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July/August 2025
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8/30/25
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Licence to Kill (Michael Kamen)
Updated Review, With Additional Album
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| Buy it... |
on the shorter, original album if you want a cheap souvenir from the film and are focused on the inoffensive but unmemorable
opening and closing songs.
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| Avoid it... |
if you expect Michael Kamen to provide any meaningful thematic narrative to this score, his poorly executed narrative oversaturated
with nondescript suspense and Latin flair while marginalizing romance and action.
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8/27/25
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Escape From the Planet of the Apes (Jerry Goldsmith)
All New Review
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| Buy it... |
if you enjoy punishing yourself with intentionally bizarre combinations of musical genres, Jerry Goldsmith striving to merge his
prior franchise instrumentation with contemporary 1970's style for comedic effect.
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| Avoid it... |
on all albums if you demand continuity in the music of your major franchises, Goldsmith largely abandoning his motifs from the
first score in this totally divergent misfire.
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8/24/25
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Masquerade (John Barry)
All New Review
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| Buy it... |
for a predictable John Barry entry in the romantic thriller genre, his softly lovely themes countered by understated suspense
passages of moderate volume.
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| Avoid it... |
if you have no tolerance for Barry's excruciatingly slow tempos in every mode of operation, this score best experienced when
condensed to a suite.
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8/21/25
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The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! (Ira Newborn)
All New Review
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| Buy it... |
because you love the film, the score's longer presentations aimed squarely at people who can never forget the slapstick comedy the
music punctuates.
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| Avoid it... |
if parody jazz triggers you to want to kill someone, the primary themes stylishly and affectionately obnoxious.
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8/18/25
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Allied (Alan Silvestri)
All New Review
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| Buy it... |
only if you seek to complete your collection of pretty Alan Silvestri movie themes, Allied offering of muted beauty that is as
pleasant as it is anonymous.
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| Avoid it... |
if you expect anything in this music to really emotionally connect with you, a tremendously wasted opportunity for a poignant
wartime romance score.
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8/15/25
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Wild Rovers (Jerry Goldsmith)
All New Review
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| Buy it... |
for one of Jerry Goldsmith's most memorably lyrical themes and a few romping, Aaron Copland-inspired Western action cues, Wild
Rovers among the composer's best Western scores.
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| Avoid it... |
on all but the 2003 Film Score Monthly album if you desire a comprehensive presentation of the both the film and album recordings
for the score, each with unique attractions.
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8/13/25
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Airplane! (Elmer Bernstein)
Updated Review, With Additional Album
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| Buy it... |
on the identical 2009 or 2024 albums if you seek an adequate survey of this humorous and popular Elmer Bernstein parody score in
satisfying sound quality.
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| Avoid it... |
on the older bootlegs for the score due to atrocious sound quality or if you expect, despite all logic in this case, to hear
anything resembling a consistent listening experience through dozens of short, genre-defying cues.
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8/10/25
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The Last Run (Jerry Goldsmith)
All New Review
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| Buy it... |
for Jerry Goldsmith's compelling primary theme, which receives several highly attractive renditions matched in their beauty by a
pair of equally lovely source pieces by the composer.
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| Avoid it... |
if your primary interest is the action material, which is more anonymous, at odds with the European specialty instruments, and
poorly spotted in this film.
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8/7/25
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Across the Sea of Time (John Barry)
All New Review
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| Buy it... |
for a wonderful career coda to the unashamedly melodic side of John Barry's writing for broad vistas, this final venture into that
sound of grand scope a conclusive encore.
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| Avoid it... |
if the repetitious structures and very slow tempos of the composer's 1980's romances left you bored out of your wits.
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8/4/25
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Welcome to Marwen (Alan Silvestri)
All New Review
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| Buy it... |
for the many highlights emulating the sensitive character themes of Alan Silvestri's career, the intimate orchestral passages of
this score as appealing as ever for the composer.
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| Avoid it... |
because the trite, near-parody military sequences for the main character's imagination are outright obnoxious and require
extraction of the remaining material to appreciate the score.
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8/1/25
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The Other (Jerry Goldsmith)
All New Review
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| Buy it... |
if you appreciate Jerry Goldsmith's knack for capturing the dichotomy between an innocent child and a supernatural killer, this
score manipulating the tone for the former as he becomes the latter.
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| Avoid it... |
on any album if you expect a pleasant listening experience that matches what you hear in the film, the challenging score largely
dropped from the final picture.
