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Buy it... |
if you're tired of hearing John Williams' melodramatic and bombastic music and desire an
intelligently enthusiastic, whimsical score of faux romance and perky spirit.
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Avoid it... |
if you find Williams' musical sense of humor to be tedious, for The Witches of Eastwick is so
flighty in parts that it does tend to become obnoxious outside of context.
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Buy it... |
if you seek an extended and/or more affordable album presentation of the same basic suspense
and action identity expressed in Michael Kamen's score for Die Hard, minus the classical and
holiday song interpolations.
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Avoid it... |
if a faithfully simple continuation of most of the instrumentation and themes from the
previous work, as well as an ineffective new villains' motif, deter you from a score
overshadowed once again by the use of a prominent, previously existing piece of music.
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Buy it... |
on the 1999 re-recording released by Varese Sarabande if you only casually seek the highlights
of the 1978 pilot episode, conducted by the composer himself and featuring vibrant sound
quality.
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Avoid it... |
on the 2011/2012 Intrada series or 1996 4-CD promotional set unless you truly consider
yourself a devoted fan of the original show and its music, because these presentations can be
both redundant and overwhelming when considered in sum.
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Buy it... |
if you're an enthusiast of the style of Erich Wolfgang Korngold's Golden Age swashbuckler
music, which should be a surprising recommendation given the genre of this film.
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Avoid it... |
if you expect this score to exhibit many of the same superior qualities as its sword and
sorcery genre contemporaries of the early 1980's.
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| 11/10/12
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Parenthood (Randy Newman)
- All New Review |
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Buy it... |
if you fondly recall the pleasantly optimistic demeanor of the music in the highly respected
film, including Randy Newman's likeable song and parody highlights in his typically pretty
score.
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Avoid it... |
if only 22 minutes of largely mundane score material and two performances of the
Oscar-nominated Newman song can't justify the product for you.
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| 11/4/12
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Filmtracks Endorses Barack Obama for President |
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One of the most amusing aspects of American elections is the fear often expressed by
middle-class citizens about the negative effects of any given president's leadership on their
personal lives. Living in Montana, I was warned by acquaintances and co-workers in 2008 that a
vote for a "Muslim," an "un-American," a "non-citizen," or even a "negro" for president would
lead to unparalleled oppression and the elimination of all our constitutional rights. For the
staunchly anti-government, libertarian-leaning population of largely undereducated white men
in Montana, this concern was palpable. Beyond all the jokes about black helicopters, these
citizens truly thought Barack Obama was a serious threat to America.
Four years later, their uneducated insults of President Obama continue, but when challenged
about what specific policies of Obama's administration have adversely affected their personal
lives, they struggle to justify their disdain. Their arsenals of weapons are untouched, their
jobs have not been stolen by illegal immigrants, Islamic law has not infiltrated their
churches, and, most importantly to them, their taxes have not increased a single penny. A
young, Mormon-raised co-worker of mine who joined the military was deeply offended by the
possibility of serving with openly homosexual personnel in his unit, but if that's the worst
punishment Obama can inflict upon a close-minded individual, then the price is
appropriate.
Conversely, American presidents do not often have a tremendously positive personal impact upon
most constituents outside of emotional and ideological appeal, either. For military families
and some government employees, this general rule is exempted, of course. But no president has
the power to fundamentally alter an American's daily life, as this slow economic recovery in
2012 proves. In the case of Obama, however, his decision to provide government funding to the
auto-makers and push for extensions to the Emergency Unemployment Insurance program, among
other policy decisions, actually had a profound, personal impact on me and my family. This
administration represents the first time that any president's actions have saved my own
livelihood so thoroughly.
Filmtracks has endorsed a candidate in each American presidential election since 1996, when
the site urged voters to support Bill Clinton over Bob Dole. In the political landscape of
2012, a moderate conservative like Dole would have no place in a Republican Party that
continues to be statistically dominated by undereducated white men, most of them uninterested
in compromise. Mitt Romney, once a moderate himself, has pandered to these angry voters without
shame. Against him are the plurality of women, minorities, homosexuals, urbanites, college
educated, multi-lingual, youthfully hopeful, and religiously moderate (or non-religious)
people who, by their very nature, seek common ground with their adversaries. It is with these
constituencies that I continue to stand, and Filmtracks thus endorses Barack Obama for
president once again. Remember to vote, Americans!
-- Christian Clemmensen, Filmtracks owner and editor
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