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September/October 2025
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10/31/25
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Halloween Ends (John Carpenter/Various)
Updated Review, With Additional Album
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| Buy it... |
if you were disappointed by the underwhelming tone of the music for Halloween Kills, John Carpenter and his team stepping up to provide a more
engaging and satisfying conclusion to this franchise's music.
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| Avoid it... |
if you expect anything to radically change in the style or thematic foundations of this music, even with additional tonality applied to address
the dramatic elements of this film's plot.
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10/29/25
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Halloween Kills (John Carpenter/Various)
Updated Review, With Additional Album
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| Buy it... |
only if you are a devoted enthusiast of this franchise's mercilessly rising body count, John Carpenter's music, like the films, struggling to
find ways to evolve its core concepts into anything substantially new.
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| Avoid it... |
if you expect to hear anything particularly scary or even unnerving in this score, the loudest and most dissonant passages annoying rather than
frightening.
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10/27/25
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Halloween (2018) (John Carpenter/Various)
Updated Review, With Additional Album
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| Buy it... |
if you desire a loyal extension of John Carpenter's original Halloween themes and style, their reprises here somewhat stagnant but satisfying
nonetheless.
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| Avoid it... |
if you demand more than mere production updates to the sound of this music, the score not attempting much evolution to address the elapsed time
and development for the lead heroine.
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10/25/25
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The Scorpion King (John Debney)
Updated Review, With Additional Album
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| Buy it... |
if you are prepared for one of John Debney's most flamboyantly extroverted works in the action and fantasy genre, a majestic blend of metal and
orchestra.
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| Avoid it... |
if the use of ripping electric guitars for a 16th Century warrior cannot be reconciled with Debney's more typical orchestral and choral bombast.
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10/23/25
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Young Sherlock Holmes (Bruce Broughton)
Updated Review, With Additional Album
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| Buy it... |
on any of the 2014 to 2025 albums if you seek a dynamic blend of Victorian character themes and challenging writing for conflict at the height
of Bruce Broughton's ascendance in the mid-1980's.
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| Avoid it... |
if the striking atonality of the suspense and killing cues is too disparate from the pretty and innocent themes for the protagonists, this score
maintaining a split personality from start to finish.
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10/21/25
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Matchstick Men (Hans Zimmer)
Updated Review, With Additional Album
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| Buy it... |
if you want to hear Hans Zimmer's lovable though intentionally dysfunctional combination of Nino Rota's European sensibilities and zany 1950's
lounge rhythms.
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| Avoid it... |
if accordions, whistlers, high 50's jazz, a little Zimmer techno, and snappy rhythms could potentially cause you to obsess over household
cleaning projects.
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10/19/25
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Luck (John Debney)
Updated Review, With Additional Album
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| Buy it... |
if you have long appreciated singular highlights from John Debney's children's scores and await one work that combines all the best
of these moments into one surprisingly compelling whole.
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| Avoid it... |
if you are allergic to wholesome major-key goodness, Debney never losing his affably tender and lovely tone throughout this
spirited genre entry.
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10/17/25
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Gladiator (Hans Zimmer/Lisa Gerrard)
Updated Review, With Additional Album
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| Buy it... |
if you seek twenty minutes of outstanding music highlighted by the beautifully ethereal performances by Lisa Gerrard for the film's
scenes involving the afterlife.
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| Avoid it... |
if you find Hans Zimmer's battle and fanfare music to be too synthetically grating on the nerves or too obviously plagiarized to
enjoy in any context.
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10/15/25
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First Blood (Jerry Goldsmith)
Updated Review, With Additional Album
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| Buy it... |
on the outstanding 2010 or 2025 Intrada sets if you seek a superior presentation of an action score that builds and maintains more character
than most in existence, conveying the sorrow of John Rambo with surprising warmth in its melodic highlights.
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| Avoid it... |
if you expect to hear the same consistently explosive tone of action in First Blood that made the two subsequent Jerry Goldsmith scores in the
franchise so memorable.
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10/13/25
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A League of Their Own (Hans Zimmer)
Updated Review, With Additional Album
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| Buy it... |
if you love Randy Newman's vintage, big band jazz and Western-tinged character themes of pure Americana spirit, because Hans Zimmer
emulates those sounds so well in A League of Their Own that you may not be able to tell the difference.
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| Avoid it... |
if the above statement violates every notion of "the masculine Zimmer style" that you've come to know and love, even if the composer
really does an admirable job of adapting to the genre.
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10/11/25
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The Reivers (John Williams)
Updated Review, With Additional Albums
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| Buy it... |
if your affinity for John Williams' sensitive character themes can accept the addition of folksy attitude and some outrageously
exuberant comedy passages.
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| Avoid it... |
on only the comprehensive 2025 album to receive a full and true treatment of the score as heard in the film, though all the
available options offer a good experience with relatively good sound.
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10/9/25
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Cape Fear (Bernard Herrmann/Elmer Bernstein)
Updated Review, With Additional Album
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| Buy it... |
if you are ready for a relentless exercise in intensely thrilling Bernard Herrmann music, even by his own standards, this score's
main theme among the most memorable of his career.
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| Avoid it... |
on either album for the Elmer Bernstein adaptation if you prefer classic scores in their original archival sound quality, though
this one truly shines in its vibrant and resounding modern form.
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10/7/25
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Quigley Down Under (Basil Poledouris)
Updated Review, With Additional Album
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| Buy it... |
if you seek an enthusiastically infectious merging of Basil Poledouris' Western and folk sensibilities with a distinctive ragtime
character that yields melodic bombast and swinging style.
