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10/31/03 - The Frighteners: (Danny Elfman) --Expanded
Review-- "Long before his adventures with The Lord of the Rings,
director Peter Jackson brought the campy ghost story of The
Frighteners to the big screen. The 1996 film starred Michael J. Fox as a
person who could see and talk to ghosts, and thus, the film was rich for its
time in the amount of CGI effects generously provided for the audience. As to
be expected, The Frighteners, despite its considerable comedy in dark
places, is a horror film. It would be the final film that Jackson would
direct before heading down under for the three film adaptations of The
Lord of the Rings, and his sparse directorial output before The
Frighteners often utilized the music of Peter Dasent. His hiring of
composer Danny Elfman for the project was not an obvious choice, but a well
grounded one. Elfman was no stranger to the horror genre, especially with
projects that had similarly suspect popular appeal, such as Darkman
and Nightbreed...." * Read the entire
review.
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10/30/03 - Thirteen Ghosts: (John Frizzell) --All New
Review-- "This remake of William Castle's 1960 classic of the same name
follows largely the same storyline and uses modern set technologies to update
its visual appeal. Met with harsh criticism from audiences and critics alike,
director Steve Beck's new Thirteen Ghosts is a film that is
surprisingly short on truly frightening sequences and even more surprisingly
short on running time. The film compensates for this flaw by presenting the
haunted house with brilliant, elaborate sets of glass and steel. The family
who enters the house, claiming it as inheritence from a dead, eccentric
uncle, accidentally starts up the machine within it basement, causing its
massive gears and glass walls to shift unpredictably and, in an unrelated
twist, unleashing twelve ghosts who want to kill one of them and thus, as
thirteen in sum, unleash the forces of Hell on our microwave/fast-food loving
population. The film would be remarkably similar to the kind of stereotypical
genre work that composer John Fizzell would be assigned..." *** Read the entire
review.
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10/29/03 - Panic Room: (Howard Shore) --All New Review--
"A smaller project sandwiched just after Shore's first adventure with The
Lord of the Rings (and an Academy Award win), Panic Room is
another collaboration between Shore and director David Fincher. The genre of
films that these two bring to life are trademark modern thrillers, with
The Game and Seven offering bleak scores for troubling films.
The amount of psychological trauma that is often inflicted upon the viewer is
something that Shore seems to be able to understand, because the composer has
had a knack for bucking Hollywood trends and providing equally disturbing
music for these projects. Whereas a composer like Jerry Goldsmith often
prefers to score his horror assignments with more of a stylistic, thematic
edge, Shore is content to travel closer to the Bernard Herrmann route of
using the orchestra like a blunt tool with which to draw out the primordial
emotions of the audience by making an underscore that sounds more like noise
rather than music. Such is the case once again with Panic Room..."
** Read the entire
review.
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10/28/03 - Ghosts of Mars: (John Carpenter) "The movie was a
total bust, but the original motion picture soundtrack in an entirely
different matter. Let's get one thing straight immediately: this isn't your
traditional movie score. Taking inspiration from old school heavy rock with
screaming guitar solo's and relentless pounding drums, the Ghosts of
Mars soundtrack is an unstoppable barrage of high tempo high caliber rock
instrumentals intertwined with John Carpenter's distinctive, sweeping
keyboards. The result? Exceptional. While this movie may not be the sci-fi
classic many were hoping from cult director John Carpenter, the overwhelming
brute force of the thumping rock soundtrack makes it seem as if Carpenter
went out and made a theme record, with the movie basically coming across as
an accompanying 90 minute rock video. The album is the product of
collaborations between Anthrax, Buckethead, and veteran guitar wizard Steve
Vai, along with the self-scoring horror maestro John Carpenter himself...."
**** Read the entire
donated review.
