Archive
INDEPENDENCE DAY: RESURGENCE – Thomas Wander and Harald Kloser
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
Independence Day: Resurgence is the sequel to the 1996 sci-fi disaster movie classic Independence Day, and sees director Roland Emmerich returning to the genre that made his name, him having spent much of the last decade trying to prove himself as a serious filmmaker in other arenas, with varying degrees of success. Twenty years have passed since the events of the first movie, and in the intervening period the world has used the technology of those defeated aggressive aliens to boost Earth’s military prowess. Scientist David Levinson (Jeff Goldblum) is the man in charge of the EDS Earth Defense System, which has its headquarters on the Moon. Dylan Hiller (Jessie Usher), the son of Will Smith’s character from the first film, is a hotshot pilot in the EDS, along with his best friend and colleague Jake Morrison (Liam Hemsworth). The then-President of the United States, Thomas Whitmore (Bill Pullman), remains a close advisor of the current President Elizabeth Lanford (Sela Ward). When the alien forces return to Earth, this time with bigger and more powerful weaponry, and attempt to conquer the planet for a second time, all are called into action to face this new, even more terrifying threat to humanity. Read more…
TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES: OUT OF THE SHADOWS – Steve Jablonsky
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
I’ve been rather hard on Steve Jablonsky over the years. Back in 2004, after he wrote his magnificent score for the Japanese animated film Steamboy, I confidently predicted that he would go on to become “the next John Powell,” and follow in the illustrious footsteps of his one-time Media Ventures colleague to become one of Hollywood’s best composers. It’s true that, financially, many of Jablonsky’s films have done very well. His quartet of Transformers films were gargantuan box office successes, and his quartet of classic horror movie reboots – The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, The Amityville Horror, Friday the 13th, A Nightmare on Elm Street – all grossed more than $50 million each. Unfortunately, the music that has accompanied these films has, for me, been mostly disappointing, especially considering the wonderful heights that Steamboy attained. Parts of scores like The Island, Dragon Wars, and Your Highness remain guilty pleasures, and with the benefit of hindsight the original Transformers score has actually held up remarkably well over time, but most of the rest have been predictable and by-the-numbers, contributing greatly to the endless parade of boring Hollywood summer blockbuster scores that all sound the same and have no soul. As such, going into the score for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows, I had mentally prepared myself for another entry in a long catalogue of mind-numbing dumbed-down action scores. However, I’m very happy to report that my expectations were significantly surpassed, to the point where I can confidently say that, for me, this score is Jablonsky’s best work in almost a decade. Read more…
SPACECAMP – John Williams
THROWBACK THIRTY
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
Having enjoyed what will, in all probability, go down in history as the most successful creative period of any composer in film music history from 1975 through 1984, when he wrote the scores for Jaws, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, three Star Wars films, Superman, two Indiana Jones films, and E. T. The Extra-Terrestrial, among others, John Williams quite rightly decided to take a break. With the exception of a couple of episodes of the TV series Amazing Stories, he didn’t write anything in 1985, while in 1986 his only score was this one: the children’s adventure film SpaceCamp. Directed by TV veteran Harry Winer, the film followed the escapades of five brilliant teenagers (including Lea Thompson, Tate Donovan, Kelly Preston, and Joaquin Phoenix) who enroll in NASA’s SpaceCamp program with a view to becoming astronauts when they grow up. After meeting their instructors (Kate Capshaw and Tom Skerritt), and a friendly robot named Jinx, the kids are allowed into the cockpit of the Space Shuttle Atlantis during a routine engine test; however, a malfunction occurs, launching the shuttle into space, and forcing the inexperienced children to work together to try to bring the shuttle safely back to Earth. Read more…
THE CURSE OF SLEEPING BEAUTY – Scott Glasgow
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
The Curse of Sleeping Beauty is a Gothic horror film from Singapore-born director Pearry Teo, starring Ethan Peck, India Eisley, Natalie Hall, and Bruce Davison. A dark, modernistic retelling of the classic Grimm fairy tale, the film follows Thomas Kaiser, who inherits a mansion that has been in his family for generations – only to learn that he has also inherited an ancient curse stemming back to the Crusades. The curse surrounds a beautiful young woman named Briar Rose, whose physical form is in a seemingly eternal sleep deep in the house’s bowels, but whose mind is held captive in a terrifying netherworld which Thomas has seen previously in his dreams. Despite being visually splendid – as evidenced by the wonderful imagery on the CD cover – the film has, unfortunately, not proved to be popular with critics, opening in cinemas to muted reviews, and subsequently banished to the dreaded black hole of video-on-demand. Read more…
