Movie Music U.K. As Heard In The Film 2002
DEATHWATCH 
CHRIS WELLER and CURT CRESS
REVIEW COMING SOON
28 DAYS LATER
JOHN MURPHY
REVIEW COMING SOON
XXX
RANDY EDELMAN
REVIEW COMING SOON
RED DRAGON
DANNY ELFMAN
REVIEW COMING SOON
MY BIG FAT GREEK WEDDING
ALEXANDER JANKO and CHRIS WILSON
A massive hit in North America, My Big Fat Greek Wedding is one of the cinematic success stories of 2002, taking over $110 million at the US box office alone, having cost a mere $5 million to make. Adapted from the stage play of the same name and directed by TV veteran Joel Zwick, the film stars Canadian comedienne Nia Vardalos as Toula Portokalos, a dowdy Greek-American waitress working at her father's restaurant in Chicago. Oppressed by her eccentric family and facing a future where she "marries a Greek man, has lots of Greek children, and feeds them all until she dies", Toula longs for something more. This unexpectedly comes along in the shape of handsome schoolteacher Ian Miller (John Corbett from Sex and the City). Ian is everything Toula every wanted - except for the fact that he's not Greek, something which will not sit well with the rest of the Portokalos clan. And so begins a comedy of errors, as Ian and Toula fall in love and plan their perfect marriage - if Toula's family will accept her marrying a non-Greek, and if Ian will accept her family's idiosyncrasies. My Big Fat Greek Wedding is a simple tale well told, of love and romance, cultural heritage, and lots and lots of food. It's also very, very funny, a testament to the world-view and ironic observations of lead actress Vardalos, who adapted the script from her own one-woman show. Vardalos undergoes a dramatic transformation, from down-at-heel waitress to beautiful bride, and her path to true happiness is a rewarding one, making My Big Fat Greek Wedding a genuine feel-good movie. The film's genius, however, lies in its casting, featuring a number of familiar bit-part players in key roles designed to show off their comedic timing. Veterans Michael Constantine and Lainie Kazan are wonderful as Toula's parents, Kazan especially as the wife who is the "neck of the family - supporting the head, but turning it any way she wants". Andrea Martin is utterly hilarious as the demonic Aunt Voula, a woman of mouth and hair, and who delivers some of the film's funniest moments. Louis Mandylor and N'Sync singer Joey Fatone have a testosterone-fuelled knockabout charm as Toula's brother and cousin, while the buxom Gia Carides vamps it up as Nikki, the man-eating sister from hell. Musically, My Big Fat Greek Wedding is everything one would expect from a movie of this kind: in a nutshell, symphonic Hollywood strings mixed with strains of Zorba. It's also given a huge boost to Alexander "Xandy" Janko who, with the help of guitarist Chris Wilson, has finally emerged from the shadow of David Newman (for whom he regularly orchestrates) as a composer in his own right. Much of score drips with Greek culture, with symphonic dances and familiar Aegean instrumentation leading the way - on several occasions, and if he were dead, one could be convinced that Mikis Theodorakis had risen from the grave. The more romantic and tender moments are underscored with soft string and woodwind writing, embellished by Wilson's expressive guitar work, drawing comparisons with the work of Rachel Portman, David Newman, and especially John Williams' Stepmom. Ian and Toula's first date, where they embrace on a bridge, is a notable highlight, as is the fruity finale. The popular soundtrack CD, released by Sony, features eight score tracks along with several traditional Greek pieces and folksy efforts from artists such as Alexandros Xenofontos, John Tsifliklis, Eman, Nick Kutsukos, Daghan Baydur and Richard Thomas.
