Archive
COBB – Elliot Goldenthal
THROWBACK THIRTY
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
Growing up in the United Kingdom, baseball was never a sport that was ever on my radar, but even with my limited knowledge of its history there were still some names which transcended and were familiar as icons of the game: Babe Ruth. Lou Gehrig. Joe Di Maggio. One of the most controversial players of that era was another familiar name: Ty Cobb, who played for the Detroit Tigers between 1906 and 1926 and was one of the first people inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame when it was first established in 1936. By all accounts he was a mercurial player, with especially incredible batting ability, aggressiveness, and mental toughness; such was his prodigiousness he held the record for the highest career batting average for almost 100 years until 2024, when MLB decided to include players from the Negro League in official statistics, and he was overtaken by Josh Gibson. Read more…
BEETLEJUICE BEETLEJUICE – Danny Elfman
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
It has taken more than 35 years for it to happen, but director Tim Burton has finally made a sequel to his classic comedy-horror film Beetlejuice. It seems that Burton, and his star Michael Keaton, are keen to recapture the feeling of their 1980s heyday by returning to the projects that made them famous – Keaton himself has already returned to play Batman in The Flash in 2023 – but unfortunately Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, despite some fun moments, is wholly inferior to the original across the board. The film sees Keaton returning with two of his co-stars from the first film, Winona Ryder and Catherine O’Hara, alongside franchise newcomers Jenna Ortega, Justin Theroux, Arthur Conti, Willem Dafoe, and Monica Bellucci, the latter of whom is director Burton’s current paramour. Read more…
BATTLE CRY – Max Steiner
GREATEST SCORES OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY
Original Review by Craig Lysy
The genesis of Battle Cry lay with Leon Uris, author of the 1953 novel on which the film is based. He served in World War II as a radio man in the 2nd Battalion, 6th Marines, during the Guadalcanal and Tarawa campaigns, being evacuated with malaria. The novel was a Top Ten seller and by 1954 was already in its sixth printing. Warner Brothers saw opportunity for an epic WWII drama in cinemascope and so bought the film rights. Jack L. Warner and Raoul Walsh oversaw production, with Walsh also directing and Uris adapting his novel for the screenplay. A huge stellar cast was assembled, including Van Heflin as Major Sam “High Pockets” Huxley, Aldo Ray and Private First Class Andy Hookens, Nancy Olsen as Pat Rogers, James Whitmore as Master Technical Sergeant Mac, Tab Hunter as Private First Class Danny Forrester, Mona Freeman as Kathy, Dorothy Malone as Mrs. Elaine Yarborough, Ray Massey as Major General Snipes and Ann Frances as Rae. Read more…
MONSTER SUMMER – Frederik Wiedmann
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
Monster Summer is a lighthearted yet spooky Halloween movie for kids, written by Cornelius Uliano and Bryan Schulz, and directed by former child actor David Henrie from Wizards of Waverly Place. The story is set in the 1990s on the island of Martha’s Vineyard, and stars Mason Thames as Noah, a local teen with dreams of becoming an investigative journalist. Noah’s chance at a big story comes when he notices that local children are mysteriously vanishing, only for them to reappear the next day in a catatonic state. His main suspect is Miss Halverson (Lorraine Bracco), a mysterious elderly woman who recently moved into his mother’s boarding house and shows all the classic signs of being a witch; with the help of his friends and a retired, reclusive police detective (Mel Gibson), Noah embarks on a quest to uncover the truth. Read more…
MARY SHELLEY’S FRANKENSTEIN – Patrick Doyle
THROWBACK THIRTY
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
Following the critical and commercial success of Bram Stoker’s Dracula in 1992 there was a brief resurgence and interest in Hollywood for making faithful adaptations of classic horror novels. Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein was director Kenneth Branagh’s attempt to bring the classic 1818 story back to the big screen, with high production values, a star-studded cast, and a more intellectual focus on its dark philosophical themes of creation, ambition, and the consequences of playing God. Branagh himself plays scientist Victor Frankenstein, who after the passing of his mother becomes obsessed with defying death. Victor moves to Germany to study science and medicine with his friend Henry Clerval (Tom Hulce), and marries his long-time love Elizabeth (Helena Bonham Carter). Eventually Frankenstein has a breakthrough where he discovers how to bring inanimate matter to life; wanting to take things further, he begins collecting human body parts, which he stitches together and tries to bring to life. Miraculously, Frankenstein succeeds, but the resulting creature (Robert De Niro) is grotesque and terrifying, leading Victor to abandon it in horror. The Creature, left to fend for itself, struggles with loneliness, rejection, and a desire for companionship; it learns language and human behavior but is consistently met with fear and violence from the people he meets, and in time vows revenge on Victor for bringing him into a world that hates him. Read more…
