|
|
3/31/05 - "O": (Jeff Danna) --All New Review-- "Perhaps
an ill-fated endeavor, Tim Blake Nelson's directorial experiment with this
modern adaptation of William Shakespeare's "Othello" is better known for its
relationship with a more tragic real-life event rather than its own tragic
storyline. Nelson (who most people will recognize as the idiotic Delmar
character in O Brother, Where Art Thou?) recreated the tragic
Shakespearian play in a modern, private high school drama, with the black
title character existing as a basketball star who falls in love with the
"whitest" girl in the school (the pseudo Desdemona) and draws the jealousy of
the basketball coach's son (the pseudo Iago). That alone leads us down a
predictable path of self-destruction and, for those who are ignorant of the
Shakespeare story, a disastrously disappointing ending. The problem with the
picture was that the Othello character executes his vengeance by committing
an act of mass school violence devised by the Iago equivalent. With the
film's production finished in 1998..." ** Read the entire
review.
|
|
|
3/28/05 - Speed: (Mark Mancina) --All New Review--
"Another would-be composer branching off from the rock group "Yes,"
keyboardist Mark Mancina debuted with his first major solo film score with
Speed. The action blockbuster was a financial champion of the 1994
summer season, spurring the careers of its two young lead actors and
inspiring a sequel. Mancina would eventually be recognized as one of the more
successful artists to walk through the doors of Hans Zimmer's Media Ventures
composing house, and part of that success is due to Mancina's head start on
many of the other MV artists. Mancina was heavily influenced by Zimmer's
styles of combining synthesizers and orchestras, and he would continue to
develop ideas that cross between both genres. His score for Speed
would be effective in its capacity to generate excitement (and it was
therefore a strong piece of music for the film), but it is even more of an
interesting case study of how the Media Ventures sound got started. Hans
Zimmer had already established his dominance over the synthetic realm..."
*** Read the entire
review.
|
|
|
3/25/05 - Rollerball (2001): (Eric Serra) --All New
Review-- "Fascination with the rollerball game as a concept has never
really diminished since Norman Jewison's 1975 film interpretation of William
Harrison's original story. If the term "cult" was to ever be attached to the
ultimate, fictionally conceived game, then Rollerball would be an
obvious choice. Still, for some reason, MGM and director John McTiernan, a
talent who has produced both fantastic successes and monumental failures on
the big screen, decided that a modern version of Rollerball needed to
be made in 2001. The film would pour its budget into its art direction,
glitzing everything up with lavish sets that were drenched in neon colors.
Add to that the primal noises of the violent game, as well as an awkward
modernization of the game's actual figure-8 setup, and you get eye and ear
candy at every turn. McTiernan, as expected, also took the adult nature of
the game to its furthest, with considerable gore and nudity (hey, why not?)
featured throughout the picture as well...." *
Read the entire
review.
|
|
|
3/21/05 - Lauras Stern (Laura's Star): (Hans Zimmer/Nick
Glennie-Smith/Henning Lohner) --All New Review--
"Slipping under the radar for most American film score collectors in 2004 was
Lauras Stern, a German feature animation scored by top-name composers. For
Europeans, the story of Laura's Star is well known; based on the wildly
popular children's book of the same name by author Klaus Baumgart, the lovable tale
follows the tender emotional journey of seven-year-old Laura as she adapts to her
family's move to the big city. Missing her garden and friends she left behind in
the countryside, Laura becomes a loner until one day a star falls injured out of
the sky. Communicating through its magical ability to make her stuffed animals
talk, the star teaches the girl how to fly while she, in turn, helps mend its
injuries. In the end, of course, the star has to go back to the heavens, but the
good cheer is a decent diversion for young children in the audience. While the
popularity of Baumgart's book could very well have enticed the composers of the
former Media Ventures group to flock to Lauras Stern..." **** Read the entire
review.
