Archive
THE INFORMERS – Christopher Young
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
The second film to be based on one of Bret Easton Ellis’s novels after American Psycho, The Informers is an examination of the hedonistic 80s lifestyles of a group of twentysomethings in Los Angeles who treat life, sex and drugs as disposable commodities. The film, which was directed by Gregor Jordan, has an eclectic cast that includes such luminaries as Billy Bob Thornton, Kim Basinger, Winona Ryder, Mickey Rourke, Chris Isaak, and the late Brad Renfro. For the music, Jordan hired composer Christopher Young, who rarely gets the chance to take on dark personal dramas such as this, but is often very successful when he does. Read more…
OBSESSED – Jim Dooley
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
A film from the ‘psycho bitch from hell’ sub-genre of movies that began with the likes of Fatal Attraction and The Hand That Rocks the Cradle, Obsessed stars Idris Elba as Derek Charles, a successful executive at a financial accounting company, happily married to the gorgeous Sharon (Beyoncé Knowles), . However, things begin to go wrong for Derek when some innocent inter-office flirting with insecure temp Lisa Sheridan (Ali Larter) leads to stalking, obsession, and more.
The film is directed by Steve Shill and has an original score by Jim Dooley, who continues to make a positive impression in the film music world by throwing off the shackles of the Hans Zimmer sound and generating his own musical style. Read more…
17 AGAIN – Rolfe Kent
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
A funny vehicle for High School Musical star Zac Efron, 17 Again is a new spin on the old ‘body swap’ comedies of the 1980s like Big, combined with the back-to-school nostalgia of Back to the Future. Matthew Perry stars as Mike O’Donnell stars as a sad-sack thirty-something with a dead end job and a bitter ex-wife (Lesley Mann). After a fateful meeting with mysterious a high school janitor (Brian Doyle-Murray), Mike wishes he could be seventeen again, and do over all the things in his life he screwed up the first time around. Magically, the following morning, he wakes up looking like Zac Efron, and with the help of his perpetually nerdy pal Ned (Thomas Lennon), sets about getting his life back.
It’s a feel-good, genuinely funny teen comedy, directed confidently by Burr Steers, and which features an original score by Rolfe Kent. Read more…
ADORATION – Mychael Danna
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
I’m listening to Adoration for about the sixth or seventh time, and I still don’t know whether I like it or not, which puts me in a quandary. Sometimes, in film music, you listen to a score and you know that, on an intellectual level, the score is wonderful. You know that the textures the composer creates with his instruments are perfectly intricate. You understand that the mood he brings to the film through his music is exactly what was needed to convey the emotions on screen. You know that the level of precision and technique the performers have is superb. But yet, despite all that, you find yourself completely unable to warm to the score. While listening to it, you find your mind wandering – not out of boredom, but because you are not engaged by what you hear. You’re not enjoying listening to the score, and are connecting with it on a purely academic plain. I’ve had this happen to me many times before, with the majority of Philip Glass and Michael Nyman’s output, and on more recent scores like Osvaldo Golijov’s Youth Without Youth or Jonny Greenwood’s There Will Be Blood; and it’s happening here with Mychael Danna’s score for Adoration. Read more…
THE POKER CLUB – Evan Evans
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
A suburban thriller directed by Tim McCann and starring Johnny Messner, Johnathon Schaech and Loren Dean, The Poker Club is the story of four regular guys who get together every week who get together to smoke cigars, drink beer and play cards. One night, however, their weekly get together is interrupted by a home invader, and things go from bad, to worse, to even worse, when they accidentally kill the burglar, and then realize he might not have been alone.
The score for The Poker Club is by young composer Evan Evans, who has actually been scoring low-budget and independent films since the late 1990s, but has never before had any of his music released on a commercial record label. Read more…
STATE OF PLAY – Alex Heffes
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
A high concept thriller with a stellar cast – Russell Crowe, Ben Affleck, Rachel McAdams, Helen Mirren, Robin Wright-Penn, Jeff Daniels, Jason Bateman, Viola Davis – State of Play follows the fortunes of a team of investigative reporters who work alongside a police detective to try to solve the murder of a congressman’s mistress. The film is directed by Kevin Macdonald, who received a great deal of critical acclaim for his film The Last King of Scotland in 2006, and has a score by young English composer Alex Heffes, who continues the collaboration he began with Macdonald on the documentary One Day in September in 1999 and which now spans seven films.
Firstly, I wanted to say how gratifying it is when a composer like Heffes is hired to score a major studio film based on his previous relationship with a director Read more…
DRAGONBALL EVOLUTION – Brian Tyler
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
A big-budget big screen version of the well-loved Japanese anime TV series, Dragonball Evolution stars Justin Chatwin as Son Goku, a young warrior sets out on a quest to collect a set of seven magical orbs that will grant their wielder unlimited power However, not only does young Goku face a race against time to find the orbs, he also faces a dangerous adversary in the shape of the evil and vengeful King Piccolo (James Marsters), who wants the orbs for his own nefarious purposes.
The film is directed by James Wong, co-stars Chow Yun Fat, Emmy Rossum and Jamie Chung, and has a lively and energetic original score by the ever-busy Brian Tyler. Read more…
THE ESCAPIST – Benjamin Wallfisch
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
The Escapist is a British drama/thriller directed by Rupert Wyatt and starring Brian Cox as Frank Perry, a convicted murderer serving a life sentence without parole. When he learns that his estranged daughter has fallen ill, Frank determines to make peace with her before she dies; as such, he develops an ingenious escape plan, and recruits a dysfunctional band of fellow prisoners and misfits – Joseph Fiennes, Damian Lewis, Dominic Cooper, Steven Mackintosh – with the unique skills required to help him break out.
The score for The Escapist is by up-and-coming British composer Benjamin Wallfisch, who has earned acclaim for his solo work on scores such as Dear Wendy, as well as for his Read more…
FAST & FURIOUS – Brian Tyler
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
The fourth film in the high octane ‘Fast and the Furious’ series, and the second one scored by Brian Tyler, Fast & Furious re-unites Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, Michelle Rodriguez and Jordana Brewster, the four stars of the original 2001 hit. In this new film Brian O’Conner (Walker) is again working undercover for the FBI, and approaches street racer Dominic Toretto (Diesel) for help in bringing down a vicious heroin importer. Having scored the third F&F film, Tokyo Drift, for his friend and regular collaborator Justin Lin, Brian Tyler returns to lend his musical voice to the fourth film too.
Part of Tyler’s score are scored like a modern day Western, with electric and acoustic guitars pitting themselves against driving electronic rhythms, techno beats and roaring percussion Read more…
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