SLEEPY HOLLOW – Danny Elfman
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
Good news, folks! Danny Elfman is back with a vengeance, delivering a score for Tim Burton’s Sleepy Hollow which will have fans nostalgic for the Batman days and those in love with his new, more mature works shaking with delight in equal measure. Tim Burton has, of course, always been the greatest musical inspiration for Danny Elfman, who wrote four of the finest scores of his career for his films: Beetlejuice, Batman, Edward Scissorhands and The Nightmare Before Christmas. Sleepy Hollow not only joins that illustrious list of credits, but in many ways surpasses it, because despite not being as thematically memorable, the new score is certainly the most satisfying in terms of orchestration, cue construction and intelligence. Read more…
THE WORLD IS NOT ENOUGH – David Arnold
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
The nineteenth James Bond film, The World Is Not Enough, is significant for two reasons. Firstly, it marks the only the third occasion in history that the same actor – Pierce Brosnan – has returned to play Bond for a third time. It also heralds the “official” handing over of the Bond reins from John Barry to David Arnold who, after receiving critical acclaim for his last Bond score Tomorrow Never Dies, becomes the first ever composer to score more than one Bond movie – with the exception of Barry himself, of course. Read more…
POKÉMON: THE FIRST MOVIE – Ralph Schuckett, John Lissauer, John Loeffler
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
There are a few things that decent, upstanding members of society don’t admit to having in polite company. Chronic flatulence is one. An illegitimate love child living in Mexico might be another. The third, and possibly worst of all, might be a liking for anything to do with Pokémon, those horrendous little Japanese things that children the world over have taken to collecting. It fills me with pride to say that, to date, I have never seen an episode of the Pokémon cartoon series, except for perhaps a couple of stupefied minutes when channel-hopping. I am also fortunate enough not to have any eight-year-old relatives, and therefore was not dragged to see Pokémon: The Movie 2000 (AKA Pokémon: The First Movie) when it opened in cinemas in the UK back in April. Read more…
FELICIA’S JOURNEY – Mychael Danna
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
The mainstream musical development of Mychael Danna continues with his excellent, unusual score for Atom Egoyan’s drama Felicia’s Journey, starring Bob Hoskins and Elaine Cassidy. Based on the novel by William Trevor, Cassidy plays a young Irish woman – the Felicia of the title – who travels to Birmingham, England in the 1960s and encounters friendly catering manager Bob Hoskins, who offers her a room in his home. However, Hoskins is not all he appears to be, and soon Felicia finds herself at the mercy of an innocuous-looking monster, with no obvious means of escape. Read more…
THE MESSENGER: THE STORY OF JOAN OF ARC – Éric Serra
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
Beyond The Three Musketeers and Les Misérables, Joan of Arc’s tale is one of the few genuinely French legends to become common knowledge outside its homeland. The story of Joan of Arc has been often told in the cinema, notably by Ingrid Bergman, but never with as much passion or gusto as in Luc Besson’s new adaptation. With young starlet Milla Jovovich in the lead role and able support from a bevy of international stars including Dustin Hoffman, Faye Dunaway and John Malkovich, The Messenger is every bit an epic. Going down an unlikely route for his music, Besson again turned to his friend and long-time collaborator Éric Serra. This was his one bad move. Serra, whose musical roots are in the pop and rock fields, does not have the symphonic knowledge to be able to properly put together a score like this, and his lack of experience has sadly left him floundering out of his depth. Read more…
DOGMA – Howard Shore
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
Kevin Smith’s Dogma stirred up a lot of ill feeling in the religious community upon its release. As the director of the irreverent Clerks and Chasing Amy, Smith is never one to shy away from courting controversy, but I doubt even he could have anticipated the severe backlash aimed at him by the Catholic church. Basically, they didn’t like the idea of their beliefs being mocked but the problem (as is often the case in these situations) was that they didn’t actually bother to sit down and watch the movie before condemning it. If anything, Dogma positively encourages the notion of having some sort of faith – in God, or Buddha, or Allah, or whatever – while taking pot shots at the many hypocrites who hold a bible in one hand and a Kalashnikov in the other. Read more…
THE BONE COLLECTOR – Craig Armstrong
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
Taking films such as Silence of the Lambs and Seven as its starting point, The Bone Collector is another entry into the “thriller noir” genre, in which saturated color, rain-soaked streets and grisly murders are the order of the day. Directed by Phillip Noyce, the film stars Denzel Washington as Detective Lincoln Rhyme, one of New York’s finest forensic cops, whose career is cut tragically short when he is paralyzed following a freak accident on the job. Now the recipient of round the clock care and confined to his state of the art apartment-cum-hospital, Rhyme’s skills are unexpectedly called upon once more after a beat cop named Amelia Donaghy (Angelina Jolie) discovers a murder victim within an elaborately staged crime scene. Uncovering her untapped potential for forensics, Rhyme urges Amelia to be his feet on the ground while he, with his intellect still very much intact, tries to piece together the clues and identify the murderer before he takes more victims. Read more…
LA LEGGENDA DEL PIANISTA SULL’OCEANO/THE LEGEND OF 1900 – Ennio Morricone
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
To date, the critical reception for Ennio Morricone’s score The Legend of the 1900 has been completely positive. To quote from James Southall’s superlative review at Movie Wave, “once in a while there comes a score blessed with the hand of genius; so good it makes you feel privileged to be listening to it, so good it makes you feel proud to just be alive at the same time as the composer.” At this moment I’d like to apologize to all the film score fans across the world who hold the score in that same high esteem because now, to continue with a seafaring analogy, I’m going to rock the boat. Read more…
