|
|
|
|
|
September/October 2024
|
10/28/24
|
The Eiger Sanction (John Williams)
All New Review
|
| Buy it... |
if you appreciate John Williams' larger orchestral scores from his standard, early 1970's blend of suspense, action, and
contemporary romance.
|
| Avoid it... |
if you have little tolerance for harpsichords in unexpected places, its use as the prominent voice of this score never quite
functioning as well as Williams intended.
|
|
10/24/24
|
Filmtracks endorses Kamala Harris for American president
|
For the third American presidential election cycle in a row, trolls supporting Donald Trump have found their way to this site's
Scoreboard and comment areas. In 2016, there was actually a "Donald J. Trump" troll that threatened Filmtracks and its readers with all
varieties of insults and sanctions. Back then, it was funny and stupid. Now, it is dangerous.
One of the fundamental traits of a pro-Trump troll at Filmtracks, and certainly elsewhere, is a reliance upon anger, fear, and hate to
divide people by race, ethnicity, gender, religion, education, region, sexual preference, and more. It's easier to tout the benefits of
authoritarianism when you scare the wits out of people. Trump himself, of course, if the biggest troll of all.
The readership of Filmtracks, like much of America, can discern this fascist rhetoric and dismiss it as buffoonery. But as dumb as some
of these trolls can seem, do not forget that their message resonates with a significant portion of the country. There may be a ceiling
to the support Trump can muster, but he's already proven that ceiling to be high enough to win. Polls now show he will win again.
Kamala Harris has been demonized relentlessly by Trump's army of trolls, foreign and domestic. They fear a powerful and intelligent
woman of color, and they prey successfully upon carelessness and collective amnesia. Don't let these trolls discourage you from
remembering the stark choice here. America's electoral system is imperfect, but it works, regardless of what the trolls tell you.
Vote!
-- Christian Clemmensen, Filmtracks owner and editor
|
|
10/22/24
|
Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (John Williams)
Updated Review, With Additional Album
|
| Buy it... |
if you are prepared to be impressed by John Williams' ability to maintain his high standards of adventure and romanticism in this
rousing conclusion to a nostalgic franchise.
|
| Avoid it... |
on the album if you expect a satisfying presentation of the music heard in the film, Williams emphasizing suite arrangements that don't
always reflect the personality of the score itself.
|
|
10/20/24
|
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (John Williams)
Updated Review, With Additional Album
|
| Buy it... |
if you consider yourself any fan of John Williams or the Indiana Jones franchise whatsoever, for despite its flaws, this score is a fun
encounter with an old friend.
|
| Avoid it... |
if you require this score to rival the classic Raiders of the Lost Ark or be as coherent and memorable as any of the previous scores in
the franchise.
|
|
10/18/24
|
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (John Williams)
Updated Review, With Additional Album
|
| Buy it... |
on the inadequate 1989 album if you are willing to tolerate substandard sound quality and only half of the impressive but not
overwhelming music written by John Williams for the film.
|
| Avoid it... |
even on the 2008 and 2024 expanded, remastered editions if you absolutely demand the complete score for the film, because even the
longer 2008 set is missing more than 20 minutes of material.
|
|
10/16/24
|
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (John Williams)
Updated Review, With Additional Album
|
| Buy it... |
if you want the flavor of John Williams' music for Raiders of the Lost Ark but are deterred by the composer's scherzo-formatted action
material, in which case Temple of Doom is a superior alternative.
|
| Avoid it... |
only if you're going to allow your dislike of the film to get in the way of a score that is far more impressive on the 2008 remastered
and expanded set than it was on all its previous products.
|
|
10/14/24
|
Raiders of the Lost Ark (John Williams)
Updated Review, With Additional Album
|
| Buy it... |
if you're looking to start a collection of John Williams' classic scores from the height of the Bronze Age, for Raiders of the Lost Ark
is among both the best and most influential adventure works from that era.
|
| Avoid it... |
on the 1995 CD album if you absolutely require more complete releases of the score, which just happen to exist on the concurrent
double-LP set or the 2008 franchise CD set.
|
|
10/10/24
|
Top Gun (Harold Faltermeyer)
All New Review
|
| Buy it... |
without hesitation on the long overdue 2024 set featuring the songs and full Harold Faltermeyer score from this iconic 1980's
soundtrack.
|
| Avoid it... |
if you expect Faltermeyer's abrasive action material to compete favorably with the drama and heroism of his two original themes for
the score, not to mention his many interpolations of Giorgio Moroder's song melodies.