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10/26/03 - Trapped: (John Ottman) --All New Review--
"Taking a greater quantity of scoring assignments for films below the
mainstream radar, John Ottman scored more films in 2002 than in any other
year in his career. The quality of the films, both on the big screen and on
cable television, were often suspect (although it's hard to qualify Eight
Legged Freaks because it was so intentionally bad), and Ottman would
follow with a strong pair of front-line projects in 2003. For the 2002
psychological suspense thriller Trapped, Ottman would have use his
creative talents to compensate for a tiny music budget. The film presented a
well-rounded cast, telling the story of an abduction for ransom in which a
criminal (Kevin Bacon) and his wife (Courtney Love) trap two parents in
separate locations while a third accomplice kidnaps their daughter. The
mental breakdown of Bacon's character through the course of the film, as well
as the strong emotional bond between the kidnapped girl and her mother
(Charlize Theron)..." *** Read the entire
review.
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10/24/03 - Poltergeist II: The Other Side: (Jerry Goldsmith)
--Expanded Review-- "Disaster not only followed the Freeling family in
the Poltergeist franchise of films, but the productions and actors as
well. After the huge fiscal and popular success of Poltergeist in
1982, a sequel was inevitable, but the collaboration of the same cast and
crew would prove to be daunting. The production process for the sequel was
badly plagued, from the battle for control over the picture to the death of
some of the franchise's key actors. By the end of the Poltergeist
trilogy, four primary actors would be dead, including Heather O'Rourke, who
portrayed the clairvoyant little girl, Carol Anne. Despite all of these real
life hauntings, the franchise forged ahead, and Poltergeist II was
billed as having the most spectacular special effects ever to be seen in a
horror film. Despite these bone-chilling effects, however, the film suffered
from a poor script, ambivalent audience response, and a lack of fresh ideas.
Signed on late in the process was composer Jerry Goldsmith..." *** Read the entire
review.
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10/23/03 - The Rundown: (Harry Gregson-Williams) --All New
Review-- "One of the more successful students of Hans Zimmer to spin off
into a strong career of his own, Harry Gregson-Williams gained new followers
with his rousing 2003 score for the otherwise disastrous Sinbad: Legend of
the Seven Seas. His next project after the swashbuckling affair would be
The Rundown, which would suffer from an almost equal critical bashing
with film reviewers. Fans, however, many of whom asking the age-old question,
"why do they call Dwayne Johnson 'The Rock'?", provided the film with
reasonable box office success. Basically, it's a man-versus jungle kind of
topic, with none of the men being particularly likable in their affiliations
(to a greedy kingpin or an evil Gold-mining manager) except, perhaps, for the
peculiar bond they must form to survive and retrieve a priceless treasure and
get out of the Brazilian jungle alive. The plot is not one of horror, but
rather one of regular adventure and the usual dumb comedy (seeing Johnson
attacked by a monkey is a welcomed turn of events)...." ** Read the entire
review.
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10/22/03 - Memphis Belle: (George Fenton) --All New
Review-- "Depicting a heroic bomber mission in World War II, Memphis
Belle is a tale of the final exploits of a bomber plane by the same name.
With a gallant crew, the US Air Force B-17 bomber makes its 25th and final
bombing run over Germany during concluding stages of the war. The story of
the Memphis Belle is as exciting as it is heroic, with the famed
planed nearly meeting with disaster before miraculously returning safely at
the end. Thus, the film's glory is tapered by a significant feeling of somber
suspense for nearly its entire length. Classically-inclined composer George
Fenton is an expert in the realm of period scores, with historical British
dramas at the heart of his accomplished career. For Memphis Belle,
Fenton would be able to develop a remarkably romantic score amid a military
backdrop, which is a dream come true for any composer. Additionally, Fenton
would integrate several staples of 1940's pop and jazz music, and he would do
so in such a fashion that the period source music would flow seamlessly into
and out of his own orchestral compositions...." **** Read the entire
review.
