Archive
TRON: LEGACY – Daft Punk
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
Tron: Legacy is a very belated sequel to the 1982 science fiction classic Tron, which starred Jeff Bridges and Bruce Boxleitner and introduced audiences to what were then state-of-the-art computer graphics in a story about a computer programmer named Flynn who gets sucked into his own software programme and is forced to take part in vicious gladiatorial games by the omnipotent Master Control Program. The sequel, which is directed by Joseph Kosinski, sees Flynn’s son Sam (Garrett Hedlund) suffer the same fate as his father, albeit 20 years later, when he receives a mysterious message from his father’s old video game arcade and subsequently becomes trapped in the same digital world – which in the intervening years has become bigger, more visually stunning, and much more dangerous. With the help of a beautiful warrior named Quorra, Kevin must traverse this astonishing landscape and find a way home. The film, which stars Olivia Wilde and Michael Sheen and sees both Bridges and Boxleitner reprising their original roles, is Disney’s big movie for Christmas 2010, and features an original score by Daft Punk. Read more…
A RAISIN IN THE SUN – Laurence Rosenthal
MOVIE MUSIC UK CLASSICS
Original Review by Craig Lysy
“A Raisin in the Sun” was adapted from the acclaimed play by Lorraine Hansberry that debuted on Broadway in 1959. It is a potent narrative on the pathology of segregation still pervasive in America almost one hundred years after the hope and promise of the Great Emancipation. The title is derived from the renowned poem “Harlem” by Langston Hughes, who poses the following question, “does a dream deferred dry up like a raisin in the sun”? Set in the early 1950’s, the story provides us with a few weeks in the life of the Youngers, an African-American family living in the dire poverty of the South Side of Chicago. Mama the matriarch has just inherited an insurance check for $10,000 after the death of her husband. What ensues is a tragedy born of desperation arriving at an intersection of competing aspirations. Mama wants to buy a house to fulfill her dream of a better life, while her son Walter would rather use the money to invest in a liquor store with his friend. Beneatha, Mama’s daughter, wants to use the money for her medical school tuition. Read more…
THE SOCIAL NETWORK – Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
A film about Facebook, the online phenomenon of the 21st century, doesn’t sound especially interesting when you first think about it, but the history of its creation is actually quite fascinating. Mark Zuckerberg was a 20-year-old student at Harvard University when he and his roommate Dustin Moskovitz launched the first incarnation of Facebook into the world in 2004; despite various lawsuits, development problems, and other issues, Facebook eventually became the dominant social networking website with 500 million users worldwide, and eventually making Zuckerberg the world’s youngest multi-billionaire, worth $6.9 billion according to the Forbes 2010 Rich List. The film is directed by David Fincher from a screenplay by Aaron Sorkin, and stars Jesse Eisenberg, Andrew Garfield, Justin Timberlake and Rooney Mara. Read more…
THE WAR WAGON – Dimitri Tiomkin
MOVIE MUSIC UK CLASSICS
Original Review by Craig Lysy
The tale opens with Taw Jackson played by America’s defining western actor John Wayne returning from prison. This film is indeed a rarity as Wayne for the first time in his career plays a villain. He is bent on recovering his fortune which was stolen from him by antagonist Frank Pierce after being wounded in a shoot-out. At his ranch Jackson decides to make a deal with Lomax (Kirk Douglas), the very man who shot him five years ago to join forces against Pierce and steal a large gold shipment. The gold is transported in an armored stage coach called “The War Wagon” that is very heavily guarded. This is a classic example of vigilante justice as these two men collaborate in assembling a team of men to stage a hold-up to regain Jackson’s lost gold. Read more…
MEGAMIND – Hans Zimmer and Lorne Balfe
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
