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8/31/05 - Jumanji: (James Horner) --Expanded
Review-- "In an attempt to ride the wave of super-popular animal special
effects that was caused initially by Jurassic Park, director Joe
Johnston brings the board game described in Chris Van Allsburg's children's
book to life. The premise of the Jumanji story involves a supernatural
game that brings its jungle world to life and puts the actual players in
jeopardy of being maimed, or perhaps worse yet, caught in the spell of the
game forever. Johnston had brought a child's twist of special effects
perspective to Honey, I Shrunk the Kids several years earlier, and
unfortunately, for Jumanji, the technology had begun to overwhelm
the storyline by 1995. The massive failure of Jumanji in the theatres
during the Christmas season of that year was due in part to the fact that
critics failed to see the purpose in establishing the entire premise of a
film simply for the sake of special effects, and due partly to the fact
that the film deserved far more than a PG rating..."
** Read the entire
review.
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8/28/05 - To Gillian on her 37th Birthday: (James Horner)
--Expanded
Review-- "Adapted by David E. Kelley from a play and directed by Michael
Pressman, To Gillian on her 37th Birthday is a prolonged story about one
man's
grief over the death of his wife. Becoming a recluse on Nantucket Island with his
16-year-old daughter, the man suffers so much in the two years that follow a
boating accident, he imagines his wife's ghost in conversations with her
along the beach outside their home. Heck, maybe that's what happens when you
marry and then lose Michelle Pfeiffer. But the film's unoriginal, drawn out
story follows predictable paths of the daughter's coming of age and the
nosey sister-in-law/aunt who attempts to first set up the ailing father on a
blind date (before eventually trying to steal custody of the girl). For a
survival story, To Gillian on her 37th Birthday is an exercise in a
familiar sense of boredom... the kind of discomfort you get at family
gatherings with the in-laws that you try to avoid because the routine is
always the same...." ** Read the entire
review.
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8/23/05 - Ransom: (James Horner/Billy Corgan) --Expanded
Review-- "
Based on the same screenplay by Richard Price and Alexander Ignon that inspired the
1956
Glenn Ford movie of the same name, Ron Howard's Ransom in late 1996 places
the director in exactly the genre at which he excels the most: group tension. The
film
was somewhat of a success, with the script perhaps needing two or three fewer loose
ends, and Mel Gibson's performance is often credited for Ransom's appeal.
The
post-production of the film wasn't free from hiccups, and one late-arriving piece
of news was the rejection of composer Howard Shore's score for the film. Howard
turned to previously scheduled collaborator James Horner with only a little over
two weeks to spare until the score had to be dubbed into the film. Making the
picture even muddier was the studio's hiring of Billy Corgan of the Smashing
Pumpkins rock band to write and perform music for cues throughout the film. Given
Howard Shore's substantial works in the genre of urban thrillers, it's difficult
to understand how the score eventually became an obvious emergency job by
Horner..." ** Read the entire review.
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8/20/05 - The Devil's Own: (James Horner) --Expanded Review-- "There were
several very compelling films made in the early to mid-1990's that dealt with the issue of
Protestants and Catholics in Northern Ireland with convincing realism. From In the Name of
the Father to Michael Collins, the topic had received outstanding treatment, and
even Patriot Games, a film that would share some similarities in crew with The
Devil's Own, held its own territory. By 1997, famed director Alan J. Pakula was ready to
tackle the subject matter, and he managed to frustrate the two lead actors in the film by
starting the shooting of the project before the screenplay was even finished. That, along with
rumours of general distaste between Harrison Ford and Brad Pitt, painted The Devil's
Own in a negative critical and popular light. Not working in its favor was the final
screenplay, which failed to establish who was worthy of salvation and who wasn't. With the
Irish themes in Hollywood beginning to lose their appeal, the filmmakers stuck to their guns
in their choice for composer...." *** Read the entire
review.
