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| 5/31/09
- | House of Frankenstein: (Don Davis)
- Expanded Review |
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Buy it... |
if massive, harmonic orchestral and choral horror scores are still in your music player in the
middle of summer.
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Avoid it... |
if all bombastic, Gothic horror scores sound the same to you and the last thing you need to
hear in the middle of summer is another series of cliches from the genre.
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| Rating: | ****
Read the entire review
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| 5/30/09
- | Heidi: (Lee Holdridge)
- Expanded Review |
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Buy it... |
if you are passionate about Lee Holdridge's pleasantly harmonic style for light dramas and
also have an affinity for Mark McKenzie's similar music in the genre.
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Avoid it... |
if you prefer Holdridge's more diverse, orchestrally robust adventure and drama work, most of
which eclipses this Disney television music in terms of stature.
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| Rating: | ***
Read the entire review
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| 5/29/09
- | Dick: (John Debney)
- Expanded Review |
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Buy it... |
on the very brief promotional album only if you specifically noted the impact of John Debney's
sleazy parody score in the film.
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Avoid it... |
if you expect to hear a really balanced representation of the music heard in the film, which
would require both the promo and the commercial song album to satisfyingly recreate.
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| Rating: | ***
Read the entire review
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| 5/28/09
- | Contract on Cherry Street: (Jerry Goldsmith)
- Expanded Review |
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Buy it... |
if you can't get enough of Jerry Goldsmith's stylistic mannerisms of the late 1970's, for Contract on Cherry Street
is absolutely saturated with them.
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Avoid it... |
if you expect most of the basic rhythmic, instrumental, or thematic ingredients of this score to be equal to their
equivalents in Goldsmith's feature films of the era.
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| Rating: | ***
Read the entire review
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| 5/27/09
- | Bite the Bullet: (Alex North)
- Expanded Review |
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Buy it... |
if you appreciate the distinct style of the few Western scores in Alex North's career and, like others nostalgic
for a dying genre in the 1970's, seek a relatively safe throwback effort.
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Avoid it... |
if you expect to hear North's more unconventional style of instrumentation and rhythm rather than his romantic
leanings for a conservative character score.
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| Rating: | ***
Read the entire review
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| 5/26/09
- | Ancient and Modern: (Anne Dudley)
- Expanded Review |
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Buy it... |
if you often find yourself straying closer to the classical crossover genre and recognize that
this kind of concert work often has little in common with the typical film score.
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Avoid it... |
if restrained interpretations of traditional English hymns and carols, as well as a diminished
ensemble size, cannot compete with the more explosively impressive concert works by other film
music composers.
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| Rating: | ***
Read the entire review
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| 5/25/09
- | Nineteen Eighty-Four: (Dominic Muldowney)
- Expanded Review |
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Buy it... |
if you've ever been curious about what the original score for Nineteen Eighty-Four sounded
like before it was rudely replaced by the studio with pop material by the Eurythmics.
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Avoid it... |
if you expect this score to express the passion and soul of the film's story, for Dominic
Muldowney's music provides all the basic emotional tools but expresses them without any true power.
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| Rating: | ***
Read the entire review
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| 5/23/09
- | The World is Not Enough: (David Arnold)
- Expanded Review |
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Buy it... |
if you appreciate and embrace the harsher technological edge that David Arnold progressively
gave the scores for each of the Pierce Brosnan entries in the James Bond franchise.
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Avoid it... |
if you expect this score to offer the same impressively balanced blend of symphonic force and
electronica rhythms that made the Tomorrow Never Dies score a classic in the franchise.
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| Rating: | ***
Read the entire review
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| 5/22/09
- | Wing Commander: (Kevin Kiner/David Arnold)
- Expanded Review |
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Buy it... |
if you seek a direct extension of the themes, tone, and style of David Arnold's Independence
Day.
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Avoid it... |
if you expect to hear any hint of originality in this otherwise exhilarating space adventure
score.
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| Rating: | ***
Read the entire review
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| 5/21/09
- | Virus: (Joel McNeely)
- Expanded Review |
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Buy it... |
if you never balk at the chance to add another guilty pleasure to your collection, regardless
of its highly derivative nature.
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Avoid it... |
if 35 minutes of dull suspense and horror music (Joel McNeely's first efforts in the genre)
can't justify five minutes of stunning action material and 15 minutes of delicious tributes to
numerous genre cliches.
