Archive
BRIDGE TO TERABITHIA – Aaron Zigman
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
Since first emerging as a film music composer in 2002, with his score for John Q, Aaron Zigman has quickly – and somewhat unexpectedly – become a film music everyman, this decade’s version of John Debney, Marc Shaiman or Randy Edelman: a composer who can be relied upon to deliver the goods with the minimum of fuss, but never really drawing attention to himself or his work in the wider world. In 2006 alone Zigman scored an astonishing six movies, including the moderately successful Step Up, Take the Lead and ATL, and shows no sign of slowing down in 2007, with three fairly major studio assignments already in the first couple of months of the year. The second of this trio is Bridge to Terabithia, a new fantasy adventure based on the popular novel by Katherine Paterson. Read more…
BREACH – Mychael Danna
Original Review by Clark Douglas
You have to admire a film that manages to underplay the greatest security breach in U.S. history. Those who follow the news will remember the arrest of F.B.I. Agent Robert Hanssen, who was found guilty of giving top-secret information to the Russians and compromising the safety of all sorts of things, many of them too secret to be revealed. The story could have easily been turned into a sensational thriller full of all sorts of shocking elements, but “Breach” isn’t interested in that. It places all the cards on the table from the very start, taking away suspense and tension and offering the chance to view a carefully designed character study. The trade-off is more than acceptable. Read more…
L’ULTIMO DEI CORLEONESI – Ennio Morricone
Original Review by Clark Douglas
If composers were construction workers, I’m pretty sure that I would want Ennio Morricone to build my house. There is not another composer working today who is as reliable and consistent as Morricone, no one who creates such excellent and admirable music on such a regular basis. At his best, Morricone takes us to the heights of musical ecstasy, showing us levels of beauty that we had previously only fantasized about. At his worst, Morricone writes difficult, challenging, harsh music that is easy to admire but incredibly difficult to listen to. Even if you hate the album, you have a hard time saying anything bad about it, because it’s done so well. Read more…
NORBIT – David Newman
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
Pity David Newman. No other working composer in Hollywood today has such a disparity between the size of his composing talent and the quality of the films he is asked, or agrees, to score. It has not always been this way. In late 80s and early 1990s, he scored a succession of generally well-regarded highbrow comedy films such as Throw Momma from the Train, Heathers, The War of the Roses, and even the occasional quality drama, like Hoffa in 1992. His career trajectory finally seemed to be taking an upward turn following his double Oscar nomination for Anastasia in 1997, but since then he has found himself in a continual and inexplicable rut, scoring the most inane comedies Hollywood has to offer: the likes of Daddy Day Care, Death to Smoochy and Monster-in-Law. Once in a while something comes along which briefly makes you think he might have turned a corner – Ice Age, or Serenity, for example – but before you know it he’s back again, scoring the new Eddie Murphy comedy. Which brings us to Norbit. Read more…
HANNIBAL RISING – Ilan Eshkeri, Shigeru Umebayashi
Original Review by Clark Douglas
I don’t believe I’ve ever seen a franchise fall as far as this one. “Silence of the Lambs” is often unfairly labeled a horror film, it is so much more than that. It’s a brilliant character study featuring one of the most fascinating characters ever to grace the movie screen. Hannibal “The Cannibal” Lecter, as played by Anthony Hopkins, was nothing short of pure evil, magnetic and seductive, a layer of intelligent charm covering the terrifying monster underneath. When Hopkins played the role in two sequels, “Hannibal” and “Red Dragon”, the character lost a bit of fascination, but watching Hopkins play the character was so enjoyable that those movies were tolerable, particularly “Red Dragon”. Read more…
DE FORTABTE SJÆLES Ø/ISLAND OF LOST SOULS – Jane Antonia Cornish
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
In such a crowded market as the today’s international film music world, it’s difficult to make a splash. Hundreds of films are released each year, many of which never make any kind of box office impact or draw any kind of press, positive or negative. The vast majority of these undiscovered films have scores by jobbing composers, looking to make a name for themselves, looking to be attached to that one, golden movie which can launch a career. One such film is the Danish supernatural fantasy-adventure “De Fortabte Sjæles Ø”, better known internationally as Island of Lost Souls, which could very well be the break-out score for the comparatively little known English composer Jane Antonia Cornish. Read more…
BECAUSE I SAID SO – David Kitay
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
A romantic comedy which is one part sweet and entertaining, yet one part highly irritating, director Michael Lehmann’s chick flick was one of the successes of the early part of the year. Mandy Moore stars as Milly Wilder, a young chef whose lackluster love life is cause for concern for her overbearing, overprotective mother Daphne (Diane Keaton); so, in a last-ditch attempt to finally find a dream husband for her daughter, Daphne begins auditioning potential suitors, and forces straight-laced architect Jason (Tom Everett Scott) in Milly’s direction.
Meanwhile, and without Daphne’s knowledge, Milly begins dating jazz musician Johnny (Gabriel Macht) – the polar opposite of Jason, but in whom Milly sees a future… Read more…
SMOKIN’ ACES – Clint Mansell
Original Review by Clark Douglas
Yet another Tarantino-inspired crime flick, Joe Carnahan’s “Smokin’ Aces” is one of the more wildly diverse motion pictures I’ve seen this year. It’s like channel surfing, and the only thing all the channels have in common is that they are violent and full of profanity. Otherwise, the tone flops all over the place… broad comedy, subtle comedy, brutal action, morality tale, anti-morality tale, mystery, drama… ultimately, the movie shoots off it’s climax too early and becomes too confused for it’s own good. Despite solid turns from the likes of Ryan Reynolds and Jeremy Piven, and an otherwise strong supporting cast, it’s just a big mess of a movie. Read more…
EPIC MOVIE – Edward Shearmur
Original Review by Clark Douglas
Does anybody else remember when this sort of movie used to be funny? There was once a time where these silly spoofs of movie genres were guaranteed to offer a few good laughs at worst, and a hysterical time at the movies at best. I suppose the 70’s and 80’s were the heyday for this kind of movie… I’m talking about stuff from Mel Brooks and the Zucker crew like “Young Frankenstein”, “Blazing Saddles”, “Silent Movie”, “Airplane”, “The Naked Gun”, and “Spaceballs”. There were even some okay ones in the 90’s, the first “Scary Movie” was pretty funny. I thought that “Date Movie” was the absolutely worst of these ever to be released, but that has now been topped by “Epic Movie”, which hasn’t got a funny bone in it’s body. Read more…
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…
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