|
 |
| 7/31/08
- | 100 Rifles: (Jerry Goldsmith)
- Expanded Review |
|
|
| |
Buy it... |
if you delight in Jerry Goldsmith's darkly dissonant and richly textured Western action scores
that test you with their often harsh and brutal tones.
| |
Avoid it... |
if you'd prefer to be entertained by the score without feeling the need to study its
multi-cultural intricacies.
| |
| Rating: | ***
Read the entire review
|
|
|
| 7/30/08
- | You've Got Mail: (George Fenton)
- Expanded Review |
|
|
| |
Buy it... |
if a lightweight version of Randy Newman-style jazz rhythms would serve as a safe and
non-offensive souvenir from an equally lightweight film.
| |
Avoid it... |
if there was anything even remotely aggravating about the film for you, because this short
score helped define its peppy cuteness.
| |
| Rating: | ***
Read the entire review
|
|
|
| 7/29/08
- | Wild Wild West: (Elmer Bernstein)
- All New Filmtracks Review, Replacing a Donated Review |
|
|
| |
Buy it... |
if you expect to hear a parody score, for there's a fair dose of Stripes and Airplane!
squeezed into this wildly schizophrenic romp.
| |
Avoid it... |
if you expect to hear Elmer Bernstein write one last, great Western theme, for his merging of
The Magnificent Seven and How the West Was Won here is stunted by the horrific odor of the
film's parody requirements.
| |
| Rating: | **
Read the entire review
|
|
|
| 7/28/08
- | Toy Story 2: (Randy Newman)
- All New Filmtracks Review, Replacing a Donated Review |
|
|
| |
Buy it... |
if you seek a competent extension of Randy Newman's style for the first Toy Story film.
| |
Avoid it... |
if you expect any substantial new thematic development or, surprisingly, a vocal performance
from Newman himself.
| |
| Rating: | ***
Read the entire review
|
|
|
| 7/27/08
- | The Thirteenth Floor: (Harald Kloser)
- All New Filmtracks Review, Replacing a Donated Review |
|
|
| |
Buy it... |
if you can shut down your brain long enough to enjoy the shamelessly harmonic and predictably
simplistic orchestral and choral techniques of Harald Kloser's incongruous score.
| |
Avoid it... |
if your guilty pleasures require more than just a few gorgeous crescendos of choral majesty
and a little 1930's big band flair.
| |
| Rating: | ***
Read the entire review
|
|
|
| 7/25/08
- | Snow Falling on Cedars: (James Newton Howard)
- Expanded Review |
|
|
| |
Buy it... |
if you appreciate the finer and less obvious atmospheric aspects of James Newton Howard's
weighty dramatic style.
| |
Avoid it... |
if the understatement of the score's cello and shakuhachi solos, along with the restraint of
the ethnic percussion, synthetic bass, and chorus, leaves you wanting more readily accessible
performances by those elements.
| |
| Rating: | ****
Read the entire review
|
|
|
| 7/24/08
- | The Minus Man: (Marco Beltrami)
- Expanded Review |
|
|
| |
Buy it... |
if you seek an introspective, country-flavored interpolation of Thomas Newman's
instrumentation and rhythms by Marco Beltrami.
| |
Avoid it... |
if you seek a score longer than twenty minutes that will leave any lasting impression on you
whatsoever.
| |
| Rating: | **
Read the entire review
|
|
|
| 7/23/08
- | Holy Smoke!: (Angelo Badalamenti)
- Expanded Review |
|
|
| |
Buy it... |
if you seek music as wayward as the film itself, combining mundane orchestral underscore with
outstanding new age style original songs.
| |
Avoid it... |
if the ten minutes of truly unique new age music by Angelo Badalamenti within the score is too
close to Enya and Adiemus for your liking.
| |
| Rating: | ****
Read the entire review
|
|
|
| 7/22/08
- | Heart of Darkness: (Bruce Broughton)
- Expanded Review |
|
|
| |
Buy it... |
if you're an established collector of Bruce Broughton's scores and seek all of his ambitious
fantasy and adventure writing.
| |
Avoid it... |
if you expect your video game scores to boast a fully robust orchestral presence, for this
early entry is sparse on power and performance quality.
| |
| Rating: | ***
Read the entire review
|
|
|
| 7/21/08
- | The Green Mile: (Thomas Newman)
- Expanded Review |
|
|
| |
Buy it... |
if you relax to Thomas Newman's contemplative tones and seek a subdued variation on his
emotional orchestral writing for The Shawshank Redemption and Meet Joe Black.
| |
Avoid it... |
if you expect the thematic quality of either of the above scores or the convincingly spirited
ambience for the South that he conveyed in Fried Green Tomatoes.
| |
| Rating: | ***
Read the entire review
|
|
|
| 7/20/08
- | Eight Millimeter: (Mychael Danna)
- Expanded Review |
|
|
| |
Buy it... |
if you're clamoring for some outrageously obnoxious Moroccan rhythms, vocals, and
instrumentation to go along with your curiosity about snuff films.
| |
Avoid it... |
if the above statement makes no sense to you, either.
