Archive
THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA: THE LION, THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE – Harry Gregson-Williams
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
A beloved children’s fantasy for generations, C.S. Lewis’s tales The Chronicles of Narnia have been made into radio plays, audio books, and even an acclaimed mini-series made for British TV in 1988, but never before for the big screen. Walt Disney, Walden Media and Shrek director Andrew Adamson have finally managed to right this wrong, with this lavish setting of the first part of the seven-book series, The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe. The story follows the adventures of the Pevensie children – Lucy (Georgie Henley), Edmund (Skandar Keynes), Peter (William Moseley) and Susan (Anna Popplewell) – who, having been evacuated from London at the height of World War II, are sent to the English countryside to live with their eccentric uncle, Professor Kirke (Jim Broadbent). While playing hide and seek in the house one day, the children accidentally discover a doorway at the back of an old wardrobe, which transports them to a magical kingdom called Narnia, which is ruled by an evil White Witch (Tilda Swinton), and is in a perpetual state of winter. Read more…
KINGDOM OF HEAVEN – Harry Gregson-Williams
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
As the first “major” epic of 2005, much was expected of director Ridley Scott’s Kingdom of Heaven, a would-be sweeping tale of love and honor during the time of the Crusades. Orlando Bloom plays Balian, a young blacksmith in 11th century France who is in mourning having recently buried his wife and child. Into his life during this dark period comes Baron Godfrey of Ibelin (Liam Neeson), Balian’s estranged father, who has decided to make himself known to his only son. Having agreed to make a journey to Jerusalem to atone for his sins, and having finally made his peace with his with father, a battle on the road to Messina leaves Godfrey mortally wounded. As the new Baron of Ibelin, Balian arrives in Jerusalem allied to the leper king, Baldwin IV (Edward Norton), and the Lord Marshall, Tiberias (Jeremy Irons), and quickly makes an enemy in the shape of Templar knight Guy de Lusignan (Marton Csokas) – a rift made greater when Balian has an affair with Guy’s wife, Sibylla (Eva Green). Meanwhile, in the lands surrounding the Holy City, the Arab leader Saladin (Ghassan Massoud) is massing an army of 200,000 men to take back Jerusalem from the Christians who have occupied it for 100 years. Read more…
TEAM AMERICA: WORLD POLICE – Harry Gregson-Williams, Trey Parker and Marc Shaiman
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
In this post-9/11 world, where the threat of global terrorism looms overhead, where the fate of the people of Iraq hangs in the balance, and where political correctness in relation to sensitive subjects has reached fever pitch, thank God that Trey Parker and Matt Stone are around to bring everything back into perspective. The irreverent duo, who inject more intelligent humor into a single episode of South Park than most comedies can manage in a decade, have turned their satirical attention to the world of the American action movies and George W. Bush’s foreign policy with Team America: World Police. Read more…
SHREK 2 – Harry Gregson-Williams
Original Review by Peter Simons
Considering the enormous success of the original Shrek in 2001, there was never any doubt that a sequel would follow. Shrek was always going to be a tough act to follow, but somehow but the filmmakers succeeded – in fact, the results even outdo the first film. Shrek 2 has better animation, is a lot funnier, has Puss in Boots, and made a lot more money at the box office. Most of the cast returned for this sequel, with Mike Myers doing the voice of the ogre Shrek, Eddie Murphy voicing Donkey and Cameron Diaz providing the voice for the Princess Fiona. New to the sequel are Antonio Banderas as the hilarious feline Puss in Boots, Jennifer Saunders as the Fairy Godmother and John Cleese and Julie Andrews as the King and Queen of Far Far Away. Read more…
MAN ON FIRE – Harry Gregson-Williams
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