|
|
|
3/17/05 - The Funhouse: (John Beal) --All New Review--
"In the horror boom of the early 1980's, the concept of non-bloody horror
film --one that uses ambience and calculated jolts of action to scare
audiences-- became popular with a younger generation of viewers. Despite the
introduction of slasher films at about the same time (led by the Friday
the 13th series), director Tobe Hooper would take the long awaited
concept of carnival horror to new heights one year before he would claim his
own fame for Steven Spielberg's Poltergeist. As funny as it may seem
when thinking back on that period of time, crazy carnival movies with
homicidal monsters within wasn't necessarily the same recipe for stupidity
that it is today. In fact, Universal Studios commissioned then-anonymous
author Dean Koontz to write a novelization based on the screenplay for
release before the actual film hit the theatres. With over a million copies
of The Funhouse sold in bookstores before the release date, the appeal
of the film was well established...." **** Read the entire
review.
|
|
|
3/9/05 - Star Wars: Return of the Jedi: (John Williams)
--Updated, Expanded Review-- "By the time Return of the Jedi
opened in theatres in 1983, seven out of the
top ten grossing films of all time featured a John Williams score. Since
impressing the world once again with The Empire Strikes Back,
Williams had written the classics Raiders of the Lost Ark and
E.T. in successive years, with the latter earning Williams his fourth
Academy Award. As a film, Return of the Jedi would ride the wave of
Star Wars mania to its epic conclusion, marginally passing The
Empire Strikes Back in gross profits but failing to garner the same
astonishing record-setting success in audiences' and critics' books as its
predecessors. From 1983 through today, fans of the series continue to argue
that the music for Lucas' famed universe never got better than The Empire
Strikes Back. Indeed, Williams had presented himself a significant
challenge by producing a score for the first sequel that eclipsed the
original classic. If the standard of excellence for Return of the
Jedi were to be raised any higher..." ***** Read the entire
review.
|
|
|
3/7/05 - Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back: (John Williams)
--Updated, Expanded Review-- "With John Williams having firmly
established himself as "the maestro" with his efforts of the late 1970's,
The Empire Strikes Back came at the heart of Williams most product
time of his career. Within six years, fans would be treated to everything
from Star Wars and Superman to Raiders of the Lost Ark,
E.T., and Return of the Jedi, and yet, even during that
incredible time, some collectors of Williams maintain that The Empire
Strikes Back is the finest score of the lot. Other debates exist about
The Empire Strikes Back as the best of the classic Star Wars
trilogy scores, to which you'd probably get less resistance if you argue on
its behalf. Following Star Wars was no easy task; the film had set
all world box office records and the LP record album had sold over 4 million
copies... easily the top selling score of all time. This concerned Williams,
for he wished to maintain the Wagnerian approach..." ***** Read the entire
review.
|
|
|
3/5/05 - Star Wars: A New Hope: (John Williams) --Updated,
Expanded Review-- "No single orchestral score has had more of an
influence on the history of movies and its film music element than the
original Star Wars. At a time when the Silver Age of film music had
emphasized smaller orchestras and pop style genres of music in film, it was
feared by long-time film score collectors that the glory days of
Ben-Hur and Lawrence of Arabia had passed. Ironically, composer
John Williams had been a part of that modernizing trend of music for films
when he, in the first ten years of his career, was known as "Johnny Williams"
and was well respected for his jazz and musical works. But in the 1970's,
Williams began the film score renaissance back in the direction of the large
orchestras and sweeping themes. His disaster scores of the early 70's often
combined his orchestral and pop influences together, as heard popularly in
The Towering Inferno and The Poseidon Adventure, and in 1975,
Williams' Jaws won him his first dramatic score Oscar..." ***** Read the entire
review.
|
|
3/1/05 - Irritated by the Academy Awards? Filmtracks announces
the 2004 Fan Vote, your chance to elect the best CD release, composer,
and "score as heard in a film" from last year. After appearing as a 'Theme of
the Month' from 1997-2001, the voting booth returns to its original 1996 home
on the 'Cool Stuff' page, with rules similar to the booths that you used when
they were a 'Theme of the Month.' You can vote once per week (but no more
than four times total) from a unique server address from now until the booth
is scheduled to close on March 31st. All votes are filtered by both the
server and a real person, ensuring accurate and reliable results. Vote now and view the
daily-updated results!
|
|