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| Rating: | ***
Read the entire review
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| 5/20/09
- | Teaching Mrs. Tingle: (John Frizzell)
- Expanded Review |
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Buy it... |
only if you love every tribute to the techniques of Bernard Herrmann, regardless of the
coherence or quality of performance behind them.
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Avoid it... |
if you expect John Frizzell to provide the memorable or even basically serviceable personality
that he often exhibits in his more straight-forward horror works.
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| Rating: | **
Read the entire review
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| 5/19/09
- | Tarzan: (Phil Collins/Mark Mancina)
- All New Filmtracks Review, Replacing a Donated Review |
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Buy it... |
if you are either a general Phil Collins enthusiast or a collector of animation, because
Tarzan succeeds for both audiences.
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Avoid it... |
if you expect to hear more than a token amount of Mark Mancina's strong score for the film,
which is limited to 16 minutes on the Disney album.
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| Rating: | ****
Read the entire review
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| 5/18/09
- | The Talented Mr. Ripley: (Gabriel Yared)
- Expanded Review |
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Buy it... |
only if you seek the competent and rousing selection of standard jazz pieces from the 1950's,
for the introverted and reflective underscore by Gabriel Yared is largely overwhelmed by that
surrounding material.
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Avoid it... |
if you expect the score to trend towards Yared's work for Message in a Bottle or City of
Angels rather than reprising the chilly atmosphere of The English Patient.
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| Rating: | ***
Read the entire review
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| 5/17/09
- | South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut: (Trey
Parker/Marc Shaiman)
- Expanded Review |
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Buy it... |
if you like your musicals served up with lyrics that typically make the bodies of good,
church-going folk seize up.
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Avoid it... |
if you have no tolerance for the childish and offensive television show, because the feature
film's musical numbers, while impressive in their orchestral and vocal mix, are the ultimate
in similarly obnoxious parody.
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| Rating: | ***
Read the entire review
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| 5/16/09
- | Sleepy Hollow: (Danny Elfman)
- Expanded Review |
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Buy it... |
if you seek Danny Elfman's most accomplished and violent horror score, complete with truly
haunting choral layers and a superbly recorded and mixed series of mostly harmonic orchestral
romps.
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Avoid it... |
if you expect this return to the realm of gothic darkness to exude the same personality and
spirit in the fantasy genre as Elfman's early classics.
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| Rating: | ****
Read the entire review
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| 5/15/09
- | The Sixth Sense: (James Newton Howard)
- Expanded Review |
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Buy it... |
only if the music that James Newton Howard has provided for M. Night Shyamalan films has never
let you down, because The Sixth Sense is one of the most understated of the collaboration.
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Avoid it... |
if you expect the score on album to convey more than just the few fantastic highlights that
you hear in the film itself.
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| Rating: | ***
Read the entire review
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| 5/14/09
- | A Simple Plan: (Danny Elfman)
- Expanded Review |
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Buy it... |
only if you are a true Danny Elfman collector, for the instrumentally complicated but
minimalistic A Simple Plan is among the composer's least accessible works.
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Avoid it... |
if you require more than just a few minutes of elegance and melody to accompany Elfman's
chilly, somber, and alienating shades of gray for an equally disturbing narrative.
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| Rating: | **
Read the entire review
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| 5/13/09
- | Seven Days: (Scott Gilman)
- Expanded Review |
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Buy it... |
only if you are one of the lingering fans of the show and seek the consistently sleek, but
low-budget synthetic music heard throughout earlier episodes of the series' three-year run.
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Avoid it... |
if you expect the episodic scores to offer the same heroic and optimistic spirit of the strong
title music for the show, which realistically isn't worth the price of the album alone.
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| Rating: | **
Read the entire review
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| 5/12/09
- | The Muse: (Elton John)
- Expanded Review |
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Buy it... |
only if you explicitly appreciated the music in the film itself, for it's difficult to
recommend this score to either Elton John's fans or traditional film score collectors.
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Avoid it... |
if you expect John's first orchestral film score to feature the pop sound familiar to the rest
of his career.
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| Rating: | ***
Read the entire review
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| 5/11/09
- | Muppets from Space: (Jamshied Sharifi/Rupert
Gregson-Williams)
- Expanded Review |
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Buy it... |
only if you clearly recognize that you're interested in this music for the humor of its
parodies rather than any consistent listening enjoyment.
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Avoid it... |
if you'd rather not hear obvious pieces from a dozen other film scores assembled into a
haphazard collection of orchestral might and Lalo Schifrin-style funk from decades past.
