Filmtracks: Red Notice (Steve Jablonsky)

Filmtracks Traffic Rank: #2,018
Written 1/9/22

Invert Colors

Buy it... if you appreciate spirited caper scores emulating the vintage jazz of Henry Mancini and Lalo Schifrin, a sound reasonably captured by Steve Jablonsky alongside impressive Egyptian-themed fantasy tones.

Avoid it... if you expect Jablonsky to escape the inhibiting conventions of his bass-heavy and synthetic mannerisms, the panache level of the music sadly lacking in many of the otherwise jazzy performances.

Jablonsky

Red Notice: (Steve Jablonsky) If you pay three actors $20 million each to appear in a heist-genre action comedy, you are bound to get some attention. And attention is exactly what Netflex received for Red Notice, the 2021 caper thriller becoming one of the distributor's most widely viewed original movies of all time. Gal Gadot, Dwayne Johnson, and Ryan Reynolds are the three stars, and they are master thieves seeking the same prize: three ancient Egyptian eggs that are also the target of Interpol agents as part of a trove of stolen Nazi loot. Crosses and double crosses are inevitable as they traverse the world in style, the film's silly banter as much the attraction as its hyperactive chase sequences. Originally set to be a summer 2020 theatrical blockbuster from Universal, Red Notice was sold to Netflix and rode its star power to immediate talk of sequels. Sadly, the quality of the film is considered atrocious by critics, and even audiences couldn't bring themselves to describe the movie as high art. It contains a variety of parody-inducing, pop-culture song placements throughout, as well as one comedic on-screen performance by Ed Sheeran, who finds himself also fighting Interpol agents by using his guitar as a weapon. (Indeed, such is the quality of this movie.) Thrown into the mix is a score by Steve Jablonsky, who was extending his collaboration with director Rawson Marshall Thurber from 2018's Skyscraper. The Remote Control Productions graduate took a different approach to Red Notice, and not just because of the post-production delays caused by the pandemic. While there was agreement by the composer and director that the film would be best served by an action score informed by the jazzy caper style of Henry Mancini and Lalo Schifrin, Thurber waffled considerably about how heavy a dose of that style should prevail. He consistently sought to change the tone of the score as post-production went on, causing Jablonsky to tone up or down the lightness factor depending upon ongoing edits. Ultimately, the score for Red Notice thus ends up in limbo between these two genres, never truly embracing the parody element of the vintage caper genre and remaining too light and generic in character to suffice as a ballsy action affair.

The clear indecision about the direction of the score for Red Notice is a notable weakness, but there is still much to like about Jablonsky's work here, and some film music collectors may rank it highly in his career. When the score is on its game, it really cooks, with several dramatic and caper-driven highlights that are among the most engaging cues heard from the composer to this point. The base sound for Jablonsky is standard for the genre, his orchestral tones embellished by electric guitars, synthetic backing, and a deep emphasis on a resounding bass region. As per usual for the composer, his mix makes these elements sound cheaply rendered, and some listeners may write off much of the recording as synthetically derived even though 80 players were involved. The mix frustratingly changes from cue to cue, as well, some sounding far more dynamic in a live sense than others, partly due to reverb application but also in the inflection inherent in the performances. This awkward circumstance, accentuated by an overly long album presentation, affects the appeal of Jablonsky's two supporting sounds: the outright vintage jazz and the exotic fantasy material for the Egyptian plot elements. The vibraphone is the coolest contributor to the jazzy style, though a variety of percussion new to Jablonsky's palette also attracts. Bass flutes add flavor to these passages as well as the Egyptian ones, where they provide exotic flair along with cimbalom and what sounds like a synthetic chorale. The cimbalom and guitars offer coloration for the villain. The flute is the most organic contributor in the entire score, with brass often struggling to achieve the panache factor to make this score truly successful. Better appreciation of these instrumental colors exists in the cimbalom and exotic flute of "Roma," guitar and cimbalom of "Sotto Voce," and electric guitar and groovy vibe of "Resting Failure Face." The most lively personality comes in the score's two very wetly mixed cues, "Too Focused on Winning" and "Masquerade Ball," and it's difficult to say why Jablonsky applied such a vibrantly retro live sound to these two cues in particular and not the others that reference the jazzy tilt. Other cues, like "Arrest Me," contain the most generic Jablonsky action sound, hindered in that particular case by a lack of thematic statements in a score otherwise fairly consistent in its motifs.

Read More...

Jablonsky applies several recurring themes to his score for Red Notice, and while their execution may not always inspire, their structures in concept are quite compelling. The film receives a jazzy main theme for action and coolness, along with a superior B-phrase of that theme for heightened suspense. Gadot's Sarah Black character receives a rather underdeveloped secondary idea that is supplanted by a fresh heroic theme by the end for the trio of thieves working together. Most intriguing is a pair of themes for the Egyptian setting and golden egg artifacts, and this material stands out in the score like a sore thumb. The bulk of the duties, however, falls on the main theme. The composer described this identity as being the primary adventure representation of the two male leads, and it espouses the score's Mancini and Schifrin inspiration. The first cue written was "Red Notice," and while the director worried that its retro jazzy style was excessive, this suite eventually came to define the score. The main theme debuts at 0:27 into "Red Notice" and continues throughout the track, with a more muscular rendition at 1:59. It opens "Main Title" faintly before erupting fully at 0:40 in action mode over ambitious percussion. Fragments of the theme on cimbalom are heard in "Roma," and it's tense in action form early in "Museum Chase" before becoming playful later. The theme sounds completely synthetic in the latter cue, with poor performances and/or mixes detracting. A large, suspenseful statement opening "Bali" is followed by an ultra-hip flute rendition in that cue. The theme enjoys a big opening to "The Captain Wants to See You" and informs "Escape From Gora Smerti" and "Teamwork" in more challenging pieces. A longer, snazzier version extends to a cool descending phrase in the great "Masquerade Ball" while a slight reference opens "The Vault." The main theme's heightened action posture early in "Mine Shaft" leads to a big phrase at its end, while its playful demeanor in "Checkmate" yields to a far more brutal performance at the end of that cue. The identity achieves massive scope in its native jazz form in "One More Job" with strong percussion and guitars and a slight James Bond theme reference in the middle. The theme plays more prominently in some sequences of the film than on the album presentation, suggesting some possible additional tracking of the performances from "Red Notice" and "One More Job."