PRINCE OF PLAYERS – Bernard Herrmann
GREATEST SCORES OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY
Original Review by Craig Lysy
In February of 1953, 20th Century Fox studio executive Daryl F. Zanuck came upon the novel “Prince of Players” by Eleanor Ruggles. He decided that a film adaptation of the biographical story of thespians Edwin “Ned” Booth and his notorious brother John Wilkes Booth would be an excellent vehicle for their rising star Richard Burton, who had just signed a seven film contract. Philip Dunne was placed in charge of production and provided a budget of $1.57 million, Moss Hart was hired to write the screenplay, and Dunne would also direct. The cast included; Richard Burton as Edwin “Ned” Booth, Maggie McNamara as Mary Devlin, John Derek as John Wilkes Booth, and Raymond Massey as Julius Brutus Booth. Read more…
ONLY YOU – Rachel Portman
THROWBACK THIRTY
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
Only You is a romantic comedy about destiny, love, and chance encounters, directed by Norman Jewison and starring Marisa Tomei and Robert Downey Jr. The story follows Faith Corvatch (Tomei), a woman who has always believed in fate and soulmates; as a young girl, Faith was told by a Ouija board and a fortune teller that she was destined to marry a man named “Damon Bradley,” and over the years, she becomes fixated on this name, believing that her perfect match is out there somewhere. Years later, Faith is engaged to a practical but unromantic podiatrist not named Damon Bradley, but she still feels something is missing from her life. Just before her wedding, she receives a phone call from one of her fiancé’s old classmates – a man named Damon Bradley – who is about to fly to Italy. Spurred by this coincidence and her lifelong belief in fate, Faith impulsively decides to pursue him, convinced he is the love of her life. She travels to Italy with her best friend Kate (Bonnie Hunt) in search of Damon, but instead meets Peter Wright (Downey). Peter is immediately smitten with Faith, and pretends to be Damon Bradley in order to get close to her, a lie which complicates their budding relationship… Read more…
THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE RINGS OF POWER, SEASON TWO – Bear McCreary
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
WARNING: THIS REVIEW CONTAINS PLOT SPOILERS. IF YOU HAVE NOT YET SEEN THE SHOW, YOU MIGHT WANT TO CONSIDER WAITING UNTIL AFTER YOU HAVE DONE SO TO READ IT.
Despite being one of the most lavish, ambitious, and expensive television shows in the history of the medium, the first season of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power was not quite the overwhelming success that Amazon Prime Video hoped and expected it to be. Although it quickly became the most-watched Prime Video original series in history, and although it received generally positive reviews from critics – particularly for its visuals and designs – many Tolkien purists took great exception to the fact that showrunners J. D. Payne and Patrick McKay took some creative liberties with the source material. Not only that, the show was also the victim of racist online ‘review bombing’ stemming from complaints about the casting of non-white actors in key roles, as if that matters in a fantasy setting. Such is the way of toxic fandom today. Despite this, I thought it was absolutely outstanding, one of the most impressive television productions I have ever seen. Read more…
THERE’S NO BUSINESS LIKE SHOW BUSINESS – Irving Berlin, Alfred Newman, and Lionel Newman
GREATEST SCORES OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY
Original Review by Craig Lysy
20th Century Fox wanted to showcase their bombshell star Marilyn Monroe in a musical. She was under suspension for violating her contract when she refused to star in the musical “The Girl In Pink Tights”. When they offered her the starring role again for There’s No Business Like Show Business she initially refused again, but eventually relented when she was promised a starring role in “The Seven Year Itch”, and her weekly salary raised to $3,000 a week. Sol Siegel was assigned production with a $4.3 million budget, Walter Lang was tasked with directing, and writers Phoebe and Henry Ephron would adapt Lamar Trotti’s story. A cast for the ages was assembled, with Marilyn Monroe starring as Victoria Parker, joined by Ethel Merman as Molly Donohue, Donald O’Connor as Tim Donohue, Dan Dailey as Terrence Donohue, Johnny Ray as Steve Donohue, and Mitzi Gaynor as Katie Donohue. Read more…