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10/20/03 - Congo: (Jerry Goldsmith) --Expanded Review--
"With the massive cinematic success of Jurassic Park a few years
earlier, the studios would jump on the Michael Crichton bandwagon and bring
another animal versus human challenge by Crichton to the big screen. Never
had Congo been as successful as a concept as many of the writer's
other stories of technology and nature, but the film's distinguishing
production feature would be the massive apes themselves. Even with many of
the technical obsticles conquered by the filmmakers, the film suffered from a
terrible translation onto the theatre level, with an unknown cast and
questionable directorial execution. Composer Jerry Goldsmith had been lucky,
in many regards, in the African or jungle-related assignments he would
receive in the 1990's. Even in the common circumstances when Goldsmith was
handed a truly horrible film to provide music for, he would offer in return a
serviceable and, occasionally, enjoyable score...." ** Read the entire
review.
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10/17/03 - Trevor Jones has become one the best known dramatic
theme-writers in the film scoring industry. His broad themes for films such
as The Last of the Mohicans, The Dark Crystal,
Cliffhanger, and the television productions of Cleopatra and
Dinotopia have established Jones as a master of cinematic scope, and
this week, Filmtracks
celebrates Trevor Jones' career with a Composer Tribute. In most of
his major projects, Jones maintains a consistent standard of consonant
orchestral depth, ranging from the nobility of dramas to the dark corners of
disturbed thrillers. Studying a vast array of musical styles for twelve years
before walking straight into a successful career, Jones has returned to the
collegian world of film music study, chairing a major film music school
program in England since 1999. This is the last of ten new Composer Tributes
added to Filmtracks over the past twelve weeks, bringing the total to twenty-three Composer
Tributes at the site. Look for more new tributes in 2004.
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10/16/03 - Notting Hill: (Trevor Jones) --All New
Review-- "After the popularity of Four Weddings and a Funeral
earlier in the decade, mainstream British comedy was ready for a series of
similarly themed and humored romance films. Hugh Grant and Julia Roberts were
juxtaposed in a British/American romance tale for Notting Hill (in a
nutshell, a British guy who is a nobody improbably wins the heart of a
top-name American actress who is in a film shooting in his home town --you
can guess who plays which roles), with several twists of humor and basic plot
ideas repeated from Four Weddings and a Funeral. Propelled by its star
power, Notting Hill was a date-movie success, so much so that the
soundtrack began to take on epic proportions in its variations around the
world. Several songs by the likes of Shania Twain and Elvis Costello are
positioned wisely in the film, with one montage sequence involving the
changing of seasons utilizing "Ain't No Sunshine" to great effect. Mixed in
between the songs is a score by Trevor Jones...." **** Read the entire
review.
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10/15/03 - Dinotopia: (Trevor Jones) --All New Review--
"Based on the best-selling books by author/illustrator James Gurney, the
six-hour miniseries of Dinotopia debuted on the ABC network in the
United States in 2002. It is the epic story of a lost continent where
dinosaurs and humans live together in an almost-utopian world, with their
diverse culture dealing with many of the same issues as our more familiar
humans-only society. Two brothers crash their modern-day plane on the island
while lost in the Caribbean and are thrown into this human & dinosaur culture
where they attempt to make a life for themselves. The adventures of the young
men lead them to daring chases, outlandish discoveries, and, of course,
affection for the local women. Composer Trevor Jones was first known for his
fantasy and adventure scores, beginning his career with the cult classics of
Excalibur and The Dark Crystal. He had stepped away from the
fantasy genre for many years, claiming that he had used all of his musical
ideas for that genre at that time...." **** Read the entire
review.
