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September/October 2022
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10/28/22
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The Last Starfighter (Craig Safan)
Updated Review, With Additional Album
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| Buy it... |
if you gravitate towards the best of the noble and heroic themes for bold brass that seemed to be everywhere in 1980's science
fiction movies.
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| Avoid it... |
if cheesy 1980's ray gun sounds and other obnoxious electronic accents in the rest of the underscore are simply too much vintage
arcade ambience for your evolved ears to handle nowadays.
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10/23/22
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Turbulence (Shirley Walker)
All New Review
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| Buy it... |
if the 1990's action thrillers of Jerry Goldsmith spin the right mood, for Shirley Walker's similarly constructed and
styled music for this atrocious film offers many of the same perks.
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| Avoid it... |
if your appreciation of Walker's smart orchestrations and enthusiastic embrace of aviation glory cannot excuse the
overcomplication of her themes, the melodies only appealing at the celebratory end.
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10/19/22
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The Bourne Identity (John Powell)
Updated Review, With Additional Album
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| Buy it... |
only if you are a tremendous supporter of all of the Bourne films' soundtracks of the 2000's and seek the grittiest and
most electronically harsh entry in the franchise.
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| Avoid it... |
if you want the best recordings of the same basic ingredients introduced in this first score, because John Powell's
subsequent sequel works are much stronger in their balance of similar grit and style.
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10/14/22
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Chinatown (Jerry Goldsmith/Phillip Lambro)
All New Review
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| Buy it... |
on the 2016 Intrada Records product only if you desire a truly definitive presentation of Jerry Goldsmith's overhyped but
still appreciable score.
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| Avoid it... |
on any album if you expect either Phillip Lambro's rejected score or Goldsmith's replacement to leave you feeling any
better than the film itself, both works depressingly sparse outside of their noir elements.
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10/10/22
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Love Actually (Craig Armstrong)
Updated Review, With Additional Album
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| Buy it... |
on the European compilation album if you seek a strong combination of the song and score highlights that you heard in the
film or on the 2021 product for a comprehensive survey of Craig Armstrong's memorably pretty score.
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| Avoid it... |
on the American song compilation album for any purpose or on either of the score-only options of you have little interest
in Armstrong's relatively scant, lightweight instrumentals.
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10/5/22
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Under Siege 2: Dark Territory (Basil Poledouris)
All New Review
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| Buy it... |
if you appreciate the maturation of Basil Poledouris' blend of creative percussion and synthetics with an orchestra in
the 1990's, this entry a highly entertaining romp.
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| Avoid it... |
if your patience with Poledouris' standard action mode for raw brass is limited, its applications here highly familiar to
a score like Robocop 3.
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10/1/22
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Raggedy Man (Jerry Goldsmith)
Updated Review, With Additional Album
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| Buy it... |
only if your love of highly personal, intimate Jerry Goldsmith themes from the 1960's and 1970's for small ensembles has
no boundaries despite their occasional redundancy.
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| Avoid it... |
if your affinity for Goldsmith's light dramas cannot justify a highly disjointed yet repetitive score that offers very
little new material for the learned enthusiast of the composer.
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9/27/22
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Under Siege (Gary Chang)
All New Review
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| Buy it... |
only if you are an avid enthusiast of the rock elements or stale symphonic portions for the Steven Seagal character and
the battleship, respectively, in the context of the movie.
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| Avoid it... |
if you expect Gary Chang to take the opportunity to write a well-integrated score with smart narrative development, his
music instead failing to adhere to fundamental methods of generating excitement in its generic posture.
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9/23/22
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Presumed Innocent (John Williams)
Updated Review, With Additional Album
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| Buy it... |
if you are open to the idea of hearing a rare, brilliant entry into the genre of hypnotically minimalistic suspense by
the legendary John Williams.
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| Avoid it... |
if you consider Williams' sparsely understated and thematically subtle scores to be unimpressive and boring, for this one
requires acute attention to appreciate the mastery of its details.
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9/18/22
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Tomb Raider (Tom Holkenborg)
All New Review
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| Buy it... |
if you can bypass Tom Holkenborg's mundane action and suspense material for ten to fifteen minutes of fairly engaging
thematic development for the lead character.
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| Avoid it... |
if you expect anything in this score to sound original, even the more accessible dramatic portions failing to assert any
remote sense of uniqueness.
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9/15/22
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Jumanji (James Horner)
Updated Review, With Additional Album
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| Buy it... |
only if you are prepared to hear James Horner introduce promising action and character themes without providing any
satisfying cohesion to their narrative maintenance whatsoever.
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| Avoid it... |
if you prefer the days when Horner's children's scores exuded a sense of whimsical beauty in their orchestrations and
accessibility in their rhythmic flow, for Jumanji represents a permanent encroachment of the composer's more serious
tendencies on this genre.
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9/10/22
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Rush Hour (Lalo Schifrin)
All New Review
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| Buy it... |
if you have an affinity for vintage Lalo Schifrin action in contemporary and ethnic settings, the first Rush Hour an
homage to the composer's 1970's styles.
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| Avoid it... |
if you desire the fullest and most cohesive development of these ideas in the franchise, in which case the two sequel
scores remain superior in depth.
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9/6/22
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The Iron Giant (Michael Kamen)
Updated Review, With Additional Album
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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 major cue.
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9/1/22
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Another 48 Hrs. (James Horner)
All New Review
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| Buy it... |
if you have an established affinity for James Horner's steel drum-led thriller action scores of the 1980's, this entry
offering the sound in perhaps its most mature recording quality.
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| Avoid it... |
if you found little attractive about the composer's music for 48 Hrs., Commando, and Red Heat, these scores all highly
redundant.
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