A LITTLE ROMANCE – Georges Delerue
MOVIE MUSIC UK CLASSICS
Original Review by Craig Lysy
Director George Roy Hill enjoyed success with the romance film The World of Henry Orient in 1964, and when he came across the novel “E=MC2 Mon Amour” by Patrick Cauvan he decided it was time to revisit the genre. He and screenwriter Alan Burns crafted the script and set about finding their cast. Renowned thespian Laurence Olivier was hired to play Julius Edmund Santorin, and provide gravitas to the film, along with the two teenage lovers, Lauren King, played by Diane Lane making her acting debut, and Daniel Michon, played by Thelonius Bernard. The story offers a coming of age romance between Lauren, a 13-year-old American with an astounding IQ of 167, and her French beau Daniel, a street wise 13 year old who loves Hollywood film and betting on the horses. They meet one day at the Château de Vaux-le-Vicomte and fall in love. Their romantic adventure begins when the meet septuagenarian Julius who tells them that if they board a gondola in Venice and kiss under the Bridge of Sighs at sunset as the bells of Saint Mark’s toll, they will be in love forever. Well, since they cannot cross the border as minors without an adult, they join together on this romantic quest. With Julius’ assistance, and after much intrigue and side steps, Lauren and Daniel finally achieve their supreme romantic moment! Although Lauren’s outraged parents take her back to America, the film closes with our lovers locked in a parting gaze, knowing that Venice ensures they will again be together. The film had modest commercial success and received mixed critical reaction. Never the less it secured two Academy Award nominations for Best Screenplay and best Film Score, winning one, Best Film Score. Read more…
THE NICE GUYS – John Ottman and David Buckley
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
A comedy crime thriller written and directed by Shane Black, The Nice Guys stars Russell Crowe and Ryan Gosling as Healy and March, a pair of private detectives in Los Angeles in the late 1970s who become embroiled in a labyrinthine plot involving a dead porn star, the missing daughter of a local politician, sinister hit men, and the Detroit auto industry, all set against a backdrop of sex, drugs, and disco. The film also stars Matt Bomer, Kim Basinger, and the wonderfully spunky Angourie Rice as Gosling’s unfazeable 14-year-old-daughter; it moves along at a breezy clip, combining buddy-movie action with a healthy helping of humor, while the nostalgic setting allows director Black to luxuriate in the Los Angeles of his childhood, when large parts of it were still sleazy and seedy. Contributing enormously to the period atmosphere is the disco-jazz score by composers John Ottman and David Buckley, Ottman having worked on Black’s directorial debut Kiss Kiss Bang Bang in 2005. Read more…
MIDNIGHT EXPRESS – Giorgio Moroder
MOVIE MUSIC UK CLASSICS
Original Review by Craig Lysy
In 1976 director Alan Parker was visiting New York on a business trip. He by chance ran into his old friend, producer Peter Guber, who asked him to review a manuscript, which was based on a true story. On his plane fight back to London he read it and became convinced that this was a story which needed to be told on film. He joined Guber and his new production company, Casablanca Filmworks, and hired Oliver Stone for what would be his first commercial screenplay. Stone delivered the goods, penning a hard-hitting, raw, uncompromising narrative full of rage, and abounding in cinematic energy. For his cast, Parker brought in Brad Davis to play Billy Hayes after negotiations with Richard Gere broke down. Joining him would be John Hurt as Max, Paolo Bonacelli as Rifki, Irene Miracle as Susan, Randy Quaid as Jimmy Booth, and Paul L. Smith as Hamidou. They would shoot the film in Malta, as the Turkish government was decidedly hostile to the project. The true-life story reveals American college student Billy Hays on holiday in Istanbul with girlfriend Susan. Quite stupidly, he straps 2 kg of hashish to his torso, which he intends to smuggle back to the United States. However, Turkey is on a terrorist alert after a recent hijacking, and he is caught when they frisk him as he prepares to board the plane. He is arrested and humiliated with a strip search. A mysterious American named Tex enters the scene and encourages Billy to cooperate with the investigation for a lesser sentence. Billy agrees and fingers the man who sold him the hashish, only to be betrayed by Tex and the Turkish police. His futile attempt to escape earns him a three-year sentence for drug possession. Later, after the prosecutor appeals the verdict, he is re-sentenced to a more severe life sentence for smuggling. Read more…