SIGNS
JAMES NEWTON HOWARD
REVIEW COMING SOON
FRAILTY
BRIAN TYLER
Frailty is not an easy movie to watch. It's not that it's gory, or even that excessively frightening. Instead, it asks a number of deep theological questions about faith and morality, and wraps them up in a slow-burning psychological drama that gradually cranks up the tension to almost unbearable levels. Bill Paxton, who also makes his directorial debut with this film, stars as a man known only as "Dad", a widowed mechanic in small-town Texas circa 1979, with two young sons, Fenton and Adam. A man of deep religious beliefs, Dad shatters the young boys lives when he claims to have been the recipient of a message from the Almighty himself, telling him to go out into the world and destroy a number of demons hiding in human form. As Dad's murderous spree begins, the two boys react in totally different ways: the young, impressionable Adam takes his father's word at face value, while the older Fenton challenges his father's beliefs, and actions - even if it means facing the wrath of the "Hand of God" himself. Frailty is a totally uncompromising and relentlessly dark movie, challenging the audience to question their own faith and belief. The fact that Paxton and screenwriter Brent Hanley do not pander or "dumb down" the tone of his film is to their great credit - the truth about whether Dad is a homicidal maniac or a genuine demon-slayer doing God's work is left totally ambiguous and subject to audience interpretation, even when the final reel twist is revealed. Paxton the actor is wholly believable in a difficult role, making Dad seem less like a monster and more like a man confused about his own place in the world; child actors Matt O'Leary and Jeremy Sumpter are natural and convincing - Sumpter, as Adam, provides several moment of especially bone-chilling terror which stand in horrifying juxtaposition to his angelic demeanour. Matthew McConaughey and Powers Boothe, whose encounters in the present bookend the film, are also excellent in what turn out to be pivotal roles. Paxton the director drapes the movie with a thick, overbearing visual style: much of the story takes place at night, with shafts of half-light illuminating the scenes, and atmospheric blue filters adding to the air of menace. The other major contributor to the success of Frailty is composer Brian Tyler, whose only really major works before this were a sci-fi thriller called The Fourth Floor and a Dennis Rodman movie called Simon Sez. He will make a lot of people sit up and take notice with his work - on many levels, it's an absolutely perfect score. For the most part, he underplays everything, never really coming to the fore. It's the epitome of perfect thriller music; it works on you without you noticing, subliminally raising the level of tension and dread. Tyler's music is exceptionally deep; double basses, cellos, violas, bass flutes, and electronic textures dominate most of the proceedings, adding a throaty rumble and air of menace to each scene. The main theme is dark and brooding; a sub-theme, which illustrates Fenton and Adam's previously idyllic childhood, grows more warped and twisted as the film progresses. The kidnap and murder scenes combine the eerie drone with a series of outrageous orchestral stingers which pierce like hot knives through butter, while the climactic revelations are scored with thick, velvety crescendos that seem to create more anxiety than they do relief. Look out for Brian Tyler; he's gonna be huge someday. The commercial score album, on the OCF Entertainment label, combines 50 minutes of score with three songs, by Johnny Cash and Dale Watson.
INSOMNIA
DAVID JULYAN
In the American land of the midnight sun, a murder has been committed. At the behest of a former colleague, LAPD homicide detectives Will Dormer (Al Pacino) and Hap Eckhart (Martin Donovan) travel to the isolated town of Nightmute, Alaska, to assist the puppy-dog eager detective Ellie Burr (Hilary Swank) with her investigations. But all is not well... Dormer is under investigation himself, from internal affairs back in Los Angeles, and Eckhart is potentially going to testify against him. Worst of all, though, the blazing sun, which never dims in summer, even during the twilight hours, is keeping Dormer awake, shredding his nerves and testing his sanity. The breaking point comes when, during a stakeout, Dormer accidentally shoots and kills his partner on a mist-shrouded beach. Fearing reprisal, Dormer cover his tracks and blames the shooting on the murderer - but he has witnessed the act, and uses his knowledge of Dormer's guilt as leverage. And so begins a cat-and-mouse scenario, with predator and prey developing an unusual sense of "kindred spirit", with the killer seemingly taunting the police, leaving clues as to his identity, and calling Dormer in the middle of the night, while the sleepless cop tries to track him down AND maintain his professional reputation. Insomnia is a remake of Erik Skjoldbærg's 1997 Norwegian film of the same name, reworked and transposed to the USA by hot young British director Christopher Nolan (whose previous effort, Memento, was a massive sleeper hit). The interplay between Al Pacino and Robin Williams is the centrepiece of Insomnia, the former looking more haggard and brow-beaten than he has in years, the latter underplaying his comedic persona to chilling effect. Pacino is the perfect screen cop, combining dogged determination and years of experience with a brutal mix of gallows humour and barely concealed violence. Visually, Insomnia is impressive - Nolan and DP Wally Pfister bathe Alaska in a watery half-light, adding a sense of displacement to an already surreal situation. Brief sections of this movie are reminiscent of The Omega Man in their peculiarity and pseudo-horror. Composer David Julyan continues his collaboration with Nolan and contributes a great deal to the film, following on from Memento with a similar score in terms of style, but which is given greater depth by replacing the majority of the synthesisers with a string-heavy symphony orchestra. Textures, rather than memorable themes, dominate the score. The opening titles feature moody, Howard Shore-style chords; vistas of a bi-plane soaring over the Alaskan landscape are accompanied by Julyan's elegant string writing; the eerie chase through the fog has an unearthly, ambient sound design, while others have a more urgent, thrusting tempo. Having graduated from the low-budget arenas in Following and Memento, Insomnia is an impressive development, and earmarks Julyan as a composer to watch for the future.