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10/14/03 - War of the Buttons: (Rachel Portman) --Expanded
Review-- "A largely unknown film, John Robert's adaptation of Louis
Pergaud's French novel "La Guerre des Boutons" pits two idealistic groups of
young, Irish school boys against each other. Their outdoor adventures are
realized with the backdrop of beautiful cinematography and location behind
them, causing the film to serve as a true representation of Ireland and its
beauty and culture. Composer Rachel Portman wrote and then recorded the score
with Irish players in Dublin, making the project one of ethnic authenticity
all around. Portman was in the process of bursting into the American
mainstream while continuing her writing of lesser-known dramas back in
Europe. Her score for The Joy Luck Club had been met with a chorus of
cheers the previous year, and her concurrent efforts for Only You
would prove to define the composer from that year forward as the expert of
lush, romantic music for the big screen. Her styles are easily recognizable
and frightfully consistent..." *** Read the entire
review.
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10/13/03 - Under Fire: (Jerry Goldsmith) --Expanded
Review-- "The year 1983 was an excellent one for film scores, with a
slate of Academy Award nominees that was well beyond most other years in
quality. One of the nominated scores that year was Under Fire, which
marked an achievement in instrumental integration that would lead to several
successful years of orchestral and synthetic elements together in Jerry
Goldsmith's works. The film Under Fire also received critical praise,
with the hot, contemporary plot detailing the real-life struggles of American
journalists attempting to report on the 1979 governmental revolution in
Nicaragua. Most of the film deals with the human element as seen in the most
horrific of war zones, ranging from Chad, in Africa, to the turmoil in
Central America. Director Roger Spottiswoode had been enchanted by
Goldsmith's score to Patton, specifically because the score captured
the human emotions of war while also playing out on the larger, grand stage
of the conflict...." ***** Read the entire
review.
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10/10/03 - If any one digital-age composer was to be forever
connected with a single genre of film, then it is Christopher Young and
horror. A man fascinated with horror films and their creators, Young became
hooked on film music when he first heard the scores of Bernard Herrmann.
While many modern composers began their careers by scoring student horror
films, Young did it so well that he rose through the ranks to become
Hollywood's foremost horror composer for major features. With Halloween
looming in the near future, Filmtracks
celebrates Christopher Young's career with a Composer Tribute. His
work on the first two Hellraiser films brought an immense orchestral
power to the genre, and ushered in a new era of horror film music. His steamy
jazz music is equally heralded, from Rounders to Wonder Boys,
and Young has even ventured into R&B projects such as Set It Off and
In Too Deep. Filmtracks also maintains twenty-one other Composer
Tributes.
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10/9/03 - Bless the Child: (Christopher Young) --All New
Review-- "It is not often that films have to deal with real life timing
when considering their production schedules, but the date January 1, 2000 had
a special significance for the plethora of films dealing with religious
turmoil and, potentially, the end of the world. The best known entry in this
stock was End of Days, which was timed perfectly to dwell upon Y2K
fears. And then there was Bless the Child, the Kim Basinger/Jimmy
Smits film that had a remarkably identical plot to End of Days, but
was plagued by a different kind of disaster. The film was re-written,
re-shot, and re-edited extensively, pushing its release date well into 2000
and thus rendering the film somewhat void. Not surprisingly, the bad timing,
as well as the rehashing of the same old gateway-to-hell scenario, led the
film down the forgotten path to oblivion. Such cinematic floundering was no
new experience for composer Christopher Young, who would often write
noteworthy horror music for films that would hit a brick wall..." *** Read the entire
review.
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10/7/03 - Predator: (Alan Silvestri) --All New Review--
"When considering the early projects of Arnold Schwarzenegger, many fans have
argued successfully that Predator presents the actor-turned-politician
in his most varied and human light. The bodybuilder had been a automated war
machine in his Conan and Terminator films, and the comical
elements in his other projects lessened his the effectiveness of his size and
attitude. Such was the glory of the film Predator, the first major
feature success for director John McTiernan. The plot of the film progressed
backwards from the norm, with the technology and hunting spirit becoming more
primitive and intensely personal as the film reaches its climax. The human
side of Schwarzenegger is portrayed in such a manner that the big guy might
actually be killed while fighting for good, and this convincing aspect
of the actor's performance helped maintain the film's awesome cult status.