THE NEVER-SETTING SUN [SHIZUMANU TAIYO] – Naoki Sato
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
The Never-Setting Sun is a Japanese TV series, a remake of the 2009 film of the same name, both of which are based on a popular novel by Toyoko Yamasaki. The story follows Hajime Onchi, an employee of a large Japanese airline, through his work as the chairman of the employees union in the 1960s, his ascent through the company and his travels in Pakistan, Iran, and Kenya in the 1970s, and the aftermath of a 1985 plane crash in which 500 people were killed, which Onchi is charged with investigating. The 20-episode series aired on the Japanese channel WOWOW in May 2006, was directed by Toshiyuki Mizutani and Kosuke Suzuki, and has a score by the incredible Naoki Sato, chronologically the third of the nine scores he wrote in 2016. Read more…
PHANTOM OF THE THEATRE [MO GONG MEI YING] – Zhiyi Chen
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
Phantom of the Theatre is a Chinese horror/thriller film directed by Raymond Yip, starring Ruby Lin, Tony Yang, Simon Yam, and Huang Lei. Set in Shanghai in the 1930s, it tells the story of a group of theater actors who work to re-open a once grand and palatial playhouse which had been destroyed in a mysterious fire 13 years previously. The play’s director and young lead actress are in love, and have ambitions of stardom, but before long mysterious deaths begin occurring among the crew, leading some to believe that the vengeful spirits of the actors who died in the original fire are seeking revenge. Read more…
THE NIGHT MANAGER – Víctor Reyes
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
The Night Manager is a six-part TV drama mini-series based on John le Carré’s 1993 novel of the same name. Directed by Susanne Bier and co-produced by the BBC and American cable channel AMC, it stars Tom Hiddleston as Jonathan Pine, a former British soldier now working as the head concierge at a luxury hotel in Cairo at the height of the Arab Spring popular uprisings. Pine witnesses the brutal murder of an arms dealer’s mistress, and is advised by a friend working for MI6 in Egypt to flee; six months later, Pine is in Switzerland, again working as the head concierge at a luxury hotel in the shadow of the Matterhorn. It is here that Pine encounters Richard Roper (Hugh Laurie), a British philanthropist, and his entourage, including his wife Jed (Elizabeth Debicki) and majordomo Corkoran (Tom Hollander). After realizing that Roper has significant ties to the arms dealer back in Egypt, Pine is approached by another MI6 agent, Angela Burr (Olivia Colman), who has been investigating Roper for years. Angela offers Pine a proposition: to infiltrate the inner circle of Roper’s clandestine organization in order to bring him down from the inside, and avenge the Cairo murders. Read more…
TOP GUN – Harold Faltermeyer
THROWBACK THIRTY
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
Top Gun was the highest grossing film of 1986, made a global superstar of its leading man Tom Cruise, and paved the way for a series of testosterone-soaked action-dramas helmed by über-producers Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer that would dominate American cinema for years to come, and virtually define the look, feel, and sound of an entire decade. The film, which was directed by Tony Scott and written by Jim Cash and Jack Epps, follows the fortunes of Pete “Maverick” Mitchell, a brash and cocky young fighter pilot in the US Navy who – despite his disdain for authority and overall recklessness in the air – is given the chance to attend the Navy’s elite school in California, colloquially known as ‘top gun’. Once enrolled in the school, Maverick and his wingman ‘Goose’ Bradshaw (Anthony Edwards) annoy the senior officers, and come close to being thrown out on multiple occasions, but continue to excel, much to the disgust of Maverick’s rival, the arrogant but talented ‘Iceman’ Kazanski (Val Kilmer). Further complicating matters is the fact that Maverick has begun a relationship with Charlotte Blackwood (Kelly McGillis), despite the fact that she is a brilliant astrophysicist, and one of his instructors at the Academy. Read more…
THE WAY WE WERE – Marvin Hamlisch
MOVIE MUSIC UK CLASSICS
Original Review by Craig Lysy
Producer Ray Stark saw pay gold in the script and bought the film rights. He hired veteran director Sydney Pollack to direct. Casting the right principle actors was essential to the story’s success and so Barbara Streisand was cast as Katie, and Robert Redford as Hubble – a perfect pairing. The supporting ensemble included Bradford Dillman (J.J.), Lois Chiles (Carol Ann), Patrick O’Neal (George Bissinger) and Allyn Ann McLerie (Rhea Edwards). Writer Arthur Laurents created the screenplay based on his real life experiences as an undergraduate at Cornell in 1937. The story revolves around two people attracted in love by their differences, yet ultimately broken apart because of their inability to reconcile those differences. Katie is a strident and vocal Marxist Jew, while Hubble is carefree unaffected, apolitical WASP. They date and eventually marry, with her constantly pushing Hubble