REIGN OF FIRE
EDWARD SHEARMUR
REVIEW COMING SOON
THE GURU
DAVID CARBONARA
Having now seen The Guru, I can safely say I haven't felt this good coming out of a feel-good movie for ages! Directed by Daisy von Scherler Mayer, whose last film Woo was a major flop, The Guru is a romantic comedy about the healing power of sex. It stars English actor Jimi Mistry (last seen in East Is East) as Ramu Gupta, an Indian dance teacher and actor who leaves his home in Delhi to make it big in New York. However, his new life is not all penthouses and fast cars, as his friend Vijay had promised... a life of waiting tables and driving taxis seems to be his future. However, when Ramu inadvertently lands a job as the lead in a skin flick, he meets the beautiful Sharonna (Heather Graham) - mousy teacher by day, porno queen by night. Unable to "perform" on cue, Ramu reluctantly asks Sharonna to impart all her knowledge and experience of love and sex in the hope that it will help his career, and the two develop a tentative relationship. However, in an unexpected twist, Ramu finds that Sharonna's pearls of wisdom come in useful when he is forced to stand in for an Indian guru at a swanky New York bash. The faddish socialites, led by the spiritually shallow Lexi (Marisa Tomei) hang on his every word, and suddenly Ramu is the talk of the Upper East Side, having been taken as a world authority on all things sexual... The Guru is a wonderful film: part comedy, part romantic drama, part celebration of all things Bollywood. Having been the world's largest domestic film market for a number of years, the Indian movie industry is suddenly big-business world wide, and Hollywood seem keen to capitalise. The lavish sets, ornate costumes, and massive song and dance sequences seen in The Guru are spectacular, and haven't been seen to this extent since the days of Busby Berkeley. Mistry, Graham and Tomei are all superb in their roles, Tomei especially capturing the vacuity of the nouveau-riche, correcting publicist when he calls Ramu an Indian to "native American". Graham too is excellent, exuding girl-next-door wholesomeness coupled with a rampant libido. The score for The Guru is by relative newcomer David Carbonara, whose past work includes the score for the indie hit Spanking The Monkey, but who is probably better known as a music editor, having worked with Howard Shore and Rachel Portman among others. As one would expect, Carbonara's score is light and breezy, with a modern percussion section, an urban beat, and a soft rock combo. The most impressive aspect of his score, though, is the way in which he mixes traditional Indian instruments - sitar and tabla and the like - into the ensemble. Rather than using them as mere colour, Carbonara gets them to actually lead the melody on many occasions, using the sitar like an acoustic or electric guitar rather than just twanging away in the background. Using sub-continental instruments in an obviously western way is a clever musical mirror of one of the film's major points - the merging of cultures and the absorption of one lifestyle into another. Somewhat surprisingly for a song-compilation, the accompanying soundtrack is actually really, really good, featuring a cover version of "One Way or Another" by Sophie Ellis-Bextor, a new version of "Just The Way You Are" by jazz diva Diana Krall, the ubiquitous "Macarena", "The One That I Want" from Grease, and a couple of Bollywood classics, including Jimi Mistry's own rendition of "Chori Chori Gori Se". Sadly (but not unexpectedly) only one track of Carbonara's work is included - "Phoolan Ka Rasta" - which features a performance by legendary Indian singer and veena player Geetha Bennett.
