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   CURRENT NUMBER OF:
     • Years Online: 27
    • Editorial Reviews: 2,192
   • Unique Albums Covered: 3,124
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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!
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12/8/23 City Hall   (Jerry Goldsmith)
Updated Review, With Additional Album
Buy it... if you were impressed by Jerry Goldsmith's application of resounding timpani in L.A. Confidential and seek an even more brutally robust expression of similar percussive weight.
Avoid it... if you tire of Goldsmith's use of slight hints of jazz or blues to address the noir-like elements of a film, because such amicable interludes in this otherwise oppressive score are not particularly engaging.
12/2/23 Deadly Blessing   (James Horner)
All New Review, Separated From Dual Review
Buy it... if you can withstand some eye-rolling at a young James Horner's blatant emulation of Jerry Goldsmith in this religious horror entry.
Avoid it... if you expect much pleasantry in either the score or its best available album quality, its dated and muted sound quality conveying tiresome suspense more often than not.
11/26/23 Sabrina   (John Williams)
Updated Review, With Additional Album
Buy it... if you are nostalgic for the pleasantly romantic Golden Age style of meandering piano solos and conservative barroom jazz.
Avoid it... if you expect that dated sound to provide a convincing expression of elegance for the otherwise modernized adaptation of the classic story.
11/19/23 Scarface   (Giorgio Moroder)
All New Review
Buy it... only if you are an avid enthusiast of Giorgio Moroder's very dated style for the era or, more likely, you desire a faithful souvenir of a gangster film you love.
Avoid it... if you expect Moroder's fascinating ideas to coalesce into a truly functional film score, the muddy thematic handling a potentially bigger issue than his tiring electronic mannerisms.
11/13/23 Mouse Hunt   (Alan Silvestri)
Updated Review, With Additional Album
Buy it... if you seek a transcendent slapstick comedy score that remains fondly remembered because of Alan Silvestri's unnecessary but thankfully frenetic orchestral march for its titular character.
Avoid it... if you have little patience for spirited comedy music that tears through several genres and rarely stays rooted in any one sound long enough to appreciate each individual facet.
11/7/23 There Will Be Blood   (Jonny Greenwood)
All New Review
Buy it... if you rejoice in bleak musical representations of despair, hopelessness, dejection, and anguish.
Avoid it... unless you have already established that you can survive Jonny Greenwood's most atonally unpleasant music without wanting to slaughter someone.
11/1/23 The Time Machine   (Klaus Badelt)
Updated Review, With Additional Album
Buy it... if you don't care about how derivative a film score can be as long as the new rendering is both enthusiastically dynamic and attractively diverse.
Avoid it... if you'd prefer not to make a long list of mental notes connecting a film score to the previous works of Jerry Goldsmith and others while you're trying to appreciate it on its own merits.
10/26/23 Crocodile Dundee   (Peter Best)
All New Review
Buy it... if you still appreciate the humor and era of the film itself, Peter Best's music a time capsule of adequate but not spectacular 1980's comedy flair.
Avoid it... on the shorter Varèse Sarabande product if you desire a better thematic presentation with fuller sound quality, in which case the concurrent Silva Screen alternative remains superior.
10/21/23 Chaplin   (John Barry)
Updated Review, With Additional Album
Buy it... if you enjoy John Barry's slowly paced, lushly romantic scores and wish to appreciate one of the last truly effective such entries in his career.
Avoid it... if you think that once you've heard one weighty, repetitive Barry drama, you've heard them all.
10/16/23 Spies in Disguise   (Theodore Shapiro)
All New Review
Buy it... if you love espionage-related parody scores, Theodore Shapiro infusing a moderate dose of funk into an otherwise jazzy mood-setter.
Avoid it... if you can't stand the thought of hearing exotic woodwind effects emulate the sounds of birds, the pigeon element fully embraced without shame in the score.
10/12/23 Tale of the Sleeping Giants   (Panu Aaltio)
Updated Review, With Additional Album
Buy it... if you desire an ambitiously colossal expansion of Panu Aaltio's nature documentary sound, merging symphonic elegance this time with nontraditional vocal and percussion techniques.
Avoid it... if you approach this genre with expectations of consistent melodic accessibility, for the very uniqueness that defines the sound of this score will alienate those seeking familiar comfort.
10/7/23 A Dog's Journey   (Mark Isham)
All New Review
Buy it... if you like being pleasantly surprised by Mark Isham's capacity for warmth when writing lightly dramatic orchestral music for lovable animal films.
Avoid it... if you expect more than just a few brief renditions of Rachel Portman's main theme from the prior film, the musical narrative in the sequel not quite as cohesive.
10/3/23 Tale of a Lake   (Panu Aaltio)
Updated Review, With Additional Album
Buy it... if you can't miss one of the most accomplished nature documentary film scores in the history of the genre, a sonic delight that transcends Panu Aaltio's other work in the franchise.
Avoid it... if you have little tolerance for the necessary leaps in tone and style required from cue to cue in this genre, because although Aaltio masterfully weaves his themes through these changing scenes, you still have to accept the occasionally jarring transitions.
9/28/23 A Dog's Purpose   (Rachel Portman)
All New Review
Buy it... if you delight in Rachel Portman's lightly dramatic and romantic mannerisms, even if they are repackaged with a dose of wholesome Western character.
Avoid it... if you disagree with the strategic choice to apply highly disparate musical styles to the various dog lifecycles in the story, a decision that causes the middle of the score to lose focus.
9/24/23 Peter Pan   (James Newton Howard)
Updated Review, With Additional Album
Buy it... if you enjoy James Newton Howard's usual standard of strong orchestral and choral music for children's films.
Avoid it... if you are hoping for a thematically majestic and soaring score that can convincingly compete with John Williams' Hook on a massive scale.
9/19/23 A Cure for Wellness   (Benjamin Wallfisch)
All New Review
Buy it... if you're a sucker for gorgeously alluring, lyrical themes of sadness and foreboding in your horror scores, this one strikingly accessible for much of its length.
Avoid it... if you tire of horror scores that dissolve into abrasive electronic effects and other stock techniques in their most frightful passages, Benjamin Wallfisch needlessly abandoning his music's outstanding, waltz-driven personality for cheap thrills.
2013 FILMTRACKS NOMINEE: Jack the Giant Slayer
Jack the Giant Slayer
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Movie Music UK reviews THE JAZZ SINGER by Louis Silvers - GSotTC!
Jonathan Broxton - December 11, 2023, at 9:53 a.m.
1 message  (28 views)
Now Playing: Monday, December 11
Roman - December 11, 2023, at 6:44 a.m.
1 message  (25 views)
2024 Golden Globe Noms - best Original Score [EDITED]   Expand
Infra - December 11, 2023, at 6:07 a.m.
7 messages  (275 views) - Newest: December 11, 2023, at 1:21 p.m. by Luke Bunting
Hisaishi rundown post #19 - 2023 - The Boy and the Heron   Expand
JBlough - December 11, 2023, at 4:43 a.m.
5 messages  (167 views) - Newest: December 11, 2023, at 4:20 p.m. by Jonesy
The Great Movie Theme Quiz - Episode 14   Expand
Riley KZ - December 10, 2023, at 4:45 p.m.
10 messages  (85 views) - Newest: December 12, 2023, at 12:18 a.m. by Michael Arlidge
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Review and site status: first half of 2023
Christian Clemmensen - July 11, 2023, at 11:37 a.m.
1 update  (1472 views)
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