Music

CD Review: BEN-HUR soundtrack

By DANIEL SCHWEIGER 05/23/2012
BEN-HUR soundtrack | ©2012 Film Score Monthly

If the granite-jawed manliness of Charlton Heston made him the anointed prince of Hollywood widescreen pictures with THE BIG COUNTRY, 55 DAYS AT PEKING and THE AGONY AND THE ECSTASY, then it was Miklos Rozsa’s ability to fill the screen with equally rapturous melody that turned him into epic court composer of KNIGHTS OF THE ROUND TABLE, KING OF KINGS and SODOM AND GOMORRAH. And while Heston and Rozsa would get in the Spanish saddle together for the mighty EL CID nothing would match the other teaming of these two larger-than-life talents like 1959’s BEN-HUR, the eleven Oscar-winning picture (including […]Read On »


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CD Review: THE WAR OF THE BUTTONS soundtrack

By DANIEL SCHWEIGER 05/22/2012
THE WAR OF THE BUTTONS soundtrack | ©2012 Music Box Records

Cute kids go to fake war again in the fourth adaptation of Louis Pergaud’s 1912 novel THE WAR OF THE BUTTONS (LA NOUVELLE GUERRE DES BOUTONS), which was first made in France in 1962 before having its non-violent action moved to the Irish countryside for a 1994 version. Then in 2011, the story traveled back to its country of origin twice, which might be some kind of record for retelling the same story. For director Christophe (LES CHOIRISTES) Barratier’s version, Gallic composer Philippe Rombi takes up the musical charge from Jose Berghmans, Rachel Portman and Klaus Badelt with a score […]Read On »


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CD Review: NOWHERE TO RUN soundtrack (3,000 edition)

By DANIEL SCHWEIGER 05/21/2012
NOWHERE TO RUN soundtrack | ©2012 Perseverance Records

Jean-Claude Van Damme would get one of his best starring roles in this successful, if now relatively unsung 1993 film that sees his ex-con step into Shane-like shoes (via motorcycle), taking on the evil mining barons out to murderously toss out attractive homesteader Rosanna Arquette and her kids. RUN‘s impressively subdued and intelligent handling can be squarely credited to director Robert Harmon, who wisely reteamed here with his HITCHER composer Mark Isham. Where the composer had handled that picture’s visceral atmosphere with ethereal, electronic tones, NOWHERE TO RUN saw Isham significantly beef up his approach with the weight of a […]Read On »


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CD Review: TITANIC soundtrack (2CD Anniversary Edition)

By DANIEL SCHWEIGER 05/20/2012
TITANIC soundtrack | ©2012 Sony Classical

“My Heart Will Go On,” and on and on and on with the popularity of the most waterlogged movie to win Best Picture, especially for the concurrent 100th anniversary of the ship’s sinking and the 15th years since the movie’s release. So what better time to make hay of all things musically TITANIC than with multiple releases of its Oscar-winning score and song? While a four-disc soundtrack set offers copious source music and extra instrumentals, chances are TITANIC non-fanatics will be more than sated with this 2CD anniversary edition, which contains the lion’s share of Horner’s score, and, of course, […]Read On »


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CD Review: GALAXY QUEST soundtrack (3,000 edition)

By DANIEL SCHWEIGER
GALAXY QUEST soundtrack | ©2012 La La Land Records

If there was ever a geek desert island movie, and score, then it would be 1999’s GALAXY QUEST. Beyond its brilliant high-concept of throwing Classic Trek’s “ has-been actors into a real outer space adventure, what made the movie work was just how much love it really had for Kirk and company- a determination to make the premise anything but a shabbily extended SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE skit. For with just a few less degrees of satire, one could actually, almost buy these actors being on a spiffed-up Enterprise bridge, fighting Gorn to David Newman’s trumpeting theme for a cult TV […]Read On »


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CD Review: CASA DE MI PADRE soundtrack