EIGHT-LEGGED FREAKS
JOHN OTTMAN
REVIEW COMING SOON
AUSTIN POWERS IN GOLDMEMBER
GEORGE S. CLINTON
Mike Myers returns in the third film starring as what will probably go down as the seminal character of his career - Austin Powers, International Man of Mystery. This time round, Myers must do battle with the evil Goldmember (also Myers), a disco-dancing Dutch megalomaniac who, with the help of the nefarious Dr. Evil (Myers again...), plans to pull a giant gold asteroid into the Earth. Travelling through time, Powers hooks up with his old flame from the 1970s, Foxxy Cleopatra (Beyoncé Knowles from R&B group Destiny's Child in her screen debut), and his estranged super-spy father Nigel Powers (a hilarious Michael Caine) to stop their deranged plan. Hilarity, as they say, ensues. Goldmember is probably the weakest overall movie of the Austin Powers trilogy, but the jokes come so thick and fast throughout that, through sheer weight of numbers alone, some of them hit home. Mini-Me's defection... the Mole with the mole... submarine shadow-puppetry... Scott Evil's receding hairline... Dr. Evil and the Silence of the Lambs parody... Burt Bacharach in the end credits... Fat Bastard sumo... amusing moments all, but for the most part the scatological, juvenile humour that Myers and director Jay Roach favour misses more than it hits, making Goldmember a slightly disappointing way to end a series which started as a modern comedy classic. The irony of George S. Clinton's score is that, having spent the first two movies perfecting his mimicry of John Barry's classic 60s Bond scores, he spends Goldmember aping David Arnold. Is this man ever going to be allowed to display his true voice? Admittedly, in the pre-credit sequence especially (an amusing parody featuring cameos from Tom Cruise, Gwyneth Paltrow, Kevin Spacey, Danny De Vito and Steven Spielberg), Clinton hits the nail on the head, recapturing Arnold's modernistic 90's 007 style, before it segues into Quincy Jones's "Soul Bossa Nova" for the opening titles. Later in the film, Clinton engages in a bit of Isaac Hayes blaxploitation funk for Foxxy Cleopatra, and even heads off into Neal Hefti territory by accompanying Foxxy's "shazams" with loud orchestral stingers. Action motifs from the other Powers movies are recapitulated regularly throughout, while moments of drama or catharsis feature the familiar high strings - basically, if you've heard any of Clinton's work on the other shagadelic scores, you know what to expect here, with the added bonus of some clever electronic stylings. The accompanying album, as always with the Austin Powers series, is actually rather good, with songs from Britney Spears, Earth Wind and Fire, Smash Mouth, and several of the on screen parodies including Dr. Evil's rap version of "It's A Hard Knock Life", Beyoncé's tribute to Goldmember himself, and a couple from Susanna Hoffs' pseudo-band Ming Tea - the strangely psychedelic "Daddy Wasn't There" and a modern re-working of "Alfie". Sadly, none of Clinton's score is included, and at the time of writing New Line's plans to release a score album seem to have been shelved. Anyone wanting to experience a little of his Goldmember music should make a trip to Clinton's web site (http://www.georgesclinton.com) and listen to the Audio Clip of the cue "Soul Shag". Yeah, baby!
BIRTHDAY GIRL
STEPHEN WARBECK
An offbeat, quirky British thriller, Birthday Girl is the second movie directed by young English talent Jez Butterworth, following his debut Mojo in 1997. Set in the suburban town of St. Albans, it stars Ben Chaplin as lonely bank clerk John Buckingham who, dissatisfied with the lack of romance in his life, orders a Russian mail order bride via the Internet. What arrives is not quite what he expects... the surly, chain-smoking, non-English speaking Nadia (Nicole Kidman). John realises he has made a terrible mistake and tries to return Nadia from whence she came; however, after she discovers John's liking for "alternative" sexual practices, she begins to win him over, and the two slowly develop a tentative relationship. This is shattered, however, when Alexei and Yuri (French actors Vincent Cassel and Mathieu Kassovitz), men from Nadia's past, arrive on John's doorstep claiming to be her "cousins". The two men quickly become demanding and violent, blackmailing John into robbing the bank for which he works, and initiating a chain of events that changes his life forever. It's a strange film, to be sure, especially in the way the tone shifts from gentle romance to fish-out-of-water farce to menacing thriller so quickly - one minute John and Nadia are enjoying a kinky romp in bed, the next they are in a siege situation being threatened by Alexei with a kettle full of boiling water. These giant leaps are sometimes a little ungainly, and occasionally a little disorientating, but