A dark thriller about murder, kidnap and revenge – and a remake of a 1987 film of the same name, which was directed by Elie Chouraqui, starred Scott Glenn in the Denzel Washington role, and featured a score by John Scott – Man on Fire is directed by Tony Scott and stars Denzel Washington as John Creasy, a former US Government operative whose life in the military has driven him to drink, and the brink of suicide. Tempted to come to Mexico by his old comrade Rayburn (Christopher Walken), Creasy takes the job as the bodyguard to a wealthy Ramos family – father Samuel (Marc Anthony), mother Lisa (Radha Mitchell), but specifically their precocious young daughter Pita (Dakota Fanning). Seeing a chance for redemption in the eyes of a young girl, Creasy grows to be a part of the family unit – until young Pita is kidnapped by a gang of ruthless criminals. Thinking the young girl is dead, and seeking retribution, Creasy embarks on a personal vendetta to seek out, and get even with, the perpetrators of the crime, whoever they may be. Read more…
VERONICA GUERIN – Harry Gregson-Williams
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
Veronica Guerin was an investigative journalist who covered organized crime for Ireland’s best-selling newspaper, the Sunday Independent. A household name, she was famous not only for her fearless reporting about the murderers and drug lords of Dublin’s criminal underworld but also for her commitment to defending the public’s right to know. As a result of her work, she received numerous death threats, and was attacked numerous times. Guerin was murdered on June 26 1996, when a man on a motorcycle fired six rounds from a pistol at close range as she waited in her car at a traffic light just outside Dublin. Her death led to Ireland’s largest criminal investigation, resulting in over 150 arrests and a crackdown on organized-crime gangs that her assassins could never have foreseen. In November 1998, a man named Paul Ward, a Dublin drug dealer, was convicted of Guerin’s murder and sentenced to life in prison. Read more…
SINBAD: LEGEND OF THE SEVEN SEAS – Harry Gregson-Williams
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
The second of summer 2003’s pirate movies, Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas, is by a long way one of the most enjoyable orchestral romps to emerge from the Hollywood studio system in several years. What’s ironic is that both this score and its sibling, Pirates of the Caribbean, should both have been written by Media Ventures alumni, Harry Gregson-Williams and Klaus Badelt. What’s most impressive is that they are as different as chalk and cheese, with Gregson-Williams treading a well-worn path of orchestral exuberance, dating back to the time of Korngold and Rozsa, and the old Sinbad scores of Bernard Herrmann and Roy Budd. Read more…
SPY KIDS – Robert Rodriguez
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
There’s a saying in Britain – I don’t know how widespread it is in the rest of the English-speaking world – which states that “too many cooks spoil the broth”. What this means, basically, is that if too many people try to take part in one thing at once, the end result can be diminished by the contributions of its many creators. This old adage can be applied to Spy Kids, an enjoyable children’s action score which is rendered just a little overly-schizophrenic through the use of eight – count ’em – eight different composers. Basically, Spy Kids is a James Bond adventure story with a difference – the protagonists are pre-teens. What some people may find surprising is the fact that it was written and directed by Robert Rodriguez, the man who previously brought the world such dark, violent movies as El Mariachi, Desperado, From Dusk Till Dawn and The Faculty. The plot is simple: Gregorio and Ingrid Cortez (Antonio Banderas and Carla Gugino) are semi-retired spies with two precocious children, Carmen (Alexa Vega) and Juni (Daryl Sabara). Gregorio and Ingrid still occasionally blast off on an adventure when duty calls but unfortunately, their sabbatical has made them a little rusty – so much so that they end up being captured by the diabolical Fegan Floop (Alan Cumming), a children’s TV show host who is planning to use an army of robot children to take over the world. The only solution? The kids to rescue, armed with a load of cool gadgets and the espionage know-how inherited from mom and dad. Read more…
CHICKEN RUN – Harry Gregson-Williams and John Powell
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
The plasticine people of Aardman Animations took the world by storm in 1989 with the creation of Wallace and Gromit, a Yorkshire-based inventor and his incredibly expressive dog, who starred in three cinematic adventures: A Grand Day Out, The Wrong Trousers and A Close Shave. Their creator, Nick Park, was thrust into the stratosphere: six years, three Oscars, and a multi-million pound deal with Dreamworks Pictures later, and the world’s first “claymation” motion picture has finally hit theatres. Chicken Run, which was co-directed by Park and fellow animator Peter Lord, is a terrific family adventure – exciting, funny, scary, and technically amazing. Read more…
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