Archive
ARMORED – John Murphy
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
An action thriller directed by Nimród Antal and starring Matt Dillon, Jean Reno and Laurence Fishburne, Armored is a story about a guard for an armored truck company who is coerced by his veteran co-workers to steal a truck containing $42 million, with deadly consequences. The score for the film is by British composer John Murphy, whose stock in Hollywood continues to rise off the back of successful films such as Guess Who, 28 Days Later and this year’s Last House on the Left.
Murphy’s music is a workmanlike modern urban thriller score, filled with electronic grooves and synth pulses, atop a standard string orchestra to humanize the sound. The opening “Morning” is actually quite good, with a recurring three-note string motif overlaid by sexy electronic tones Read more…
THE LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT – John Murphy
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
A remake of the classic Wes Craven horror movie from 1972, this new version of The Last House on the Left is directed by Dennis Iliadis and stars Tony Goldwyn, Monica Potter and Garret Dillahunt. Like its predecessor, it examines the lengths reasonable people will take when placed in a life-or-death situation, and explores the human psyche, and its capacity for violence under extreme duress. The basic plot revolves around the suburban Collingwood family – Mom, Dad, daughter Mari – and the disintegration of the family unit that occurs when Mari is kidnapped, attacked and left for dead by a group of violent strangers who take refuge at the Collingwoods’ isolated summer home. Read more…
SUNSHINE – John Murphy and Underworld
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
A daring and somewhat cerebral sci-fi action movie from director Danny Boyle, based on the novel by Alex Garland, Sunshine stars Cliff Curtis, Cillian Murphy and Michelle Yeoh as part of a team of astronauts who, fifty years in the future, embark on a dangerous and potentially suicidal mission: to attempt to re-ignite the Sun, whose internal energy has been slowly dying, and as a result is also a threat to all life on Earth. It’s a fascinating premise – sort of like the flip side to Armageddon – but which was not entirely successful, with some critics citing its pseudo-religious overtones and slightly mis-handled action scenes as stumbling blocks on the way to success. Read more…
28 WEEKS LATER – John Murphy
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
28 Weeks Later is the sequel to Danny Boyle’s nightmarish 2002 horror movie 28 Days Later, this time directed by Juan Carlos Fresnadillo and starring Robert Carlyle, Rose Byrne, Jeremy Renner, Harold Perrineau and Catherine McCormack. Set in the immediate aftermath of the horrific ‘Rage’ virus that either wiped out the majority of Britain’s population or turned them into rabid zombies, it tells the story of a family of survivors who were neither killed nor ‘infected’, and their efforts to re-integrate into a similarly uninfected community being protected by US and NATO troops, while all the while avoiding the still ever-present threat posed by the remaining plague zombies. Read more…
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