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| 12/30/10
- | Family Plot: (John Williams)
- All New Review |
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Buy it... |
if you appreciate John Williams in parody mode, because this score's references to the
composer's 1960's humor tend to overwhelm his foreshadowing of dramatic rhythmic techniques
heard in Black Sunday and beyond.
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Avoid it... |
if you expect to hear anything better than archival sound quality, an unfortunate downside of
even this score's best possible presentation that diminishes the impact of its more resounding
material for the story's villains.
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| Rating: | ***
Read the entire review
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| 12/27/10
- | Marmaduke: (Christopher Lennertz)
- All New Review |
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Buy it... |
realistically only if you were unfortunate enough to sit through this film and were impressed
enough by Christopher Lennertz's orchestral music in the last third to merit the redundancy of
the entire 52-minute presentation on album.
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Avoid it... |
if you believe that once you've heard one lightweight talking animal film score, you've heard
them all, because Marmaduke doesn't try to disprove that notion.
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| Rating: | ***
Read the entire review
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| 12/24/10
- | Unstoppable: (Harry Gregson-Williams)
- All New Review |
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Buy it... |
if you are incapable of overdosing on Harry Gregson-Williams' sufficiently technological and
basically rendered, rhythmic thriller scores, regardless of the fact that they sound as though
they were written by a composer clearly on auto-pilot.
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Avoid it... |
if you expect a score for a film about a runaway train to use appropriately creative samples
relating to the railroad or, more importantly, any propulsive sense of progressive
acceleration to match the growing intensity on screen.
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| Rating: | **
Read the entire review
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| 12/22/10
- | Resident Evil: Extinction: (Charlie Clouser)
- All New Review |
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Buy it... |
in the context of the movie if you're deaf; that way, you can appreciate Milla Jovovich's
conveniently displayed thighs without being subjected to Charlie Clouser's awful music.
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Avoid it... |
if you are an evolved creature of at least marginal intellectual development and have thus
transcended beyond the usual kind of brainless, industrial video-game music aimed at horny
teenage boys.
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| Rating: | *
Read the entire review
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| 12/19/10
- | United 93: (John Powell)
- All New Review |
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Buy it... |
only if you can satisfy yourself with about five minutes of deeply engaging, full ensemble
heroism with an effective, propulsive touch of dread.
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Avoid it... |
if an otherwise mundane, ambient environment for basic gravity threatens to bore you as
thoroughly as the plethora of similarly conservative scores for television documentaries and
second-rate dramas.
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| Rating: | **
Read the entire review
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| 12/14/10
- | The Social Network: (Trent Reznor/Atticus Ross)
- All New Review |
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Buy it... |
if you have won the lottery, found your dream mate, got ripped abdominal muscles, hit the
maximum allowable number of friends on Facebook, and need some morbidly disillusioning,
hideously ambient electronic music to bring you crashing back down to Earth.
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Avoid it... |
if the sun don't shine no more and you're proofreading your suicide note.
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| Rating: | FRISBEE
Read the entire review
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| 12/11/10
- | Green Zone: (John Powell)
- All New Review |
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Buy it... |
if you seek the thrill of John Powell's scores for the Jason Bourne franchise in an even more
percussively abrasive and oppressively propulsive environment.
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Avoid it... |
if electronically enhanced, perpetually slashing rhythmic force for over fifty
nearly-sustained minutes, despite organic muscularity from strings and brass, is simply too
overwhelming for you, especially considering the depressing thematic constructs necessary to
enhance the sense of victorious corruption.
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| Rating: | ****
Read the entire review
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| 12/8/10
- | Let Me In: (Michael Giacchino)
- All New Review |
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Buy it... |
if you are curious to hear Michael Giacchino's first entry in the horror genre, a very subtle
exercise in quiet dissonance, long sequences of near silence, and fleeting expressions of
troubled romance.
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Avoid it... |
if you hoped for Giacchino to emulate the tender and alluring romantic tone that highlighted
Johan Soderqvist's score for the original 2008 Swedish variation of this same concept.
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| Rating: | **
Read the entire review
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| 12/5/10
- | The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King:
(Howard Shore)
- Updated Review, With Additional Album |
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Buy it... |
on the 2007 complete set if you seek one of the best scores of the digital age of film music
in a DVD-quality presentation that will, if you are properly equipped, stun both you and the
people living down the street.
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Avoid it... |
on the 2007 complete set if you do not use a surround sound system for your regular listening
enjoyment and would prefer, in terms of content, the 72-minute 2003 album of highlights from
the score.
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| Rating: | *****
Read the entire review
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| 12/4/10
- | The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers: (Howard
Shore)
- Updated Review, With Additional Album |
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Buy it... |
on the 2006 complete set if you seek one of the best scores of the digital age of film music
in a DVD-quality presentation that will, if you are properly equipped, stun both you and the
people living down the street.
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Avoid it... |
on the 2006 complete set if you do not use a surround sound system for your regular listening
enjoyment and would prefer, in terms of content, the 73-minute 2002 album of highlights from
the score.
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| Rating: | *****
Read the entire review
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| 12/3/10
- | The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the
Ring: (Howard Shore)
- Updated Review, With Additional Album |
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Buy it... |
on the 2005 complete set if you seek one of the best scores of the digital age of film music
in a DVD-quality presentation that will, if you are properly equipped, stun both you and the
people living down the street.
| |
Avoid it... |
on the 2005 complete set if you do not use a surround sound system for your regular listening
enjoyment and would prefer, in terms of content, the 70-minute 2001 album of highlights from
the score.
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| Rating: | *****
Read the entire review
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