|
|
10/7/24
|
Inchon (Jerry Goldsmith)
Updated Review, With Additional Album
|
| Buy it... |
only if you consider yourself a staunch collector of Jerry Goldsmith's works, because while
Inchon is a decent composition with two alluring themes, its terrible recording nearly ruins
the listening experience.
|
| Avoid it... |
if you demand a truly vibrant and engaging representation of the war genre from an otherwise
reliable Goldsmith, though the recording's performance errors and lingering distortion issues
are mostly to blame for this score's ills.
|
|
10/3/24
|
Dead Poets Society (Maurice Jarre)
All New Review
|
| Buy it... |
on any of its compilation albums only if you seek a survey of Maurice Jarre's relatively underwhelming synthetic works of the
1980's for Peter Weir films.
|
| Avoid it... |
if you expect the mass of the brief score to match the attraction of the pivotal cue that introduces a full orchestra and bagpipes
for the story's famous climax.
|
|
9/30/24
|
Gorky Park (James Horner)
Updated Review, With Additional Album
|
| Buy it... |
if you groove to James Horner's style of drum pads and synthetic rhythms in Commando and could tolerate an earlier, more dissonant
and brutally raw variation on that distinctive sound.
|
| Avoid it... |
if extended performances of the alluring orchestral love theme in this work are your primary target, for they occupy only a quarter
of the score's otherwise tedious running time.
|
|
9/26/24
|
True Romance (Hans Zimmer)
All New Review
|
| Buy it... |
because you have undoubtedly heard Hans Zimmer's famously affable but largely unoriginal marimba theme for this score in pop
culture uses.
|
| Avoid it... |
on the score-only album if you don't desire significant redundancy in that theme's many slight variations or Zimmer's abrasive
electronic action material for the score's much darker half.
|
|
9/23/24
|
Hook (John Williams)
Updated Review, With Additional Album
|
| Buy it... |
on the 2023 La-La Land Records set to hear John Williams at his very best, for Hook is one of the most thematically diverse,
robust, and beautiful orchestral scores of the 1990's.
|
| Avoid it... |
on the late-1990's bootlegs or the somewhat dissatisfying 2012 La-La Land Records set if you demand a comprehensive presentation of
the whole score in chronological order and flawless sound.
|
|
9/19/24
|
Hellbound: Hellraiser II (Christopher Young)
All New Review
|
| Buy it... |
if you seek the gold standard of massively gothic horror music, the score that solidified Christopher Young's reputation in the
genre and has inspired imitations for decades to follow.
|
| Avoid it... |
if you expect this sequel score to remain totally faithful to Young's themes from Hellraiser, which retains an arguably more
cohesive narrative despite far lesser highlights.
|
|
9/16/24
|
Hellboy II: The Golden Army (Danny Elfman)
Updated Review, With Additional Album
|
| Buy it... |
if you seek a return by Danny Elfman to his days of gothic melodrama, even if the consistency of thematic resonance isn't quite the
same.
|
| Avoid it... |
if you demand firm connections to Marco Beltrami's entertaining score for Hellboy, Elfman himself opting to start fresh with the
concept.
|
|
9/11/24
|
Hellraiser (Christopher Young)
All New Review
|
| Buy it... |
if you admire gothic horror scores and Christopher Young's heralded definition of them, the original Hellraiser offering an early
glimpse of the majesty to come from the composer over the following decades.
|
| Avoid it... |
if you'd prefer to sacrifice the stronger narrative of this score for the choral immensity and improved sound of Young's wilder,
rowdy sequel score in the franchise.
|
|
9/7/24
|
Sneakers (James Horner)
Updated Review, With Additional Album
|
| Buy it... |
if you desire James Horner's friendliest scores, one that won't overwhelm you with its themes or performances but exudes an
affable, propulsive charisma lacking in most of his dramatic works.
|
| Avoid it... |
if Horner's wonderfully light, jazzy mode in this score cannot compensate for tired suspense material that references or
foreshadows numerous other scores by the composer.
|
|
9/2/24
|
I Am Sam (John Powell)
All New Review
|
| Buy it... |
if you desire a friendly and lightly propulsive mood-setter with a slightly quirky
personality, John Powell exercising efficiency in his minimalism beyond all else.
|
| Avoid it... |
if plucky guitar and ukulele music with occasional sound effects and minimal thematic
development leaves you without any emotional foothold for this dramatic concept.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