By DANIEL SCHWEIGER 05/08/2012
CASA DE MI PADRE soundtrack | ©2012 Lakeshore Records

It’s one thing to do a clever spoof of an inane genre, but it’s a whole other feat to pull off a soundtrack that’s at once the real musical deal (en Espanol no less) while letting the listener know its tongue is firmly planted in its ear. Will Ferrell’s hilarious “Mexican” movie pulls this feat off on all fronts, particularly with this song/ score compilation that leads with the one-two punch of having Kris Kristoferson’s narration jump into Christina Aguilera’s full-blast title ballad. The earnest, well-produced tune jokes keep on coming, from El Puma’s Spanish spin on “A Whiter Shade […]Read On »


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CD Review: I WAS A TEENAGE WEREBEAR soundtrack

By DANIEL SCHWEIGER 05/06/2012
I WAS A TEENAGE WEREBEAR soundtrack | ©2012 Buysoundtrax Records

First there was a CHILLERAMA album dedicated to Bear McCreary’s shit-kicking score for the ZOM-B MOVIE segment. Now Buysoundtrax continues the love for this Troma-esque drive-in goof by going from the funkily scatological to the absolutely gay 50’s tunes of I WAS A TEENAGE WEREBEAR. Director and co-songwriter Tim Sullivan goes for a LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS meets GREASE vibe, as put through the ROCKY HORROR raunchy double entendre wringer for this teenage coming out tale that would likely have made Michael Landon blush. Yet WEREBEAR‘s tunes are far more cute fun than anything else, with numbers like “Love Bit […]Read On »


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CD Review: THE LORAX soundtrack

By DANIEL SCHWEIGER 05/04/2012
THE LORAX soundtrack | ©2012 Varese Sarabande Records

He had to jump from classical tunes to pop standards and his own manic melodies within the space a half second while playing the likes of Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck. Yet somehow, composer Carl Stalling’s job of melodically tying his toon music together looks positively relaxed when compared to the frantically ironic humor of today’s ADD animated pictures. But if there’s one of today’s composing generation who’s inherited the Stalling crown with a modicum of style and invention, let alone sanity, then it would be John Powell. With thrillingly manic scores for the likes of ROBOTS and two HAPPY […]Read On »


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CD Review: PLANET OF THE APES soundtrack (3,500 edition)

By DANIEL SCHWEIGER 05/01/2012
PLANET OF THE APES soundtrack | ©2012 La La Land Records

Danny Elfman has often played primal aggressiveness for director Tim Burton in such rampaging scores as SLEEPY HOLLOW and MARS ATTACKS. But none of their collaborations would grab the composer’s furious instincts like Burton’s redo for PLANET OF THE APES. Sure Jerry Goldsmith had the percussive idea first when he accompanied Charlton Heston into The Forbidden Zone, but leave it to Danny Elfman to run rampant with those animalistic beats and ethnic wind instruments. While the orchestra is ever present here, it’s a swirling, unbound beast, with anything resembling pleasant melody hosed down in a cage until the climax. Grinding, […]Read On »


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CD Review: HAYWIRE soundtrack

By DANIEL SCHWEIGER 04/30/2012
HAYWIRE soundtrack | ©2012 Silva Screen Records

When Steven Soderbergh wants minimally surreal rhythms, he usually phones such eccentric operatives as Cliff Martinez (TRAFFIC) and Thomas Newman (ERIN BROKOVICH). Yet there’s only one musical agent he calls upon for his truly funky, mass audience-intended movies, and that’s British rocker David Holmes, the 007 with a license to kill it with his retro vibes for OUT OF SIGHT and three OCEANS pictures. While Holmes channeled 60’s r & b and 70’s Euro-sploitation vibes for those hustlers and con artists, the hit girl of HAYWIRE gets a groove that’s suitably more Roy Budd, channeling the lounge pop meditations of […]Read On »


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