one still has to admire Butterworth's brazenness. Having one of the world's leading actresses dress down and speak Russian for an entire movie is a bold, unexpected move, and his talent for mixing the mundane with the absurd is admirable - the staff development workshops at the bank are hilarious. And how many movies can you think of where a major set piece takes place at Newport Pagnell Services on the M1? It's also fun for British viewers to have a go at cameo-spotting - the entire cast of the surreal comedy series The League of Gentlemen make unexpected appearances. Originally, Angelo Badalamenti was pencilled in to write Birthday Girl's score, but for reasons unknown the job eventually landed at the feet of Stephen Warbeck. I can imagine that Warbeck's remit was to "lighten" the mood somewhat, probably at the behest of the studio. Whereas Badalamenti would surely have played up the dramatic and sexual tension, and made the tone of the film noticeably darker, Warbeck instead highlights the rural English setting, the romantic elements, and the inherent absurdity of John's predicament. Overall, Warbeck's work is quite light and bouncy, prominently featuring light strings, acoustic guitars and jaunty melodies. In parts, it's not unlike his score for another British comedy Fanny and Elvis - a world away from the lush sounds of his more famous works such as Quills, Captain Corelli and the Oscar-winning Shakespeare in Love. Scenes of John trazzing along through the English countryside in his classic car are scored with a light hearted whimsy, while some of the more erotic encounters between John and Nadia feature attractive, lush orchestral themes. No CD of music exists for Birthday Girl at this time - a shame, as Warbeck's score is quite delightful, and some of the soundtrack songs (which features the Nicole Kidman/Robbie Williams duet "Something Stupid", a cut by The Tremoloes, and even some Russian rap) would pad out an album nicely.
MURDER BY NUMBERS
CLINT MANSELL
REVIEW COMING SOON
RESIDENT EVIL
MARCO BELTRAMI and MARILYN MANSON
I've never really been a great player of computer games and, as such, have never ventured down the dark road provided by Capcom's Resident Evil. Consequently, the movie didn't mean much to me either, but I'm told it actually adheres quite closely to a number of plot threads from the game, and is one of the better arcade-to-cinema adaptations. Milla Jovovich stars as Alice, who wakes up in a deserted mansion and is suddenly thrown into a mission: a deadly virus has been released deep in an underground complex of the mysterious Umbrella Corporation, turning all the employees into vicious zombies. Trapped in the maze of laboratories and corridors by Umbrella's computer system, Red Queen, Alice, her cohorts Matt (Eric Mabius) and Spencer (James Purefoy), and a squad of crack commandos led by Rain (Michelle Rodriguez) and Shade (Colin Salmon), must fight their way through the zombie hordes while trying to find the antidote to the virus - and all before the Red Queen performs a complete lockdown on the system and seals them underground forever. That's it really - cue the action set pieces and gore - but whatever shortcomings the film as a whole has, director Paul Anderson (Event Horizon) certainly knows how to do tension well, with creepy cinematography and unnervingly eerie sound design. Contributing immeasurably to the latter is the throbbing techno score co-written by composer Marco Beltrami and rock star Marilyn Manson. The combination of Beltrami and Manson may not immediately conjure up a great deal of enthusiasm amongst the soundtrackerati - but wait and listen before you pass judgement! It's really not that bad. Manson's inherent musical darkness and Beltrami's film music know-how actually meld together well, emerging with a dark, chaotic, tumultuous work that throbs with electronic energy and angry power. Quite how the combination worked in terms of who did what is unknown, but Manson's fingerprints are all over the score. The four score cues on the album - 'Main Title', 'Seizure of Power', 'Reunion' and 'Cleansing' - comprise around fourteen minutes of music, and are all predominantly synth based, but each has such raw energy and unashamed in-your-face intensity they are hard to ignore. Many contain industrial and technological sound effects within the mix, and each one gradually builds up an unstoppable motion which threatens to overwhelm everything. The soundtrack album, on Roadrunner Records, features the four score cuts mentioned above, along with songs by the likes of Slipknot, German rockers Rammstein, Crystal Method, Depeche Mode, Method Man and Manson himself, with a remix of his enraged "Fight Song". Stone me for saying this, but I actually quite like Slipknot, and their confrontational "My Plague" is one of their best efforts to date.