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| Avoid it... |
if you're one of those types who can never get a catchy theme out of your head, or if the sound of rambling banjos causes you to
jerk awake in the middle of the night in cold sweats.
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10/5/25
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Rain Man (Hans Zimmer)
Updated Review, With Additional Album
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| Buy it... |
if you want to trace most of Hans Zimmer's enduring and arguably superior output from 1989 to 1994 back to its origin, because Rain
Man was the initiation point for a wide variety of the composer's later techniques.
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| Avoid it... |
if you are not interested in paying premium prices for the short score on its attractive 2018 and 2025 albums, the options coming
before them hampered by inferior sources.
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10/2/25
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Flight (Alan Silvestri)
All New Review
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| Buy it... |
only if you seek to complete your collection of Alan Silvestri scores after 2000, the scope and tone of this work extremely
introspective and lacking dramatic appeal until its very end.
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| Avoid it... |
if you are interested in hearing an engaging thematic narrative, as the score is just over twenty minutes in length and conveyed
with a depressing demeanor.
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9/29/25
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The Ballad of Cable Hogue (Jerry Goldsmith)
All New Review
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| Buy it... |
only if you can admire the unusual musical nature of this film, Jerry Goldsmith adapting an amateur singer's material into a decent
but forgettable score.
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| Avoid it... |
if you desire only the more original and vivacious Western stylings from Goldsmith, this work hinting at some of those highlights in
its comedy but otherwise a rather mundane expression of reserved humor.
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9/27/25
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The Patriot (John Williams)
Updated Review, With Additional Album
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| Buy it... |
if John Williams' consistent style of respectful writing for historical Americana settings never loses its grace and heroic appeal
for you.
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| Avoid it... |
if the predictable stature and style of Williams' music in the genre cannot alone compensate for the rare occasion when the
composer reaches back for significant inspiration from his and others' previous works.
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9/24/25
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Tora! Tora! Tora! (Jerry Goldsmith)
All New Review
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| Buy it... |
to appreciate the purpose of Jerry Goldsmith's introspective and quietly tense, rhythmic personality in only a small portion of
this film, highlighted by an impressively grim, melodramatic theme.
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| Avoid it... |
if only three major performances of that resoundingly serious, ethnically contested theme cannot sustain your interest in what is
otherwise mostly an atmospheric score.
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9/21/25
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Howard the Duck (John Barry/Sylvester Levay)
All New Review
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| Buy it... |
on the comprehensive 2019 set with John Barry and Sylvester Levay's cues for this doomed film to study an intriguingly challenging
scoring assignment that neither composer really nailed.
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| Avoid it... |
on any album if you expect the music to represent competent superhero or comedy traits, the personality of Barry's music ill-suited
to serve the topic well.
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9/18/25
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Red 2 (Alan Silvestri)
All New Review
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| Buy it... |
if you are curious to hear Alan Silvestri's best imitation of styles from David Arnold's Die Another Day and John Powell's The
Bourne Identity.
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| Avoid it... |
if you're counting on culling pieces of traditional Silvestri action from this abrasive mess of a manipulated score, because so few
cues offer anything palatable.
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9/15/25
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The Traveling Executioner (Jerry Goldsmith)
All New Review
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| Buy it... |
for ten or so minutes of Jerry Goldsmith's infectiously entertaining New Orleans jazz for the main character's antics in the first
half of the film.
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| Avoid it... |
if you expect the rest of the score to set your hair on fire with excitement, because the faux-drama, light comedy, and suspense
portions of this score are underwhelming.
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9/13/25
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The Dark Crystal (Trevor Jones)
Updated Review, With Additional Album
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| Buy it... |
on any of its impressive albums from 2003 forward if you appreciate only the most melodramatic, instrumentally creative, and
orchestrally romantic style of music that the 1980's fantasy genre has to offer.
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| Avoid it... |
on the fuller 2003 and 2025 albums containing the lengthy presentations of the score as edited for the film or originally recorded
for it, respectively, and instead seek the satisfying 40-minute album arrangement with superior sound that was issued on its own in
2007.
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9/10/25
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Rio Lobo (Jerry Goldsmith)
All New Review
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| Buy it... |
on either of its albums solely for the surviving stereo tracks, their quality far superior to their monaural counterparts for
enthusiasts of Jerry Goldsmith's standard Western style.
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| Avoid it... |
if you prefer the bright melodic action of Goldsmith's better genre works, this score subdued and drab for much of its length.
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9/7/25
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Peggy Sue Got Married (John Barry)
All New Review
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| Buy it... |
for a simple and comforting exploration of light familial drama from John Barry for an equally innocent story.
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| Avoid it... |
if you prefer your Barry scores of this genre to exude resonating presence, the ensemble for this recording too small to register
such depth.
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9/4/25
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The Walk (Alan Silvestri)
All New Review
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| Buy it... |
for twenty minutes of lovely, James Horner-inspired orchestral drama led by compelling piano rhythms and ethereal choir
representing Alan Silvestri at his most sensitive.
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| Avoid it... |
if you cannot tolerate the completely incongruent and obnoxious French and caper modes that Silvestri provides to the first half of
the narrative, a distracting and abrasive diversion from this score's heart.
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9/1/25
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The Mephisto Waltz (Jerry Goldsmith)
All New Review
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| Buy it... |
with the love of the Dark Lord Satan in your heart, Jerry Goldsmith challenging you with intellectually devious but strikingly
harsh, dissonant textures for this demonic thriller.
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| Avoid it... |
if, during your appreciation of film music, you have no interest in repeatedly asking yourself, "What the hell was that bizarre
noise, and will my spouse leave me because of it?"
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