Composer Alan Silvestri was brought on to the Fox project at the height of
his newly discovered popularity from Back to the Future...." **** Read the entire
review.
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10/6/03 - Ghosts of the Abyss: (Joel McNeely) --All New
Review-- "It would seem that Jim Cameron's obsession with the
Titanic shipwreck continues to occupy his every artistic endeavor.
After his monumental film Titanic in 1997, Cameron assembled the
equipment and expertise necessary to produce an elegant, 3-D IMAX tour of the
sunken ship. Six years after his first journey to the wreck, Cameron anchored
teams of Russian and American scientists, the world's foremost Titanic
historians, and actor Bill Paxton (who seems out of place) above the site of
the tragedy. With his immense funding of the project, Cameron set out to use
the most advanced digital technology to film (and thus preserve) the wreck in
3-D IMAX picture quality. Thrown into the documentary were animated
re-creations and some footage of ghostly live action that make Ghosts of
the Abyss a more dramatic experience. The film balances the enormity of
the disaster's size with the concurrent tragedy of September 11th, 2001,
which occurred during the filming process...." *** Read the entire
review.
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10/3/03 - It is hard to overestimate the artistic reach of
Randy Edelman. His music has appeared in so many unconventional places for a
typical film composer that even veteran film score collectors may not know
when they are hearing it. Finishing a week of reviews of Edelman's scores, Filmtracks
celebrates Randy Edelman's career with a Composer Tribute. With his
distinctly positive style of harmony heard in such vast sporting events as
the Olympics and the Super Bowl, the exposure of Edelman's music --down to
simple commercial break jingles-- is more diverse than that of practically
any other current, major Hollywood composer. In addition to the original
music that Edelman writes for events and shows, his themes from
Gettysburg, The Last of the Mohicans, Come See the
Paradise, and Dragonheart are continuously used in similar
situations, including countless movie trailers. So popular is Edelman's
melodic, upbeat style that some television networks even instruct other
composers to imitate Edelman's music. Filmtracks also maintains twenty other Composer
Tributes.
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10/2/03 - Come See the Paradise: (Randy Edelman) --All New
Review-- "A film that has since been long forgotten, Come See the
Paradise tells the touching story of romance and perseverance between an
American man and a Japanese-American woman during the domestic turmoil of
World War II. Executive Order 9066, written and implemented by President
Roosevelt's wartime government, puts the pair through trials when the family
of the Japanese woman is imprisoned in the American desert. The American man,
battling his own brush with the law, must also overcome the prejudice of the
woman's Japanese-born family, slowly attempting to win over their hearts by
showing his loyalty and commitment to the woman he loves. It is an intensely
personal film, and it redeems itself (despite poor editing that managed to
cut out the scene in which they explain the title of the film) through its
character development and masterful use of songs appropriate to the culture
and time. Director Alan Parker has often allowed his sons to dabble in the
scoring efforts for his films..." *** Read the entire
review.
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10/1/03 - Passion of Mind: (Randy Edelman) --All New
Review-- "The premise of Passion of Mind is intriguing for people
of like to sit around and discuss the philosophy of real life versus a dream
life. In the film, Demi Moore spends nearly every moment on screen, playing
two roles and never knowing which is her real life and which is her dream
life. In New York, she is a strong-minded publisher in a troubled
relationship, and in France, she is a less secure, single mother who is
engaged in a passionate relationship. The film counts on the plot's ability
to lure you with a desire to sort out which is reality and which is fiction,
and while that curiosity remains, the path that the film takes to answer the
question is one that put many viewers to sleep. One reviewer called the film
"a pointless exercise in existential hogwash," and if you're not a fan of
seeing Moore on screen, then be prepared for a nap halfway through. Director
Alain Berliner decided to accentuate the passion in the film..." *** Read the entire
review.
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