SPIDER-MAN
DANNY ELFMAN
REVIEW COMING SOON
THE TIME MACHINE
KLAUS BADELT
REVIEW COMING SOON
DOG SOLDIERS
MARK THOMAS
REVIEW COMING SOON
PANIC ROOM
HOWARD SHORE
REVIEW COMING SOON
THE SCORPION KING
JOHN DEBNEY
A big-budget spin-off from Universal's The Mummy franchise, The Scorpion King is the latest sword-and-sandals epic to hit the big screen, further revitalising what was once considered to be a dead genre. Directed by Chuck Russell, it stars WWF wrestler The Rock (aka Duane Johnson) as Mathayus, a legendary swordsman and assassin, who is entrusted with a secret mission by the leaders of several displaced tribes. He is to enter the great city of Gomorrah and, drawing on the strength infused in him by the blood of the scorpion, kill the evil king Memnon (Steven Brand), whose unstoppable armies are sweeping across the land, destroying everything in their path. During his quest, Mathayus acquires the help of inept thief Arpid (Grant Heslov), war-lord Balthazar (Michael Clarke Duncan), and Memnon's trusted sorceress Cassandra (the gorgeous Kelly Hu), who double-crosses her master so that she can gain her freedom. As far as plotlines go, The Scorpion King's is pretty thin, and its quite obvious that screenwriters Stephen Sommers and Jonathan Hales were attaching the merest narrative thread simply to allow the audience to experience what they came to see: The Rock kicking butt. To give him his due, Johnson does have a great deal of screen presence, in the same way that Schwarzenegger and Stallone did in the 1980s. He can't act, but he can ripple his muscles with the best of them, and considering that a heroic presence was all that was required of him, his performance is a complete success. It's interesting that, with the exception of Duncan, most of the supporting cast is made up virtual unknowns: I had never seen either Brand or Hu before, but they acquit themselves well. The news that John Debney was scoring the movie was met with a great deal of joy in film music circles, not least by me. True to form, he responded with a rousing, epic action score that, while never quite attaining the splendour of his 1994 classic Cutthroat Island, nevertheless stands as a powerful piece of work. A massive symphony orchestra, augmented by electric guitars, give life and scale to the constant action - the opening sequence in the drinking den, the Mathayus/Balthazar fight, and the sandstorm fight are worth special note. The sweeping melodies that accompany the stunning desert scenery see Debney at his lyrical best; the romantic theme for Mathayus and Cassandra is lovely; and the 11-minute choral finale is one of the most stirring sequences Debney has scores for several years. If one were to try to sum it up in a nutshell, The Scorpion King score could be described as "Cutthroat Island meets The Mummy meets Kull the Conqueror". Make of that what you will. Disgustingly, none of Debney's music appears on the accompanying CD, which is instead given over to a series of moronic heavy metal tunes which - other than end credits tracks "I Stand Alone" by Godsmack and "Along The Way" by Mushroomhead - have absolutely nothing to do the movie. This is an unacceptable marketing scam of the highest order, produced solely to cash in on The Rock's WWF fan base and their taste in music. The good news is that Varése Sarabande will be releasing a score CD later in the summer. Until then, you can satisfy your cravings with the three Real Audio cues available for download from John Debney's web site.
K-PAX
EDWARD SHEARMUR
REVIEW COMING SOON
QUEEN OF THE DAMNED
RICHARD GIBBS and JONATHAN DAVIS
As much as I hate to admit it, I really enjoyed Queen of the Damned. It's one of those stereotypical "so bad its good" movies, an over-extended rock video full of young and beautiful Goths, homo-erotic posturing, and more bad accents and crushed velvet than you can shake a stake at. Despite officially being a sequel to the 1994 hit Interview with the Vampire, it couldn't be a more different movie - it's certainly lighter in tone, it's less shocking and gory, and tries to be more in tune with the disaffected youth of the moment. Stuart Townsend picks up the reigns from Tom Cruise as the vampire Lestat, who wakes from his 200-year sleep in a New Orleans crypt and, bored with his isolated existence, decides to become a rock star. Hijacking a local group, he quickly becomes a popular (if controversial) artist, the strength of his appeal resting on his "is he or isn't he a blood-sucker" status with the music media. However, Lestat's music has drawn the attention of a group of ancient historians called the Talamasca, who believe that more traditional vampires will attempt to kill Lestat for "outing" them. Even more disturbingly, it seems as though Lestat's music has also inadvertently awakened the 2000-year-old vampire queen Akasha (the late Aaliyah), whose thirst for blood and conquest could destroy the world. Although Townsend is no Tom Cruise, his performance is tortured enough to be engaging - all dark-eyed soul searching and rock star posturing. Aaliyah, to whom the film is