Archive
CATCH AND RELEASE – Brian Transeau, Tommy Stinson
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
A gentle romantic drama starring Jennifer Garner and directed by Susannah Grant, Catch and Release follows the fortunes of young thirtysomething Gray Wheeler (Garner), whose idyllic life is thrown into turmoil when her fiancé is accidentally killed on his bachelor party weekend. Struggling to come to terms with the loss, as well as the fact that she may not have known her husband-to-be as well as she thought she did, she turns to his three best friends, Fritz (Timothy Olyphant), Dennis (Sam Jaeger) and Sam (Kevin Smith), to help her move on.
Trance music composer Brian Transeau, better known as “BT”, teamed up with Guns ‘n’ Roses bass player Tommy Stinson to write Catch and Release’s score – which, considering the backgrounds of the composers – turned out to be light and undemanding, with little or no influence from either the trance music or metal scene. Read more…
PRIMEVAL – John Frizzell
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
Possibly one of the most mis-marketed movie in history, director Michael Katleman’s film Primeval had the tag-line “inspired by the true story of the most prolific serial killer in history” – and actually turned out to be about a giant crocodile in South Africa attacking a news crew who are in town to cover the story. The film which stars Dominic Purcell, Brooke Langton, Orlando Jones and a slumming Jürgen Prochnow, was generally badly received, and did very little business at the international box office.
Composer Frizzell’s score is actually very effective and ominous, considering its tawdry subject matter, blending traditional orchestral and electronic writing with the traditional Burundian musical story-telling technique inanga chochotee Read more…
ALPHA DOG – Aaron Zigman
Original Review by Clark Douglas
If any film this year should boast an interesting “making-of-the-movie” documentary, I suspect it will be this one. Based on a true crime story from a few years ago, director Nick Cassavetes was given an unusual amount of actual case information from the prosecutors, who were hoping the movie would help bring about the capture of one of the suspects who was still at large. Over the past couple of years, Cassavetes has had a legally questionable amount of access to information surrounding this story, and while I’m not sure about the ethics involved in the creation of this film (or all the specific details, for that matter), I do know that the end result is a powerful, unflinching, yet deeply flawed motion picture. Read more…
FREEDOM WRITERS – Mark Isham
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
There have been a lot of ‘inspirational teacher’ movies over the years – from Goodbye Mr. Chips to Dead Poets Society to Dangerous Minds – and director Richard La Gravenese’s Freedom Writers is the latest to join that list. Hilary Swank stars as pedagogue Erin Gruwell, who takes up a post at a tough inner-city school, and seeks to change her students lives for the better through writing, poetry, the power of words inspirational stories about the Holocaust. A fairly well-received drama, the film also stars Patrick Dempsey, Scott Glenn and Imelda Staunton. Read more…
CODE NAME: THE CLEANER – George S. Clinton
Original Review by Clark Douglas
“Code Name: The Cleaner” is a silly, potentially entertaining little comedy that doesn’t work because it does the last thing any silly, potentially entertaining little comedy should do… it takes itself far too seriously. Let me explain. A man wakes up in bed next to a dead (fully-clothed) FBI Agent. The man can’t remember anything, and has a head wound. There’s a case with $250,000 in it on the bed. And wouldn’t you know it, there’s apparently some people who want this man to be dead, too. Now, this man I speak of is played by Cedric the Entertainer, one of the most likable comedians in the business. It’s been hard for me to pinpoint why I enjoy watching Cedric’s performances so very much, but seeing this film, I think I’ve got it: Cedric brings an infectious enthusiasm to every part he plays, even when the part is mundane and typical. Read more…
CHILDREN OF MEN – John Tavener
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
If you had asked me at the beginning of 2006 to name the working composer least likely to score a film during the year, I would have probably said Sir John Tavener. 62-year-old Tavener is as profound and well-respected a composer as can be, a darling of the classical set, a man seriously dedicated to his art, and whose deeply-held Orthodox Christian religious beliefs are the cornerstone of the 300 or so works he has written since the mid 1960s. This is the man who was chosen by the British government to write the deeply spiritual and moving music for the funeral of Princess Diana. The idea of him being hired to score a Hollywood film was about as likely as, say, Steve Reich scoring the next Spielberg movie, or Karl-Heinz Stockhausen scoring Scary Movie 5. His music has been featured in films before, but never has he written anything specifically for one. But yet, here he is, scoring Children of Men for director Alfonso Cuarón, whose last movie was Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. The world is a strange place indeed. Read more…
NOTES ON A SCANDAL – Philip Glass
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
If you’d have told me five years ago that Philip Glass, by the end of 2006, would regularly be scoring fairly mainstream Hollywood studio pictures – pictures starring people like Nicole Kidman, Johnny Depp, Angelina Jolie, Edward Norton, Cate Blanchett and Judi Dench – I would have scarcely believed it. If you had told me that each of these scores would receive generally positive critical acclaim from the film music community, and that he would pick up a myriad of Oscar, Golden Globe and other nominations for them, I would also have been skeptical. But yet, here we are, and this is exactly what has happened. The darling of the classical set, one of the pioneers of minimalism, one of the most respected composers of the 20th century has, finally, fully and wholeheartedly embraced film music. Read more…
EL LABERINTO DEL FAUNO/PAN’S LABYRINTH – Javier Navarrete
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
One of the most admirable things about Mexican director Guillermo Del Toro is how often he makes films in his native language. In addition to the popular and successful Mimic, Blade II and Hellboy, Del Toro’s other features include Cronos, his magnificent 1993 debut, and the chilling 2001 horror movie El Espinazo del Diablo, also known as The Devil’s Backbone, both of which were filmed in Spanish. Pan’s Labyrinth, or El Laberinto del Fauno, is the latest addition to his non-English pantheon, and by all accounts is his best film yet.
