1990's.
Avoid it... if you're part of the mutiny among score fans that has rejected Hans Zimmer's revolution on a matter of principle, regardless of the strengths of his initially successful redefinition of the genre.
11/6/25 Jaws   (John Williams)
Updated Review, With Additional Album
Buy it... on the impressive 2025 3-CD set if you seek to conduct a definitive study of one of the most effective film scores of all time, or on the immense 2000 re-recording if you want to hear that classic music translated decently into contemporary sound quality.
Avoid it... on all the albums if you recognize, like many John Williams collectors do, that this remains a great score only truly appreciable in the context of the film, a challenging listening experience on album for merely casual entertainment.
11/4/25 Thelma & Louise   (Hans Zimmer)
Updated Review, With Additional Album
Buy it... on any of the various score-only album releases if you desire the defiantly beautiful, gospel-laced finale cue to go with the more commonly available presentation of the famous "Thunderbird" suite from the score.
Avoid it... if you expect to hear more than eight to ten minutes of truly meaningful material in this work, because outside of the stylish guitar performances and that finale, there isn't much to impress on any full presentation of the short score.
11/2/25 The Secret of N.I.M.H.   (Jerry Goldsmith)
Updated Review, With Additional Album
Buy it... on especially the 2025 Intrada Records product for an impressively complete survey of a compelling score that previewed Jerry Goldsmith's future wealth of strong, consistent music for children's fantasy and animated films.
Avoid it... on any of the prior products if a more outwardly dynamic and powerful spirit uninhibited by archival sound quality is what you seek in your Goldsmith material of lyrical romanticism and grand fantasy scope.
10/31/25 Halloween Ends   (John Carpenter/Various)
Updated Review, With Additional Album
Buy it... if you were disappointed by the underwhelming tone of the music for Halloween Kills, John Carpenter and his team stepping up to provide a more engaging and satisfying conclusion to this franchise's music.
Avoid it... if you expect anything to radically change in the style or thematic foundations of this music, even with additional tonality applied to address the dramatic elements of this film's plot.
10/29/25 Halloween Kills   (John Carpenter/Various)
Updated Review, With Additional Album
Buy it... only if you are a devoted enthusiast of this franchise's mercilessly rising body count, John Carpenter's music, like the films, struggling to find ways to evolve its core concepts into anything substantially new.
Avoid it... if you expect to hear anything particularly scary or even unnerving in this score, the loudest and most dissonant passages annoying rather than frightening.
10/27/25 Halloween (2018)   (John Carpenter/Various)
Updated Review, With Additional Album
Buy it... if you desire a loyal extension of John Carpenter's original Halloween themes and style, their reprises here somewhat stagnant but satisfying nonetheless.
Avoid it... if you demand more than mere production updates to the sound of this music, the score not attempting much evolution to address the elapsed time and development for the lead heroine.
10/25/25 The Scorpion King   (John Debney)
Updated Review, With Additional Album
Buy it... if you are prepared for one of John Debney's most flamboyantly extroverted works in the action and fantasy genre, a majestic blend of metal and orchestra.
Avoid it... if the use of ripping electric guitars for a 16th Century warrior cannot be reconciled with Debney's more typical orchestral and choral bombast.
10/23/25 Young Sherlock Holmes   (Bruce Broughton)
Updated Review, With Additional Album
Buy it... on any of the 2014 to 2025 albums if you seek a dynamic blend of Victorian character themes and challenging writing for conflict at the height of Bruce Broughton's ascendance in the mid-1980's.
Avoid it... if the striking atonality of the suspense and killing cues is too disparate from the pretty and innocent themes for the protagonists, this score maintaining a split personality from start to finish.
10/21/25 Matchstick Men   (Hans Zimmer)
Updated Review, With Additional Album
Buy it... if you want to hear Hans Zimmer's lovable though intentionally dysfunctional combination of Nino Rota's European sensibilities and zany 1950's lounge rhythms.
Avoid it... if accordions, whistlers, high 50's jazz, a little Zimmer techno, and snappy rhythms could potentially cause you to obsess over household cleaning projects.
10/19/25 Luck   (John Debney)
Updated Review, With Additional Album
Buy it... if you have long appreciated singular highlights from John Debney's children's scores and await one work that combines all the best of these moments into one surprisingly compelling whole.