dedicated after her death in a plane crash, has little to do other than look good in gold body paint, but her screen presence indicates that she could have had a promising career. Support comes from Vincent Perez as Lestat's mentor and creator Marius, newcomer Marguerite Moreau as love interest Jessie, Paul McGann as the head of the Talamasca, and the mysterious Lena Olin as Jessie's vampirish aunt, while director Michael Rymer drapes the film in thick atmosphere and splendidly opulent production design. The music for Queen of the Damned is part Gothic horror score, part hard rock concept album, co-written by composer Richard Gibbs and Korn lead artist Jonathan Davis. On CD, their contribution is highlighted by five original songs, written to be performed on-screen by Lestat and his band. "Not Meant For Me", "Forsaken", "System", the excellent "Redeemer" and the dramatic "Slept So Long" are each performed as cover versions by Static-X's Wayne Static, Disturbed's David Draiman, Linkin Park's Chester Bennington, Marilyn Manson and Orgy's Jay Gordon respectively. Score-wise, this is one of Gibbs's best efforts to date, whose transition from Oingo Boingo member to fully-fledged film music composer seems finally to be following the path set out for him by Danny Elfman and Steve Bartek. Mournful strings, unexpectedly good solo violin interludes (which occasionally reminded me of John Corigliano), and the wailing strains of the ubiquitous Armenian duduk are the order of the day: the scenes in which Lestat plays violin on the beach, and in front of Akasha's statue are worth special mention. Davis also lends and hand to the score with a few throbbing rock instrumentals, most noticeably in the London club where Akasha makes her entry. A widely-released song CD was released at the time of the film’s release; it features a series of angry, dramatic, atmospheric, creepy, cool rock anthems by artists such as Papa Roach, Tricky, Godhead, Kidney Thieves and others. An album containing 30 minutes of Gibbs’s score was released later.
KATE & LEOPOLD
ROLFE KENT
REVIEW COMING SOON
BLADE II
MARCO BELTRAMI
REVIEW COMING SOON
E.T. THE EXTRA-TERRESTRIAL: 20th ANNIVERSARY EDITION
JOHN WILLIAMS
REVIEW COMING SOON
THE COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO
EDWARD SHEARMUR
REVIEW COMING SOON
ICE AGE
DAVID NEWMAN
REVIEW COMING SOON
THIRTEEN GHOSTS
JOHN FRIZZELL
First and foremost, Thirteen Ghosts (or Thir13een Ghosts, as it has been stupidly re-titled in the UK) is a cheesy horror movie. It wears its cheesiness on its sleeve for all to see, and is proud of it. Director Steve Beck has taken legendary schlock-meister William Castle's 1960 classic and updated it for the millennium - with visually arresting results. The plot is basic: down on his luck widower Arthur Kriticos (Tony Shalhoub) receives an inheritance after his estranged multi-millionaire Uncle Cyrus (F. Murray Abraham) is killed. Along with his children Kathy and Bobby (Shannon Elizabeth and Alec Roberts) and friend Maggie (Rah Digga), Arthur goes off to claim his fortune: a spectacular, beautiful, isolated house seemingly made of glass. However, the notion of perfect house quickly turns sour when it becomes apparent that, deep in the bowels of the building, Cyrus has been collecting and storing the spirits of twelve highly dangerous ghosts. Released into the see-through maze by the house's internal mechanism, the ghosts begin to hunt the Kriticos family in the hope of turning one of them into the vital, thirteenth entity which will allow the house to open a gateway to hell. It's not a smart movie, or a particularly well-acted one: but the one thing that Thirteen Ghosts has in its favour is its magnificent look. This is a film which, visually, delivers on all counts. The house itself is a masterpiece of production design, a huge clockwork maze with shifting glass walls, Jules Verne-style internal mechanisms, and lots of dark, squalid corners in which to hide things. The ghosts themselves are also excellent: despite looking in part like unused Cenobites from the Hellraiser movies, the make-up effects and overall visage of the scary spooks is quite jolting: Shawna Loyer as "The Angry Princess", Herbert Duncanson as "The Hammer" and especially Shane Wyler as "The Jackal" should receive special mention for their truly grotesque and disturbing performances. Thirteen Ghosts also marks the return to the mainstream scoring fray of John Frizzell who, after reaching the heady heights of Alien Resurrection in 1997, seemed to have been on a downward career spiral of late. As is often the case, it takes a movie like this to propel a composer back into the big time, and Frizzell has delivered with aplomb. Basically, he's written a big, scary, horror score - which is all anyone could have asked of him really. The orchestra is large, the dissonance writing is actually quite complex and challenging, and some of the action sequences (especially those featuring the unstoppable Juggernaut and the nightmarish Jackal) are genuinely excellent. A full album of score is available from Varése Sarabande.