The film stars Ivana Baquero, Sergi López, Maribel Verdú, Ariadna Gil and Doug Jones, and is a visually stunning fantasy/horror set in northern Spain in the 1940s, in the immediate aftermath of General Franco’s victory in the Spanish civil war. 12-year old Ofélia (Baquero) travels with her mother (Carmen) to the house of her new stepfather Captain Vidal (López), which lies deep in a forbidding forest, and is being fortified as a stronghold against the last few Republican soldiers who remain, stragglers from their lost war. Read more…
PERFUME: THE STORY OF A MURDERER – Tom Tykwer, Reinhold Heil, Johnny Klimek
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
Das Parfum: Die Geschichte Eines Mörders, by Patrick Süskind, is the most successful and popular post-war novel published in Germany. Since its release in 1985 it has sold over 15 million copies worldwide, and has been an inspiration for a myriad of people in a number of creative arts. Set in 18th Century France, the story follows Jean-Baptiste Grenouille, a young man born with no personal odour, a complete lack of emotion or compassion, but possessing an incomparably keen sense of smell. After charming his way into becoming an apprentice to a perfumer, Grenouille embarks on his life’s work: the creation of a perfect scent that, he believes, will make him fully human. However, in order to achieve his obsessive aim, Grenouille begins to seduce and murder virginal young women in order to “steal” their smell. This unusual, evocative, somewhat disturbing tale has been brought to the screen as Perfume: The Story of a Murderer by popular German director Tom Tykwer (of Run Lola Run fame), and stars Benjamin Whishaw as Grenouille, Dustin Hoffman as perfumer Baldini, Rachel Hurd Wood as the beautiful Laura (the ultimate subject of Grenouille’s twisted affections), and Alan Rickman as Laura’s father, Richis. Read more…
CURSE OF THE GOLDEN FLOWER – Shigeru Umebayashi
Original Review by Clark Douglas
Watching “Curse of the Golden Flower”, I was reminded of something someone said in the documentary “A Decade Under the Influence” (I forget who)… that during the 50’s and 60’s, many directors held the belief that the kinds of movies people wanted to see were those about people who lived grand, epic lives that bore no resemblance to our own. “It’s like taking a trip to a new and wonderful place!” was the rationale. There’s a certain degree of truth there, but the flip side of the coin is, it’s often hard to identify with and care about the grand people who live in these worlds. Read more…
THE GOOD SHEPHERD – Marcelo Zarvos, Bruce Fowler
Original Review by Clark Douglas
I have to tell you, I was really, really looking forward to “The Good Shepherd”. It’s the second time behind the camera for actor/director Robert De Niro, and I loved De Niro’s first film, “A Bronx Tale”. If you haven’t seen it, do so… it’s an immensely moving and remarkably energetic piece of cinema, absolutely wonderful. With “The Good Shepherd”, De Niro has moved from tiny human drama to an epic political drama. In attempting to tell the story of the CIA’s birth, De Niro has put together a great cast, and brings top-notch production values to the proceedings. Unfortunately, he bites off more than he can chew. Read more…
NIGHT AT THE MUSEUM – Alan Silvestri
Original Review by Clark Douglas
The good thing about the arrival of “Night at the Museum” is that we won’t have to watch that trailer again. The ad campaign for the film has been overwhelming, everywhere you turn the past few months, a blurb for the movie seems to be popping up. In case you have been living in an igloo and missed the trailer, “Night at the Museum” is a special effects-driven comedy with a cast of comedy notables. That the end result is completely uninspiring can be explained by taking a looking at the “Directed by” and “Produced by” credits. Director Shawn Levy is the man who gave us the remakes of “Cheaper by the Dozen” and “The Pink Panther”, both of which demonstrated his sheer ineptitude when it comes to comic timing and skillful direction. Read more…
THE PAINTED VEIL – Alexandre Desplat
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
The winner of the Golden Globe for Best Score of 2006, The Painted Veil caps off a truly remarkable year for 45 year old French composer Alexandre Desplat. His other two major 2006 scores – Firewall and The Queen – were both met with general critical acclaim, and further cemented his position as one of the most exciting composers to emerge in Hollywood in recent years. It’s easy to forget that just three years ago he was a virtual unknown outside of his native country, and that his international stature has been built up over the course of just four or five scores. Read more…
WE ARE MARSHALL – Christophe Beck
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
Marshall University, in Huntington, West Virginia, is a fairly unremarkable higher education establishment, famous for sciences, health studies, technology and engineering, and for Billy Crystal having attended one semester there in his youth on a baseball scholarship. Unfortunately, the school is also famous for the worst tragedy in American college sports history when, on 14 November 1970, virtually the entire squad of the ‘Marshall Thundering Herd’ varsity American football team were killed in a plane crash on their way back from a game in North Carolina. Read more…
CHARLOTTE’S WEB – Danny Elfman
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
It’s a testament to how well-loved E.B. White’s classic children’s tale Charlotte’s Web is when Hollywood stars of the calibre of Julia Roberts, Steve Buscemi, John Cleese, Oprah Winfrey, Jennifer Garner, Kathy Bates, Dakota Fanning and Robert Redford agree to lend their voices to it. The simple tale of young girl named Fern who saves a pig named Wilbur from the chopping block, and who in turn makes friends with a wise a spider named Charlotte, has enchanted youngsters around the world since it was first published in 1952, and was previously made into an animated film in 1973 with songs by Richard and Robert Sherman. This new version, which mixes live action with Babe-like animal CGI, was directed by Gary Winick, and features a delightful score from Danny Elfman. Read more…
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