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7/30/25
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Godzilla (1954) (Akira Ifukube)
Updated Review, With Additional Albums
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| Buy it... |
if you have any interest in Akira Ifukube's music or the concept of Godzilla in general, for the two 2004 album variants are the
definitive releases of the original film's score.
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| Avoid it... |
if you do not value the history of Godzilla more than the need for decent sound quality, because the score's incredibly muffled
sound is a considerable deterrent for those not prepared for such a degree of muted ambience.
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7/27/25
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The Man (Jerry Goldsmith)
All New Review
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| Buy it... |
on its only album, a re-recorded performance from 2021, for a moderately interesting but challenging and rather underwhelming Jerry
Goldsmith drama score.
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| Avoid it... |
if you become frustrated by music that fails to reach its potential, the extreme brevity of this work yielding a lack of
development that negatively impacts the movie.
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7/24/25
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A World Apart (Hans Zimmer)
All New Review
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| Buy it... |
for a fascinating, intellectual examination of Hans Zimmer's first solo dramatic score, one that previews many of his stylistic
tendencies in the five years to follow.
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| Avoid it... |
if you expect the tone or narrative of this music to make any sense whatsoever for the concept, his infusion of traditional African
vocalizations completely at odds with his otherwise contemporary style.
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7/21/25
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Forbidden Zone (Danny Elfman)
All New Review
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| Buy it... |
only if you know exactly what you're getting into, because you will encounter few musicals as maddeningly bizarre as this one.
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| Avoid it... |
if you need some sensible, unoffensive music to play on a first date.
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7/18/25
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Shamus (Jerry Goldsmith)
All New Review
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| Buy it... |
if you believe that Jerry Goldsmith could credibly whip up some urban coolness with electric
bass and guitar alongside his synthetic keyboarding, but that blend is a little more bizarre
than you may be ready for.
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| Avoid it... |
if convincing style is your target in any Goldsmith detective score, this one largely missing
the mark because the tone varies between serious intent and parody as it tries to straddle
musical genres.
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7/16/25
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RoboCop 3 (Basil Poledouris)
Updated Review, With Additional Album
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| Buy it... |
if you want a taste of only the best music from the RoboCop franchise, this third entry by
Basil Pol
edouris containing a nicely matured and melodically engaging evolution of his material from
the first film's score.
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| Avoid it... |
if you have no interest in hearing Poledouris stray deep into Jerry Goldsmith territory, the
synthetics and orchestrations in RoboCop 3 not always remaining within the confines of
Poledouris' own trademark tendencies.
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7/13/25
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The Red Pony (Jerry Goldsmith)
All New Review
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| Buy it... |
on one of the re-recorded suites of highlights for a decent but rather stoic and passionless
Jerry Goldsmith drama laced with occasional Western hoedown flair.
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| Avoid it... |
if Goldsmith's lyricism has always attracted you to his Western scores, this one's themes
elusive and lacking the same heart despite hitting all the right basic notes.
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7/10/25
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Fools of Fortune (Hans Zimmer)
All New Review
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| Buy it... |
even on the flawed album presentation for one of Hans Zimmer's most lyrically powerful and emotionally engaging orchestral scores
from his earliest years.
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| Avoid it... |
if your interest in Zimmer's music is directly tied to his synthesizers, this score barely employing them and instead wallowing in
the composer's trademark symphonic melodrama of the era.
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7/7/25
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Wisdom (Danny Elfman)
All New Review
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| Buy it... |
only if you are familiar with the movie and can accept an amateurish but workmanlike synthetic score from Danny Elfman that exudes
no distinctive personality.
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| Avoid it... |
if you have little interest in hearing the composer emulate the styles of Harold Faltermeyer, early James Horner, and Tangerine
Dream with lesser equipment.
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7/4/25
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Ace Eli and Rodger of the Skies (Jerry Goldsmith)
All New Review
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| Buy it... |
if you desire Jerry Goldsmith in swinging ragtime mode, his music for the troubled characters of this 1920's plot adeptly improved
by Alexander Courage during the late rearrangements of the score.
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| Avoid it... |
if you loathe hearing contemporary pop elements in vintage settings or if you expect aerial majesty to come from Goldsmith during
the flying sequences.
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7/2/25
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Spider-Man 2 (Danny Elfman/Various)
Updated Review, With Additional Album
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| Buy it... |
if you wish to hear Danny Elfman's very strong, thematically satisfying sequel score in its original form, separate from the film's
awkwardly poor treatment of it.
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| Avoid it... |
if you were hoping for a more contemporary and stylish turn to the franchise's scores or if, like many, you wonder why the director
would force Christopher Young's music from Hellbound: Hellraiser II into this picture.
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