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| Rating: | ***
Read the entire review
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| 5/10/09
- | The Mummy: (Jerry Goldsmith)
- Expanded Review |
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Buy it... |
if you don't mind hearing orchestras wielded like blunt instruments for exotic and noisy
action romps.
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Avoid it... |
if you expect either the sophistication or prevailing personality in style that Jerry
Goldsmith's better adventure scores exhibit.
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| Rating: | ***
Read the entire review
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| 5/9/09
- | The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc: (Eric
Serra)
- Expanded Review |
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Buy it... |
only if you explicitly appreciated the score's robust choral sequences in the film itself.
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Avoid it... |
if you expect a film of this genre and magnitude to feature a passionate and involving score
that consistently addresses the religious and historical significance of the tale.
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| Rating: | **
Read the entire review
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| 5/8/09
- | Message in a Bottle: (Gabriel Yared)
- Expanded Review |
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Buy it... |
if you are looking for one score with which to first represent Gabriel Yared in your film
music collection, for this work extends both the style of his restrained classicism and a
warmer set of accessible themes.
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Avoid it... |
if you expect outward melodrama in the employment of orchestra and choir for the mysteries of
fate and the ocean, for Yared maintains a more contemplative atmosphere throughout the score.
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| Rating: | ****
Read the entire review
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| 5/7/09
- | Medal of Honor: (Michael Giacchino)
- Expanded Review |
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Buy it... |
if you want to hear Michael Giacchino's first breakthrough score, for despite residing in the
video game genre, "Medal of Honor" is an engagingly robust orchestral work worthy of a motion
picture.
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Avoid it... |
if the strikingly obvious similarities between this work and John Williams' Indiana Jones and
the Last Crusade might hinder your ability to enjoy its other, more original merits.
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| Rating: | ****
Read the entire review
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| 5/6/09
- | Lake Placid: (John Ottman)
- Expanded Review |
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Buy it... |
only if you are a completist of John Ottman's music, for Lake Placid is among his least
inspired, unenthusiastic scores.
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Avoid it... |
if you expect to hear the vibrant orchestral instrumentation and dynamic recording mix that
lured many listeners to Ottman's works of the era.
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| Rating: | **
Read the entire review
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| 5/5/09
- | The Iron Giant: (Michael Kamen)
- Expanded Review |
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Buy it... |
if you're tired of hearing underpowered and uninspired action music from Michael Kamen's
career, for The Iron Giant is immensely resounding in its constructs, performances, and
recording.
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Avoid it... |
if you prefer your animation scores to maintain strong thematic coherency instead of providing
a different mini-symphony for each cue.
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| Rating: | ****
Read the entire review
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| 5/4/09
- | The Hunley: (Randy Edelman)
- Expanded Review |
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Buy it... |
only if you're among the few who have seen the production and appreciated the respectfully
noble, but
restrained and somewhat sparse score.
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Avoid it... |
if you're expecting to hear a score equal in melodramatic resonance to Randy Edelman's far
more famous Civil
War work on TNT for "Gettysburg."
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| Rating: | **
Read the entire review
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| 5/3/09
- | The Haunting: (Jerry Goldsmith)
- Expanded Review |
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Buy it... |
if you seek Jerry Goldsmith's last truly accomplished horror score, overflowing with creepy
atmosphere and chilling themes meant to put you at unease rather than outwardly scare you.
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Avoid it... |
if you expect the score to offer the complexity of structure and explicitly frightening
bombast of Goldsmith's classic horror scores from decades before.
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| Rating: | ****
Read the entire review
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| 5/2/09
- | Goodbye Lover: (John Ottman)
- Expanded Review |
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Buy it... |
if you appreciate the wild, rhythmic and instrumental creativity of John Ottman's previous
Incognito and seek
an erotic twist on the same general idea.
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Avoid it... |
if you prefer meaty substance over clever, pseudo-noir style.
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| Rating: | ****
Read the entire review
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| 5/1/09
- | For Love of the Game: (Basil Poledouris)
- Expanded Review |
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Buy it... |
if you seek the last truly strong tones of heartfelt personal exploration and broad strokes of
Americana in Basil Poledouris' celebrated career.
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Avoid it... |
if you've never been a fan of Poledouris' habit of mixing electronics at the forefront of an
orchestral ensemble, for this score offers a healthy role to the composer's usual synthetic
rhythms and an electric guitar.
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| Rating: | ****
Read the entire review
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