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8/14/05 - The Jerry Goldsmith SPFM Tribute: (Compilation)
--Expanded Review-- "Once the most valuable album in the history of
soundtracks, the
Jerry Goldsmith SPFM Tribute CD holds a distinct place in the genre. While
its value has diminished since its peak in the mid-1990's, it still represents
the hysteria associated with extreme fandom and has demanded the kinds of
prices to prove it. In March of 1993, the Society for the Preservation of
Film Music gave copies of this compilation to attendees at its annual
tribute dinner. The album, honoring Jerry Goldsmith for his career
achievements, was originally reported to have been limited to 500 copies in
quantity. Those original 500 pressings were type-numbered, although
unnumbered copies beyond the first 500 were available for a donation price
to Society members after the dinner. Almost immediately, the Jerry
Goldsmith SPFM Tribute became one of the first ever albums to ever be
bootlegged in the soundtrack genre, with tricky fakes beginning to circulate
around the secondary collector's market. While original copies of the real
album fetched many hundreds of dollars..." ***** Read the entire
review.
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8/11/05 - Jerry Goldsmith: Suites and Themes: (Compilation)
--Expanded
Review-- "It is rare that a one-time concert performance of a single composer's
works is
recorded and pressed to CD, especially considering advancements in recording
technologies. In
the 1980's, the Masters Film Music Special Release Series --CDs produced by
Varèse
Sarabande executive Robert Townson-- released several Jerry Goldsmith scores in
either
commercial or limited
fashion. Some of these were direct Varèse Sarabande albums, such as the two
Lionheart volumes and The Final Conflict, although The Boys from
Brazil
and Jerry Goldsmith: Suites and Themes were released under the separate
"Masters Film
Music" label and were considerably more rare. The 1980's were arguably the greatest
era of
Goldsmith's career, and to celebrate his achievements, The Philharmonia of London
presented
concert arrangements of many of Goldsmith's successful scores for public
performances. One of
these performances was recorded and pressed in March, 1987 (without audience noise)
as a
limited Masters Film Music album...." ***** Read the entire
review.
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8/8/05 - Twilight's Last Gleaming: (Jerry Goldsmith) --Expanded
Review--
"The American public wasn't yet quite ready to accept the anti-Vietnam, anti-government
messages in 1977's Twilight's Last Gleaming, and the film was a major contribution to
the sinking of director Robert Aldrich's career. Despite the fact that the Pentagon Papers,
released in 1971, said everything that Aldrich was trying to use to outrage the American
public, one of Twilight's Last Gleaming's plotlines (and the politically
motivating one) involves the notion that
terrorists from within the American military could force the U.S. president to admit to all
the faulty policies behind the Vietnam war... without even mentioning the war by name in the
first two hours of the film. The other plotline in the film involves a typical action line
that depicts Burt Lancaster as a former military general who, along with two
cohorts (including Paul Winfield), sneaks into a missile silo in Montana and threatens to
launch its nine nuclear missiles on the Soviet Union. Unless the government admits to its
failings, of course...." ** Read the entire
review.
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8/3/05 - Raggedy Man: (Jerry Goldsmith) --Expanded Review--
"One of a few
films directed by regular production designer Jack Fisk, Raggedy Man suffers
from a very odd, disjointed script that can't decide if it's a love story or a slasher
film. Opening in the early 1980's, it could have been
either, and despite a flourishing acting performance by Fisk's wife, Sissy Spacek, along with
the outstanding art direction and cinematography, the film's strange plot dooms it. Starring
as the sole telephone operator in a small Texas town during World War II, Spacek's character
meets a traveling sailor and the film essentially follows the innocent emotional attachment
that the two feel towards each other and the woman's two young boys. The colors of the film
are very deeply rooted in the early 1940's, with the time capsule effect very well
captured. But the movie goes all awry with the involvement of a scarecrow type of character,
a "raggedy man," a group of loudmouth men who have a keen eye for Spacey, and a strikingly
violent and disturbing end. Critically, the film performed well..." ** Read the entire
review.
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