The previous entries in this series can be found below:

Part 1: https://www.filmtracks.com/scoreboard/forum.cgi?read=139461
Part 2: https://www.filmtracks.com/scoreboard/forum.cgi?read=139645
Part 3: https://www.filmtracks.com/scoreboard/forum.cgi?read=139963
Part 4: https://www.filmtracks.com/scoreboard/forum.cgi?read=140222
Part 5: https://www.filmtracks.com/scoreboard/forum.cgi?read=140461

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Kimberly (1999)



Unfortunately we’re now in the late period of Poledouris’ career which seems to have been dominated by comedies of dubious quality and some TV projects… though there is a Sam Raimi film in the mix, so small positives I guess. Anyway, now to talk about Kimberly.



Like with Amanda before it, there’s no Wikipedia article for this flick thus I’m going off of the quick blurb on IMDb which reads “four young men fall in love with the same woman and struggle to keep their pact with one another not to woo her”. So… a late 90’s R-rated indie version of a 1940’s screwball comedy? Anyway, the director made some other flicks I’ve never heard of and the cast includes a mix of known names (Sean Astin, Molly Ringwald, Pattie Duke) and ones I’m less familiar with (pretty much everyone else). Film apparently didn’t do well commercially and has very low ratings on RottenTomatoes and Letterboxd. 



As for the score, it’s fine. 



Saxophone heavy “romance in New York” scoring that largely sounds interchangeable with any number of romantic comedies of the 90’s, Poledouris does do quite nicely with the primary theme (“Main Title”) which has a stately, Neo-European tone about it at first but prove quite malleable as the (very brief) album unfolds. The one major stumbling block for Kimberly getting a higher rating here is the comedy music. While in the James Horner Honey, I Shrunk the Kids/Looney Tunes mold, the handful of tracks dedicated to this material completely ruins any sort of mood the rest of the score was setting. I mean, yeah… this is a romantic comedy, but still. 



Overall Kimberly is a very minor work from Poledouris but one that still delivers a handful of tracks worthy of an Basil centric playlist. Just take “Main Titles”, “Dating and Training”, Proposal/Finale” and “End Credits” off of the album and you’ll have a nice little 3.5 sampling of Basil in small scale romance mode. As for the whole enchilada… you can probably skip it.



SCORE:

2/5

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Mickey Blue Eyes (1999)



A romantic comedy crime picture (or RCCP for short), Mickey Blue Eyes apparently follows a lovably befuddled Hugh Grant who gets mixed up in mafia dealings thanks to his soon to be father-in-law (James Caan). I’m assuming hilarity ensues though not too much as I’ve heard of this this flick and according to Wikipedia it did decently enough commercially but got panned by critics. Oh, and apparently there’s a bunch of The Sopranos actors in this as well… or something.



As for the score… well, there’s barely anything to discuss. Poledouris is given a minimal amount of space to write original music (at least based on the album) which essentially is just segue pieces of base-level dramatic music between needle drops of stereotypical Italian-American songs from yesteryear. The only really notable piece is “Gina Runs from Ambulance” which has Basil trying to give some romantic gravitas… before the track is cut short. There’s also another composer credited who ends up getting the two big climatic cues for some reason (some guy named Harry Rabinowitz). Basically, this is very much a song forward affair where not only is that the primary draw but also the only reason to pick this up. 



SCORE:

1 1/2 out of 5 (mostly for that one Basil track I mentioned)



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For the Love of the Game (1999)



O.K, full disclosure here: I was planning on watching this one before writing my review (I have a DVD copy) but just never got around to it. Thus this entire review might prove to be null and void once I actually watch the picture… so, reader beware… or something.



A sports drama film about an aging baseball star (Kevin Costner) as he reflects of his career and life before playing his final game in Yankee Stadium. Based on the 1991 novel of the same name by author Dana Stevens (who also wrote the screenplay), this is part of that interesting time in filmmaker Sam Raimi’s filmography where he tried branching out into more “acclaimed” pictures between his early horror days and the major blockbusters that defined his later career. Admittedly this period in the 90’s gave us flicks such as The Quick and the Dead, A Simple Plan and The Gift so can’t complain too much. Anyway, Love of the Game failed at the box office and got royally panned by critics upon release… so maybe I shouldn’t waste my time watching it?



As for Basil’s music, if you wanted to hear a broadly Americana variant on Farewell to the King minus all the ethnic and jungle material, then that’s essentially what we have here. As with the previous titles covered in this section, the 1999 Varese Sarabande album I’m basing this review on is rather brief (just over 33 minutes) though there is a “Deluxe Edition” from the same label that doubles the runtime plus some. Anyway, the music itself is very nice with Poledouris fully embracing his weighty romantic side for the majority of the runtime with the notable exceptions of some wild, heavily distorted electric guitar work in the track “Tuttle Knockdown” and bluesy steel guitar in “Gus Hits” which brought to mind the opening of Killers of the Flower Moon for me (but less dire). 



While I fully confess that the longer, full presentation probably opens the score up more and further develops Poledouris’ themes, as for the presentation I heard… it’s solid. Not an amazing late career work, but still quite good and definitely leagues beyond the prior two titles I covered in this installment. For fans of Poledouris in romantic drama mode, definitely check this one out.



SCORE:

3 1/2 out of 5