A silly-but-fun animated action/comedy set in a world of super-heroes and super-villains, Megamind features the voice talent of Will Ferrell, Brad Pitt, Tina Fey and Jonah Hill. After their respective planets are destroyed Superman-style, two alien babies – one who looks human, one with a giant blue head and superior intellect – crash land on Earth. The human-looking baby grows up to be Metro Man, the savior of the fictional Metro City, while the other grows up to be Megamind, his arch enemy and super-villain. After kidnapping beautiful reporter Roxanne, Megamind hatches a typically hare-brained scheme to kill Metro Man but – as much to his own surprise as anyone else’s – actually succeeds in apparently dispatching his nemesis. However, rather than being happy with his triumph, Megamind quickly becomes depressed with having no-one to fight, and concocts a new scheme: to genetically alter Roxanne’s hapless cameraman Hal, turning him into a new hero… Read more…
TOBRUK – Bronislau Kaper
MOVIE MUSIC UK CLASSICS
Original Review by Craig Lysy
The movie is set in North Africa September 1942. Germany’s top General Erwin Rommel’s and his dreaded Afrika Korps are poised to invade Egypt. The allied command sends in a British Special Forces unit that includes German Jews which invariable causes friction and distrust with their British commandos. They proceed to kidnap a Canadian officer held prisoner by the Vichy French government in Algeria who is an expert topographer. The officer, Donald Craig, is charged with the daunting challenge of guiding this company of British and German-Jewish commandos through 800 miles of the desolate Sahara. The goal is to aid a planned amphibious landing against the seaport of Tobruk and its massive fuel storage base. The team is forced to confront and overcome various challenges, the final one being the discovery of an undetected German armored force poised to launch into Egypt. Read more…
127 HOURS – A.R. Rahman
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
The true story of Aron Ralston is one of human fortitude, bravery, defiance in the face of death, and incredible bad luck. A young and healthy daredevil with a penchant for extreme sports, Ralston took a brief weekend hiking trip to the canyons around Moab, Utah in the summer of 2003, and had the singular misfortune of suffering an accident which left his right arm pinned against a canyon wall by a large boulder, with no way of extricating it. After five lonely days, and hovering close to death, Ralston eventually took the unimaginable decision to amputate his own arm – with no anesthetic – using nothing more than a blunt Swiss Army knife, and staggered out of the canyon, where he was rescued and ultimately made a full recovery. Read more…
TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD – Elmer Bernstein
MOVIE MUSIC UK CLASSICS
Original Review by Craig Lysy
To Kill A Mockingbird is renowned as a celebrated Pulitzer prize winning novel written by American novelist Harper Lee. It was adapted for the screen by Horton Foote and is set in 1930’s Alabama during the era of the great depression. There are two distinct narratives operating in the tale. The first tells the story of a widowed and respected lawyer Atticus Finch, played in exemplary fashion by Gregory Peck, and his laudable but ultimately futile effort to defend a black man wrongly accused of raping a white woman. The equally important second narrative however is more intimate and focuses on Finch’s two young children, Scout and Jem. In many ways it is a coming of age tale as we see through their young eyes the struggle of growing up in the old south during a time where the races were segregated and black people were denied equality and justice under law. Made in 1962 before the civil rights act, the film provided an uncomfortable and potent commentary on the ugly cultural pathology that was still manifest in America many years after the Great Emancipation. Read more…
Introducing our newest reviewer: Craig Lysy
I had the good fortune of meeting Jon in 2008 through the Filmtracks scoreboard. We realized that we were both local LA guys and so agreed to setup a meeting. We first met over a cup of tea at the Northridge Borders book store and talked for almost 4 hours about our shared passion – film scores. It was an instant connection that has since evolved into a truly wonderful and rewarding friendship.
Jon has suggested to me on a number of occasions that I consider reviewing and launching my own site. If I was in my twenties and single I would have taken him up on both in a heartbeat, but at 56 and married, the timing and investment is just too ambitious. But on the matter of reviews, I have decided to accept Jon’s generous solicitation. I am honored and gratified to collaborate with Jon by joining one of the finest film score sites on the internet. Read more…
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