Reviews

CD Review: GORKY PARK soundtrack

By DANIEL SCHWEIGER 12/29/2014
GORKY PARK soundtrack | ©2014 Intrada Records

James Horner’s career was taking off in 1983, due to a dynamic signature sound that often meshed impactful percussion with richly thematic melodies that paid homage to such modern classical Russian masters as Prokofiev and Tchaikovsky. So it was fitting that Horner’s music would journey to their Motherland with GORKY PARK, its unique story (by NIGHTWINGS‘ killer bat author Martin Cruz Smith) pitting a Soviet cop against a murderous American capitalist pig, with furry sables as the MacGuffin behind a skinned face triple slaying. One need not dig far to turn up Horner’s usual, impactful suspects with a score that […]Read On »


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Movie Review: AMERICAN SNIPER

By ABBIE BERNSTEIN 12/28/2014
AMERICAN SNIPER movie poster | ©2014 Warner Bros.

Rating: R Stars: Bradley Cooper, Sienna Miller, Jake McDorman, Luke Grimes Writer: Jason Hall, based on the book by Chris Kyle with Scott McEwen & Jim DeFelice Director: Clint Eastwood Distributor: Warner Bros. Release Date: December 25, 2014 In AMERICAN SNIPER, Bradley Cooper portrays Chris Kyle, so far the deadliest sharpshooter in U.S. military history. As a Navy SEAL, Kyle made an estimated 160 kills in his four tours of duty in Iraq. As a bare-bones premise, this could have gone any which way. Based on the book by the real Kyle with Scott McEwen & Jim DeFelice, Jason Hall’s […]Read On »


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CD Review: LES PASSAGERS soundtrack (500 edition)

By DANIEL SCHWEIGER
LES PASSAGERS soundtrack | ©2014 Music Box Records

What Americans among us would have known that the first adaptation of popular thriller novelist Dean R. Koontz (written as SHATTERED under the pseudonym of K.R. Dwyer) was done for a French movie? But then, who’d have realized that its composer Claude Bolling wasn’t the first musician in the driver’s seat for a movie that ultimately appeared on our shores as THE INTRUDERS in 1977. But thanks to this intriguing Music Box Records release, both musical takes are out there to savor for as the road got paved for far better known Koontz movies as HIDEAWAY and WATCHERS. But there’s […]Read On »


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CD Review NO GOD, NO MASTER soundtrack

By DANIEL SCHWEIGER 12/27/2014
NO GOD, NO MASTER soundtrack | ©2014 Varese Sarabande Records

The anarchist movement in the early 1900s and the mass deportations its bomb-planting extremists inspired remain obscure, in spite of their lessons being more relevant today than ever in a society willing to do anything to stop terrorists in their midst. It’s a tragic, dramatic importance that infuses this historical drama, whose ambitious scope is given immense, tragic power by Nuno Malo’s score. With a sweeping, symphonic talent that actually made us musically believe in THE CELESTINE PROPHECY, the Portuguese composer take on affecting images of poverty-oppressed Italian immigrants struggling, some violently, for a new life in a land that’s […]Read On »


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Movie Review: UNBROKEN

By ABBIE BERNSTEIN 12/26/2014
UNBROKEN movie poster | ©2014 Universal Pictures

Rating: PG-13 Stars: Jack O’Connell, Domhnall Gleeson, Miyavi, Garrett Hedlund, Finn Wittrock Writers: Joel Coen & Ethan Coen and Richard LaGravenese and William Nicholson, based on the book by Laura Hillenbrand Director: Angelina Jolie Distributor: Universal Pictures Release Date: December 25, 2014 The late Louis “Louie” Zamperini, who passed away earlier this year, was an authentic American hero. After a bit of a wild youth, he buckled down and became an Olympic running champion in the ‘30s. During WWII, Zamperini (played as an adult by Jack O’Connell) was a bombardier aboard a U.S. war plane that was shot down over […]Read On »


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CD Review: HANNIBAL Seasons 1 and 2 soundtracks

By DANIEL SCHWEIGER
HANNIBALS Seasons 1 and 2 soundtracks | ©2014 Lakeshore Records

To label the sonic nightmare that Brian Reitzell has cooked up for television’s most lethally elegant doctor-gourmand as “music” is way to simple a way of defining the wildly experimental stew of sound design and occasional shards of melody that infuse a show that by rights shouldn’t be anywhere near network television, especially scoring that could lead to seizures in more tender viewers foolish enough to tune in. But the psychological incisiveness with which Reitzell conveys the sound of insanity is like nothing else that’s ever been done within the psycho-killer genre, be it on the big or small screens. […]Read On »


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CD Review: STAGE FRIGHT soundtrack

By DANIEL SCHWEIGER 12/25/2014
STAGE FRIGHT soundtrack | ©2014 Lakeshore Records

Pulling off a musical satire, let alone one based around horror movies is fraught with a lot of unintentional peril, efforts that can go as unheard of as a bear relieving itself in the forest (does anyone remember Vincent D’Onofrio’s indie band slaughter DON’T GO IN THE WOODS?). But when it really works, as in the case of PHANTOM OF THE PARADISE and THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW, the lyrics usually satirize the conventions of rock and roll as opposed to horror. While STAGE FRIGHT is punishably guilty of that sin, it’s scattershot satirizing of every other musical form from […]Read On »


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Movie Review: INTO THE WOODS

By ABBIE BERNSTEIN
INTO THE WOODS movie poster | ©2014 Walt DIsney Pictures

Rating: PG Stars: Meryl Streep, Emily Blunt, James Corden, Anna Kendrick, Chris Pine, Lilla Crawford, Daniel Huttlestone, Tracey Ullman, Johnny Depp, Mackenzie Mauzy, Billy Magnussen, Christine Baranski Writers: Stephen Sondheim & James Lapine, music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, based on their stage musical Director: Rob Marshall Distributor: Walt Disney Pictures Release Date: December 25, 2014 Not to name names, but transferring stage musicals to the screen can be risky business. This is especially true when there are magical elements in the original, because what looks splendid done live can look either cheesy (if copied from the stage) or jarringly […]Read On »


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CD Review: THE MAZE RUNNER soundtrack

By DANIEL SCHWEIGER 12/24/2014
THE MAZE RUNNER soundtrack | ©2014 Sony Classical

Starting off his career as an assistant to Jerry Goldsmith on STAR TREK NEMESIS and THE SUM OF ALL FEARS, John Paesano has certainly been busy with DC animation, DV action and friendly children’s stuff with such work as SUPERMAN BATMAN APOCALYPSE, S.W.A.T. FIREFIGHT and ANOTHER CINDERELLA STORY. But given the chance to crush kids on a major Hollywood playing field, Paesano blazingly takes off with THE MAZE RUNNER to land in a zone of body-crushing walls and prowling creatures – attacking the opportunity with terrific excitement and character-oriented melody to boot. Where the YA sci-fi genre has given a […]Read On »


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CD Review: RECLAIM soundtrack

By DANIEL SCHWEIGER 12/23/2014
RECLAIM soundtrack | ©2014 Silva Screen Records

Israeli composer Inon Zur is a rock star when it comes to scoring dozens of videogames from LORD OF THE RINGS to EVERQUESTand SOULCALIBER, But success in one genre can often lead to a prison-like sentence from those who can’t see movie scoring talent from the sword-swing PS3 trees. Thankfully, Zur has gotten to break out with exceptional results in the far more realistic realm of child trafficking for RELCLAIM. John Cusack can certainly lay claim to that title as he keeps getting pulled back into the VOD arena as a bad guy, this time as the deceptively calm villain […]Read On »


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