The main theme of Red Notice contains an interlude sequence that reveals itself to be a strong B-phrase and seems to represent the concept of scheming. Introduced at 1:29 into "Red Notice," it drives many of the cooler passages in the score, including the suspense at 1:10 into "Main Title." Hints of this B-phrase emerge in latter half of "Bali" and finally mature in the middle of "Here's the Plan." The motif especially shines in "Masquerade Ball," where it offers full ensemble pizzazz with cool rhythmic confidence at 1:30, 2:42, and 4:11. The lightly keyboarded pacing, slapped wooden percussion, and slight electric guitar accents are good additions here. The motif extends to drive some of the action rhythms in "Mine Shaft" as well. The Sarah Black theme is fairly nebulous by comparison, twisting around pieces of the main theme for its own variant. It opens "Baby Did a Bad Bad Thing" and shifts to action fragments later, occupying all of "Profile" and supplying hints throughout "The Captain Wants to See You." It's altered in "Too Focused on Winning" and "Checkmate," with a light rhythm set to bell sounds that is octave-bound and dwelling on key, but it rediscovers itself in the hip contemplation of "Resting Failure Face." The trio of thieves eventually receives its own heroic identity of sorts, and this is where Jablonsky ironically provides his most optimistically romantic tone. A brief burst of this theme at 0:58 into "Teamwork" becomes fuller at 2:32, and the same spirit continues in "The Watch" even without the explicit melody. The theme returns at 1:40 into "One More Job" and builds to rousing fanfare conclusion that perhaps suggests the idea as the primary identity of a subsequent film involving the three leads more explicitly working as a team. The most surprising material in Red Notice for film music collectors is Jablonsky's pair of Egyptian-related themes for the historical fantasy element in the story, even if this material is somewhat short-changed in the film's context. The fuller Egyptian theme is especially infrequently applied, sounding like a leftover theme from The Mummy franchise in its stereotypical regional progressions. It stands out from all the contemporary themes at 0:41 into "The Hatch," and portions continue throughout "The Vault" without a full statement. The composer develops the idea strongly in the first three minutes of "Myth or Legend" for the full ensemble, however, a cue that has the feel of a concept suite.

The Egyptian theme in Red Notice, even if rather generic, remains so strikingly lovely in its rare performances that one can't help but hope that Jablonsky can carry that sound over to another project. The trumpet performances in the "Myth or Legend" suite are notable, though they do not contain the source-like trumpets heard during the wedding scene in Cairo. That scene makes brief use of the score's other fantasy-related idea, this one representing the three golden eggs that the thieves are all chasing. Ancient tones in this egg theme are achieved through exotic flute with a touch of fantasy via choir. The idea is heard best throughout "The Egg" opening the album, consolidated at 0:34 and nicely robust at 1:11. This cue seemingly informs the aforementioned wedding scene, getting cut off before most of its grandeur, and the Egyptian theme's trumpet source moment interrupted by Ed Sheeran's sudden song in the film does not appear here, either. A quick reminder of the egg theme occurs in the middle of "Roma," though an exotic flute serves as the sole reminder of its melody by "Baby Did a Bad Bad Thing." A reminder opens "Sotto Voce" with malice in what amounts to a standard villain cue. The egg theme opens "The Hatch" in soft choral mystery, extending that style into "The Vault." The "Myth or Legend" suite closes with a soft reminder of its form from "The Egg" as well. The disparate styles of the two main themes and the two Egyptian themes makes them an odd couple in the score, but each is appreciable when collected into their own separate suites of highlights. Together, the eight minutes of Egyptian material and 12 to 15 minutes of highlights from the caper stylings will provide an immensely enjoyable presentation. The commercial album arrangement for Red Notice is too long at 70 minutes to sustain its filler portions, but some of its best moments aren't featured in the film, including the latter half of "One More Job," which was replaced by a song. In the end, Red Notice is a fleeting guilty pleasure score that stands highly in Jablonsky's career. But it also promises far more potential than it ever realizes. The ingredients were all there for a classic work, but the composer fails to achieve the level of panache required to truly prevail in this genre, in part because its exuberance factor is a bit understated but mostly because of poor performance inflection and mixing. For a caper score to soar, it has to dance in the soundscape, especially in its percussion and brass. Booming bass regions and other mundane blockbuster scoring conventions aren't conducive to that sound, but there are enough prevailing highlights here to forgive some of these flaws. **** @Amazon.com: CD or Download

Bias Check:

For Steve Jablonsky reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 2.2 (in 15 reviews) and the average viewer rating is 2.47 (in 11,924 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.

Filmtracks Home	Reviews
Scoreboard	Desktop Site