| |
| Rating: | **
Read the entire review
|
|
|
| 7/18/08
- | Durango: (Mark McKenzie)
- Expanded Review |
|
|
| |
Buy it... |
if you seek the beauty of an Irish-flavored orchestral score outside of the stereotypical
norms you hear in mainstream feature films.
| |
Avoid it... |
if uilleann pipes, pan pipes, and penny whistles, no matter the allure of their thematic
environment, make your skin crawl even worse than accordions do.
| |
| Rating: | ****
Read the entire review
|
|
|
| 7/15/08
- | Anna and the King: (George Fenton)
- Expanded Review |
|
|
| |
Buy it... |
if you appreciate the majestic merging of Western orchestra and themes with Eastern
instruments in grand, romantic style.
| |
Avoid it... |
if you expect that combination to exude the overtly exotic nature that other crossover scores
have featured with the assistance of vocals or synthesizers.
| |
| Rating: | *****
Read the entire review
|
|
|
| 7/14/08
- | Titanic: The Essential James Horner Collection:
(Compilation)
- Expanded Review |
|
|
| |
Buy it... |
only if you own very few of Silva Screen's other film music compilations, for this product
contains a disappointingly high number of repeat offerings.
| |
Avoid it... |
if you have come to expect superior performances by The City of Prague Philharmonic and aren't
interested in hearing them mangle several of James Horner's most beloved themes.
| |
| Rating: | **
Read the entire review
|
|
|
| 7/12/08
- | The Omen: The Essential Jerry Goldsmith Film Music
Collection: (Compilation)
- Expanded Review |
|
|
| |
Buy it... |
if you seek a competent and occasionally brilliant sampling of Jerry Goldsmith's career,
including a fantastic suite from Under Fire.
| |
Avoid it... |
if you already own most of the other notable performances (Capricorn One, The Omen, First
Knight, The Swarm) on other Silva compilations.
| |
| Rating: | ****
Read the entire review
|
|
|
| 7/11/08
- | James Horner: Suites and Themes: (Compilation)
- Expanded Review |
|
|
| |
Buy it... |
if you are a die-hard James Horner collector and seek a surprisingly competent bootlegged
compilation of the composer's mostly non-released works.
| |
Avoid it... |
if you expect to use the album for anything other than an educational experience, for many of
the cues are intolerable and there is no flow the wildly varying selections.
| |
| Rating: | ***
Read the entire review
|
|
|
| 7/10/08
- | Heart of the Ocean: (Compilation)
- Expanded Review |
|
|
| |
Buy it... |
if you seek a decent sampling of James Horner's more obscure scores of the 1980's before
wasting money on an expensive search for the originals' full albums.
| |
Avoid it... |
if you expect this album to serve as a true "greatest hits of the 80's and 90's"
representation of Horner's career; it leaves out too many of his famous scores to accomplish
that purpose.
| |
| Rating: | ****
Read the entire review
|
|
|
| 7/8/08
- | Coming Soon: The John Beal Trailer Project:
(Compilation)
- Expanded Review |
|
|
| |
Buy it... |
if you seek a distinctly fascinating glimpse into the world of original movie trailer music.
| |
Avoid it... |
if the issue of plagiarism bothers you to such an extent that the process of trailer music
creation interferes with your enjoyment of it.
| |
| Rating: | ****
Read the entire review
|
|
|
| 7/7/08
- | Cinema's Classic Romances: (Compilation)
- Expanded Review |
|
|
| |
Buy it... |
if you've typically enjoyed the original scores for film adaptations of William Shakespeare,
Thomas Hardy, and Jane Austen works.
| |
Avoid it... |
if you expect all of Silva Screen's releases of music recorded in Prague to feature the robust
action and adventure performances with which they made their fame in the late 1990's.
| |
| Rating: | ****
Read the entire review
|
|
|
| 7/5/08
- | Cinema Choral Classics II: (Compilation)
- Expanded Review |
|
|
| |
Buy it... |
if you seek a softer, classically-inclined companion to the best-selling "Cinema Choral
Classics" album of equally impressive sonic marvels.
| |
Avoid it... |
if you would prefer the more thunderous, wall-rattling selection of battle hymns and chants on
that previous album.
| |
| Rating: | ****
Read the entire review
|
|
|
| 7/3/08
- | Alien Invasion: Space and Beyond II:
(Compilation)
- Expanded Review |
|
|
| |
Buy it... |
if you seek one of the best compilations of science fiction film music ever to be recorded for
album.
| |
Avoid it... |
if this set contains too few of the common mainstream favorites, in which case you should seek
the previous album in the series.
| |
| Rating: | *****
Read the entire review
|
|
|
| 7/1/08
- | The Motion Picture Scores of Arthur B.
Rubinstein: (Compilation)
- Expanded Review |
|
|
| |
Buy it... |
only if you are a qualified, hardcore film music collector, for Arthur B. Rubinstein's career
has contained music very few listeners would be interested in hearing.
| |
Avoid it... |
if you have had no prior experience with Rubinstein's work, and the price of the 2-CD
promotional set isn't worth the wildly inconsistent selections and poor sound quality.
| |
| Rating: | ***
Read the entire review
|
|
