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The director was indeed correct in his assessment that Schifrin would be given a larger palette with which to work. Because the setting of this film is rooted in Hong Kong this time, Schifrin does reuse elements from his Enter the Dragon score, but in an even more contemporary fashion. The music for Rush Hour 2 contains some very good action cues, as well as an inspiring opening title sequence with a robust variation of the franchise theme after only about 20 seconds of introduction. The larger action sequences make use of three distinct elements. First, the full orchestra, which sounds as though it numbers near 90 members, is highlighted by dynamic brass performances. Second, the Eastern ethnic elements include an erhu and the mandatory gong, which seems, more than anything, to satisfy generic perceptions of an Eastern setting. Finally, as to be expected in any of Schifrin's scores, the ensemble includes a rhythmic section, with sax, drums, and electric bass mingling in nearly every cue. Schifrin succeeds in creating several minutes of completely authentic Chinese underscore, even with an appropriate mutation of the title theme to soloist levels in "Isabella," and these moments offer a break from the nearly constantly snazzy tones of the rest of the score. Outside of "Mu Shu Parlor," Schifrin's music maintains an almost constant sense of movement, usually slightly dissonant in layers and almost always jazzy in rhythm. The Western jazz can sometimes interfere with the Eastern orchestration, but the power of the full orchestra driving home an atmosphere of depth often compensates for this awkward mesh. The album is an interesting arrangement of the score, breaking it into two halves; in the middle are two loungey jazz pieces right out of Las Vegas and perhaps more along the lines of what you'd expect to hear on a Schifrin album. More importantly, however, the two songs (followed by some tedious loungey material by Schifrin himself) signify an important split on the product.

Whereas the first half of the album contains all of the stimulating action and ethnic cues of substantial volume, the second half dwindles in inspiration until it reaches a surprisingly drab conclusion. The mass of strictly jazzy music exists in that second half, sounding like an almost entirely different score altogether. Therefore, the first six tracks of 20+ minutes of music will easily be the highlight of the album for any listener. It's in this portion that you hear most of the title theme performances, which, as in the third score in the franchise, are unfortunately too few in their full statements. Ironically, had the second half of the score been left off entirely, the album would have rounded out to a typical 30-minute presentation of the best music from Rush Hour 2. The only negative attribute of the first half of the album is Schifrin's career-established tendency to avoid lengthy harmonization, opting for a quickly shifting key and a jumpy series of progressions. The second track contains a fluttering of the higher woodwinds that is extremely unfortunate, but otherwise, the fully orchestral moments of Rush Hour 2 could be enjoyable even to the ears of a long-time Schifrin detractor. The performances by the musicians in Los Angeles are crisp, especially on the sax, and the group handles Schifrin's shifty and frenetic movements well. The recording is also extremely sharp, with a perfect amount of reverb presented in the final mix. This score is a substantial improvement over the original, but it is still too short in consistently strong content to make for a noteworthy album. The franchise of three scores is ironically one of the few in which the music arguably got better as each film rolled along, and it's no coincidence that this general improvement mirrors the enhanced role for an orchestral ensemble in each successive score. It's still a shame than in all three scores together, the dynamic statements of the title theme with that full ensemble are frightfully few in quantity, because that theme is pure Schifrin style in all of its glory.  ***   @Amazon.com: CD or Download

Total Time: 52:30