STARGATE – David Arnold
THROWBACK THIRTY
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
One of the most enduring conspiracy theories in the world is the notion of ‘ancient astronauts,’ which suggests that extraterrestrial beings were responsible for building some of Earth’s ancient structures, including the pyramids of Giza. This idea plays a central role in the plot of Stargate, providing an interesting twist on Egyptian mythology and history. The film is a sci-fi action-adventure directed by German filmmaker Roland Emmerich, whose previous works included the 1990 sci-fi Moon 44, and the 1992 action thriller Universal Soldier; it stars James Spader as Daniel Jackson, a linguist and Egyptologist, who is recruited by the U.S. military to help decipher a series of symbols on an ancient artifact which was discovered in Egypt many years previously. Jackson determines that the artifact is a portal – a ‘star gate’ – that can transport people across vast distances of space to another planet; following this discovery the military sends Jackson and a team of soldiers led by the taciturn Colonel Jack O’Neil (Kurt Russell) through the star gate to assess any potential threats. Once on the other side they find themselves on a desert-like planet, where they encounter a civilization that appears to be influenced by ancient Egyptian culture, and learn that the planet is ruled by an alien posing as the Egyptian sun god Ra (Jaye Davidson), who uses advanced technology to enslave the inhabitants. Read more…
MEGALOPOLIS – Osvaldo Golijov
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
In February 1997 I went to see Jane Campion’s film The Portrait of a Lady at the cinema, and I hated the movie so much that I almost walked out of it. The only reason I didn’t was because I wanted to continue to experience Wojciech Kilar’s staggeringly beautiful score in context. I had not had that experience – of wanting to walk out of a film like that, but not actually doing so because of the music – again for more than 25 years, until I saw Megalopolis, which surely ranks among the worst films I have seen since the turn of the millennium. Read more…
A STAR IS BORN – Harold Arlen, Ira Gershwin, and Ray Heindorf
GREATEST SCORES OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY
Original Review by Craig Lysy
In December of 1952 producer Sid Luft approached director George Cukor and proposed that he remake the Selznick International Film’s “A Star Is Born” (1937) with his wife, Judy Garland making a comeback to star in the lead role. Cukor agreed and the two men received the green light to proceed from Warner Brothers. Luft would produce the film, whose budget soared to $5 million due to 41 sick days and a two-week drug rehabilitation withdrawing from all the medications she had become addicted to, which extended filming to nine months. George Cukor took the reins to direct, and Moss Hart was hired to write the screenplay, which was adapted from the screenplay of the 1937 film. For the cast, Judy Garland would star as Esther Blodgett, in her first film in four years. Joining her would be James Mason as Norman Maine, Jack Carson as Matt Libby, and Charles Bickford as Oliver Niles. Read more…
THE SPECIALIST – John Barry
THROWBACK THIRTY
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
The Specialist is an action-thriller film starring Sylvester Stallone and Sharon Stone. The story follows Ray Quick (Stallone), a former CIA explosives expert turned freelance hitman, who is approached by May Munro (Stone), a woman seeking revenge against the powerful Miami crime family responsible for the murder of her parents; the family boss Joe Leon (Rod Steiger), and his son Tomas (Eric Roberts), were directly involved in the killings. Ray agrees to take the job, and begins a steamy relationship with the femme fatale May, but as soon as Ray starts targeting members of the Leon family he finds himself at odds with Ned Trent (James Woods), a former CIA colleague, who is now a security expert working for the Leon family. Read more…
Under-the-Radar Round Up 2024, Part 4
Original Reviews by Jonathan Broxton
I’m pleased to present the latest instalment in my on-going series of articles looking at the best under-the-radar scores from around the world.
This article, the fourth of 2024, covers another six scores from a wide array of genres and countries: a French period courtroom comedy, a new adaptation of a classic of French literature, two Japanese TV scores, a Chinese animated fantasy film, and a Swedish TV series remake of a beloved children’s adventure! Read more…
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