Avoid it... if you are allergic to wholesome major-key goodness, Debney never losing his affably tender and lovely tone throughout this spirited genre entry.
10/17/25 Gladiator   (Hans Zimmer/Lisa Gerrard)
Updated Review, With Additional Album
Buy it... if you seek twenty minutes of outstanding music highlighted by the beautifully ethereal performances by Lisa Gerrard for the film's scenes involving the afterlife.
Avoid it... if you find Hans Zimmer's battle and fanfare music to be too synthetically grating on the nerves or too obviously plagiarized to enjoy in any context.
10/15/25 First Blood   (Jerry Goldsmith)
Updated Review, With Additional Album
Buy it... on the outstanding 2010 or 2025 Intrada sets if you seek a superior presentation of an action score that builds and maintains more character than most in existence, conveying the sorrow of John Rambo with surprising warmth in its melodic highlights.
Avoid it... if you expect to hear the same consistently explosive tone of action in First Blood that made the two subsequent Jerry Goldsmith scores in the franchise so memorable.
10/13/25 A League of Their Own   (Hans Zimmer)
Updated Review, With Additional Album
Buy it... if you love Randy Newman's vintage, big band jazz and Western-tinged character themes of pure Americana spirit, because Hans Zimmer emulates those sounds so well in A League of Their Own that you may not be able to tell the difference.
Avoid it... if the above statement violates every notion of "the masculine Zimmer style" that you've come to know and love, even if the composer really does an admirable job of adapting to the genre.
10/11/25 The Reivers   (John Williams)
Updated Review, With Additional Albums
Buy it... if your affinity for John Williams' sensitive character themes can accept the addition of folksy attitude and some outrageously exuberant comedy passages.
Avoid it... on only the comprehensive 2025 album to receive a full and true treatment of the score as heard in the film, though all the available options offer a good experience with relatively good sound.
10/9/25 Cape Fear   (Bernard Herrmann/Elmer Bernstein)
Updated Review, With Additional Album
Buy it... if you are ready for a relentless exercise in intensely thrilling Bernard Herrmann music, even by his own standards, this score's main theme among the most memorable of his career.
Avoid it... on either album for the Elmer Bernstein adaptation if you prefer classic scores in their original archival sound quality, though this one truly shines in its vibrant and resounding modern form.
2000 FILMTRACKS NOMINEE: Thirteen Days
Thirteen Days
Scoreboard Icon
SCOREBOARD
 VIEW ALL
Edgar Wright needs David Arnold back   Expand
John Tremblay - November 14, 2025, at 1:00 p.m.
2 messages  (36 views) - Newest: November 14, 2025, at 1:56 p.m. by Riley KZ
New track from Avatar 3!   Expand
AhN - November 14, 2025, at 11:03 a.m.
4 messages  (75 views) - Newest: November 14, 2025, at 1:57 p.m. by Riley KZ
Now Playing: Friday, November 14   Expand
Roman - November 14, 2025, at 7:50 a.m.
5 messages  (29 views) - Newest: November 14, 2025, at 1:04 p.m. by Trout Mask Original
2025 Lookback Listening A-Z: G is for…the God of War trilogy   Expand
JBlough - November 14, 2025, at 5:24 a.m.
3 messages  (73 views) - Newest: November 14, 2025, at 2:01 p.m. by JBlough
Movie Music UK reviews TOY STORY by Randy Newman - Throwback Thirty!   Expand
Jonathan Broxton - November 13, 2025, at 9:03 a.m.
4 messages  (96 views) - Newest: November 13, 2025, at 6:17 p.m. by jjstarA113
Updates Icon
SITE UPDATES
 VIEW ALL
Review and site status: first half of 2025
Christian Clemmensen - July 20, 2025, at 3:47 p.m.
1 update  (3674 views)
Copyright © 1996-2025, Filmtracks Publications. All rights reserved.
The reviews and other textual content contained on the filmtracks.com site may not be published, broadcast,
rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of Christian Clemmensen at Filmtracks Publications. Page created 9/24/96 and last updated 5/23/15.
This site has never recognized George W. Bush or Donald J. Trump as the legitimate president of the United States of America.
This is approximately the 44,613,934th load of this page since 1996. One visitor said, "If assholes had wings, this place would be an airport." Validity of this still in question.
Reviews Preload Scoreboard decoration Ratings Preload Composers Preload Awards Preload Home Preload Search Preload Cover Preload