PRINCESS MONONOKE – Joe Hisaishi
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
Japanese Anime – or Manga, as it is often mistakenly referred to in this country – has been the subject of something of a boom in recent years. Until the release of respected films such as Roujin Z, Space Adventure Cobra, Legend of the Overfiend, Wings of Honneamise and Akira, Japanese animation was widely regarded as merely being the stuff of Saturday morning kids shows: badly dubbed adventure cartoons starring wide-eyed characters surrounded by garishly colorful backgrounds. Since the genre’s migration west, big-screen Anime has slowly built up a devoted cult following, and has become a highly respected art form in its own right. Princess Mononoke, which is hitting these shores two years after it broke all the domestic box-office records, is touted as being the genre’s pinnacle. Read more…
HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL – Don Davis
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
In the annals of horror movie history, House on Haunted Hill will surely go down as one of the worst efforts the 1990s had to offer. The genre having been revitalized by the Scream phenomenon, House on Haunted Hill is the epitome of everything the savvy protagonists of Wes Craven’s movie decried. It is a film populated by stupid people who say and do stupid things at the wrong time. It has a director who mistakes gratuitous gore and “shock” sound effects for fright, and a screenwriter with no sense of reality or common sense. Ultimately, the film is a disaster from start to finish, with only the special effects crew – and Don Davis – emerging with anything resembling an intact reputation. Read more…
PAN TADEUSZ – Wojciech Kilar
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
The vast majority of Wojciech Kilar’s work remains undiscovered by the film music public at large. Despite having written music for well over 100 films during a career which started in 1959, only four of these have been in the English language: Bram Stoker’s Dracula, Death and the Maiden, The Portrait of a Lady and The Ninth Gate. As a result, a huge amount of music written by Kilar for European (and especially Polish) cinema has passed by without the slightest hint of recognition. A couple of domestic albums and compilations of his work exist, albeit on rather obscure labels which make obtaining them somewhat difficult, but those whose opinion of Kilar and his work are based solely on his American projects would do well do seek them out. There are many, many gems to be found. Read more…
CRAZY IN ALABAMA – Mark Snow
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
Another actor cashing in on a currently in-vogue trend by turning his hand at direction is heartthrob Spanish thespian Antonio Banderas, who has cast his wife Melanie Griffith in the lead role of his unlikely debut, Crazy In Alabama. The film is a comedy-drama based on the novel by Mark Childress, and tells the story of a backwoods Alabama boy named Peejoe (Lucas Black), whose life is altered dramatically when he gets an education in life from his glamorous, eccentric Aunt Lucille (Griffith), who herself has escaped from her abusive husband to pursue her dream of Hollywood TV stardom. The film also features supporting performances from an unlikely group of actors, including David Morse, Cathy Moriarty, Rod Steiger, 70s heartthrob Robert Wagner, novelist Fannie Flagg, rock legend Meatloaf and film directors Paul Mazursky and Randal Kleiser. Read more…
THE STRAIGHT STORY – Angelo Badalamenti
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
Having regard to a track record that includes such brilliantly off-the-wall films as Eraserhead, Blue Velvet, Wild At Heart and the Twin Peaks TV series, one would have never expected director David Lynch to craft such a beautiful, poignant, heart-warming movie as The Straight Story. Although the title is something of a pun, and although Lynch has never made one before, this is a completely straightforward story about a man named Straight, who leaves his slightly backward daughter at home in Iowa and travels across the American Midwest to Wisconsin on a converted lawn mower to see his estranged brother before one of them dies. Read more…
ARISTOCRATS – Mark Thomas
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
The BBC have always been good at costume dramas. Whether it be Jane Austen or Emily Brontë or Charles Dickens or William Shakespeare, the Brits lead the way in showing the world how to lace up a corset, adopt a regal tone and keep a respectful distance from your potential suitors. The BBC are also good at television music. In recent years, established composers such as Carl Davis, Geoffrey Burgon and Jim Parker have rubbed shoulders with talented new names such Richard G. Mitchell, Murray Gold and Julian Nott in composing some of the finest television music around. In my opinion, Aristocrats marks the absolute pinnacle in BBC television music, and is by far the best score to emerge from Auntie’s vaults in years. Read more…
RANDOM HEARTS – Dave Grusin
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
Despite having written some truly lovely orchestral scores in his career, notably Havana and On Golden Pond, Dave Grusin’s first love is and always will be jazz. In the liner notes for this release of his score for Random Hearts, Grusin muses that “no-one loves romantic music more than Sidney Pollack”, but it was felt that on this project he was “looking for something a little more lean and stark” than on their other nine collaborations. A consummate craftsman, Grusin responded with an intriguing, engaging jazz score. Random Hearts stars Harrison Ford and Kristin Scott-Thomas, two secure professional people in fulfilling relationships whose lives are torn apart when their respective partners are killed in the same plane crash. It soon transpires that, unbeknown to Ford and Thomas, his wife and her husband were having an affair with each other, a fact which, when combined with the sense of grief and betrayal felt by the surviving spouses, gradually draws them together. Part tragedy, part melodrama, part romance, Random Hearts sounds great on paper but, unfortunately, failed to set the box office alight, instead ending up as Harrison Ford’s first major flop in over a decade. Read more…
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