|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
July/August 2022
|
8/28/22
|
48 Hrs. (James Horner)
Updated Review, With Additional Album
|
| Buy it... |
only if you consider yourself an absolute completist of a James Horner library, because 48 Hrs. is a predictable entry in
the composer's badly dated, steel drum-laden contemporary action style of the 1980's.
|
| Avoid it... |
if you are among the few who still really dig Horner's blend of electronics, steel drums, saxophone, and limited
orchestra in sonic wallpaper mode for chases of that era, namely Commando and Red Heat.
|
|
8/23/22
|
Alive (James Newton Howard)
All New Review
|
| Buy it... |
if you appreciate James Newton Howard's melodies at their most redemptive and graceful heights, Alive containing a
handful of outstanding symphonic moments of salvation.
|
| Avoid it... |
if you expect the bulk of the score to consistently develop the themes from those highlights, most of the work somber and
understated in its plentiful woodwind solos and light ethnic tones.
|
|
8/18/22
|
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (Michael Giacchino)
Updated Review, With Additional Album
|
| Buy it... |
if you expect a competent and passionately loyal emulation of John Williams' instrumental and melodic techniques by
Michael Giacchino, who achieves perhaps the best possible outcome for this impossible assignment.
|
| Avoid it... |
if you expect Giacchino's derivative melodies to compete favorably with the maestro's, or if you demand a truly
representative presentation of the film's music on the sadly underwhelming 2016 commercial album that missed important
cues.
|
|
8/13/22
|
Addams Family Values (Marc Shaiman)
All New Review
|
| Buy it... |
if you loved Marc Shaiman's approach to The Addams Family, the sequel score offering a handful of related highlights
with most of the same set of waltz-derived themes.
|
| Avoid it... |
if you expect the narrative of this score to survive based upon Shaiman's new material, the pre-existing themes carrying
most of the weight to less cohesive ends.
|
|
8/9/22
|
Scream 4 (Marco Beltrami)
Updated Review, With Additional Album
|
| Buy it... |
if you simply can't resist hearing Marco Beltrami procedurally delve into his 1990's bread and butter once more, even if
that taste had become somewhat stale since his superior Scream 3 score.
|
| Avoid it... |
if you expect to find an interesting or engaging extension of the thematic narrative for the franchise, for the composer
revisits ghosts from the past without developing them in meaningful new directions.
|
|
8/4/22
|
The Addams Family (Marc Shaiman)
All New Review
|
| Buy it... |
if you appreciate Marc Shaiman's distinct sense of humor and ability to combine the legacy of this concept's music with
a smart parody score led by a memorably romantic waltz.
|
| Avoid it... |
if your tolerance of zany, thematically haphazard cartoon music cannot sustain your interest in even the more
whimsically dramatic highlights of Shaiman's work.
|
|
7/31/22
|
Scream 3 (Marco Beltrami)
Updated Review, With Additional Album
|
| Buy it... |
if you seek the best-developed score Marco Beltrami recorded for the Scream concept, an impressive expansion of the
franchise's themes into a more orchestrally robust realm.
|
| Avoid it... |
if you've never found the famous, vocalized theme for the lead character to be alluring, for the best moments of Scream
3 involve the surprisingly dramatic, albeit brief evolution of that idea.
|
|
7/26/22
|
The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor
(Randy Edelman/John Debney)
All New Review
|
| Buy it... |
for Randy Edelman's occasionally cheesy but surprisingly overachieving score, an expansive and
ethnically smart conclusion to the composer's mainstream career.
|
| Avoid it... |
on the bootlegs of John Debney's replacement material if you expect it to accomplish more than
simply generate more complicated noise than Edelman could muster.
|
|
7/22/22
|
Scream 2 (Marco Beltrami/Danny Elfman)
Updated Review, With Additional Album
|
| Buy it... |
on the ridiculed 1998 album if you seek just a small but surprisingly adequate taste of the
most memorable Marco Beltrami cues from the first
two scores in the Scream franchise.
|
| Avoid it... |
on that 1998 product if you desire a more faithful representation of Beltrami's improved
symphonic and synthetic blend for Scream 2 and the
associated Danny Elfman music for that film, in which case the later albums are the better
choice.
|
|
7/17/22
|
Platoon (Georges Delerue)
All New Review
|
| Buy it... |
on the 2018 album for the definitive presentation of the partially rejected Georges Delerue score and the composer's conducting of Samuel
Barber's "Adagio for Strings," both of which serving this classic film well.
|
| Avoid it... |
if you expect Delerue's original primary theme for the film, which was intentionally styled to mimic the Barber piece, to offer the same
effortless romanticism of the composer's more famous orchestral dramas.
|
|
7/13/22
|
Scream (Marco Beltrami)
Updated Review, With Additional Album
|
| Buy it... |
on the ridiculed 1998 album if you seek just a small but surprisingly adequate taste of the most memorable Marco Beltrami cues from the first
two scores in the Scream franchise.
|
| Avoid it... |
on the longer products if you expect the stock suspense and horror material from Scream to compete favorably with its contemporaries or, for
that matter, its own sequels.
|
|
7/8/22
|
Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted (Hans Zimmer/Various)
All New Review
|
| Buy it... |
on the short commercial album only if you can satisfy yourself with the most basic survey of songs and score from this eclectic, quasi-musical
parody soundtrack.
|
| Avoid it... |
if you desire rousing performances of Hans Zimmer's two main franchise themes, their adaptations smart in the third entry but entangled in
action and suspense of lesser quality.
|
|
7/4/22
|
The Crow (Graeme Revell)
Updated Review, With Additional Album
|
| Buy it... |
if you desire a complete representation of the music heard prominently in the film, because while the song compilation figures heavily in that
mix, Graeme Revell's score is crucial to maintaining the film's supernatural atmosphere.
|
| Avoid it... |
if the bleak, industrial tones that dominate Revell's score are too grating to justify the subdued but compelling romance material from a
restrained orchestra and intriguing collection of exotic instruments and voices.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