to excel and utilize his gift. He however settles for less, a Hollywood screenwriter where he becomes successful writing banal sitcoms. They are affluent, yet increasingly alienated. Her political activities begin to intrude into their lives as Studio executives pressure Hubble to rein her in, in light of the House Committee On Un-American Activities, which is targeting the Hollywood establishment. Well when an emotionally exhausted Hubble has an affair with his ex-girl friend while Katie is pregnant the relationship is ruptured. They divorce and years later re-encounter each other, she with militant flyers in her hand he insulated, but happy with a new wife. It is bittersweet as she relates that he was at his best as a writer when he was with her. They part, cherishing the memory of the way they were… Read more…
LEGEND – Jerry Goldsmith/Tangerine Dream
THROWBACK THIRTY
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
Capitalizing on the enormous commercial success of Alien in 1979, and the critical acclaim afforded to Blade Runner in 1982, director Ridley Scott left the world of hard science fiction for his next film, Legend, which instead embraced the mystical world of high fantasy. A sylvan story of elves and goblins, unicorns and fairies, princesses and demons, Legend was a hugely ambitious exploration of northern European folk tales and myths, woven together by screenwriter William Hjortsberg. The film starred Tom Cruise as Jack, a forest-dwelling young boy who is chastely in love with a young princess, Lili, played by Mia Sara. Together they explore their beautiful woodland home, but all is not well in the world; the Lord of Darkness (Tim Curry) has sensed the presence of two unicorns in the forest, and sent three of his goblin minions to kill them and steal their horns. Circumstances result in Lili inadvertently leading the goblins to the unicorns, and when their horns are stolen, the world is plunged into a dark, wintry nightmare from which there appears to be no return – but Jack has other ideas, and resolves to infiltrate the evil palace where Darkness resides and restore the world to its former glory. Read more…
THE JUNGLE BOOK – John Debney
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
Rudyard Kipling’s 1894 collection of short stories, The Jungle Book, has been a source of inspiration for filmmakers for decades. A series of stories about the adventures of the man-cub Mowgli, who is raised by wolves in the jungle after being orphaned as a baby, the book chronicles his encounters with the good-natured bear Baloo, the wise panther Bagheera, the seductive and untrustworthy snake Kaa, a gang of monkeys who try to kidnap him, and the menacing tiger Shere Khan, while he learns important lessons about life and man’s relationship with nature. Prior to this year, the most popular and influential version of the story was the animated musical made by Walt Disney in 1967, which introduced a whole generation to the story via popular songs like “The Bare Necessities” and “I Wanna Be Like You”. For this new live-action version, director Jon Favreau returned to the slightly more serious tone of Kipling’s original stories, but followed much of the basic plot of the animated film, while simultaneously creating staggering photo-real environments for Mowgli to play in, and astonishing CGI animals for Mowgli to interact with. The film stars 12-year old newcomer Neel Sethi as Mowgli, and features voice talent that includes Bill Murray as Baloo, Ben Kingsley as Bagheera, Idris Elba as Shere Khan, Scarlett Johansson as Kaa, and Christopher Walken as King Louie, leader of the Bandar-Log monkeys. Read more…
LIMELIGHT – Charles Chaplin, Raymond Rasch, and Larry Russell
MOVIE MUSIC UK CLASSICS
Original Review by Craig Lysy
Charles Chaplin produced, directed, wrote the screenplay and starred in Limelight, a story is set in London, 1914 on the eve of World War I. Calvero (Chaplin) is a famous stage clown who has fallen on bad times and descended into alcoholism. By chance he comes to rescue Terry (Claire Bloom) from herself, as she was poised to commit suicide. He shelters her and helps to heal her, and in so doing, heals himself, regaining his confidence and will to live. Terry falls in love with Calvero, but he believes the age difference is wrong, and that the younger Neville (Sydney Chaplin) would be a more appropriate match. And so Calvero sets off on his own, becoming a street entertainer. Terry rebounds and lands a leading role in a stage production. She is thankful for her new life and so invites Calvero to return to his first love, the stage. He agrees, and reunites with his old partner (Buster Keaton) and brings the house down with a magnificent performance. At this grand moment, tragedy strikes as he succumbs to a heart attack during the second act while Terry is performing. The film is a a truly remarkable achievement, with a stellar cast that supports his passion project. Noteworthy is the fact that in the final musical number we bear witness to the only time Chaplin and Keaton – two iconic actors – ever performed together. Read more…
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