THE MOTHMAN PROPHECIES
TOMANDANDY
Based around real-life events that took place in West Virginia in the late 1960s, The Mothman Prophecies is an engaging, intriguing little thriller. Directed by the extremely talented Mark Pellington, it stars Richard Gere as Washington Post journalist John Klein who, two years after the death of his wife Mary (Debra Messing) in a car accident, inexplicably finds himself in the small town of Point Pleasant, WV. Soon, Klein hooks up with local cop Connie Parker (Laura Linney) and finds himself embroiled in a sinister mystery. Several of the town's inhabitants have been experiencing a range of strange phenomena, including bizarre telephone calls, unexplained lights in the sky, unaccountable bleeding from eyes and ears, and sightings of a huge, moth like creature... similar to the one Klein's wife supposedly saw prior to her death. Although it is based on supposedly true events, The Mothman Prophecies never plays like a movie of the week. Instead, it is reminiscent of an extended X-Files mystery both in tone and topic, with the out-of-towner investigating strange goings on in rural America. Pellington's visual style is a definite plus point of the film as a whole, and his decision never to reveal the Mothman's origins or appearance is a good one in terms of creating a level of tension that works. Richard Hatem's screenplay is intelligent, and Gere and Linney are good in the lead roles, but the acting kudos has to go to Will Patton as Gordon Smallwood, the man most tortured by the Mothman's messages. His performance combines total confusion, abject terror and resignation to his fate to great effect. The music for The Mothman Prophecies is by ambient scoring duo Tom Hajdu and Andy Milburn, known collectively as "Tomandandy", and who worked on Pellington's last feature Arlington Road, as well as Killing Zoë, Natural Born Killers and Waking The Dead. Their music has been variously described as being "ambient", "experimental" and "industrial-creepy", which could lead you to believe that its all drum loops and droning synths. Admittedly, there is some of that in there, but the standout elements are the string-based parts, created by veteran orchestrator Jack Hayes, and which sound more like Angelo Badalamenti on a really good day than anything else. In several key scenes - especially the encounters with the Mothman himself - the dissonance in Tomandandy's score brings a level of dread and unease to the film, mixing seamlessly with the work of the sound designer to the extent that one is never quite sure what's real and what isn't. The melodic work is equally excellent, deepening the mystery with low-key cello performances and rising to great heights as strings and synths perform in unison. Transitional scenes of Gere driving and striving to find the next piece of the puzzle are scored in this way, as are some of the quieter moments of reflection between Gere and Linney. The CD release, on the Lakeshore label, is unique in that is features both soundtrack and score on a 2-CD set. Disc One comprises seven original songs by psych group King Black Acid and the single "Half Light" by Tomandandy and indie group Low. The second disc features Tomandandy's score in its entirety, split into eight distinct movements.
OCEAN'S ELEVEN
DAVID HOLMES
If one could capture "cool" and embody it on celluloid, it would look like George Clooney in Ocean's Eleven. Director Steven Soderbergh's remake of the classic 1960 rat pack movie is not just cool: it's ice cold, cruising across the screen with a easy slickness and glamorous sheen rarely seen in today's Hollywood. At it's heart, Ocean's Eleven is a crime caper. Clooney plays Danny Ocean, recently released from jail and planning one final heist: to knock off the three casinos in Las Vegas owned by Terry Benedict (Andy Garcia), a smooth Mafia businessman who just happens to be going out with Danny's ex-wife Tess (Julia Roberts). To carry out the scam, Ocean employs a cadre of the best con-artists in the business: master of disguise Rusty Ryan (Brad Pitt), pickpocket Linus Caldwell (Matt Damon), British electronics expert Basher Tarr (Don Cheadle), rival casino owner Reuben Tishkoff (Elliott Gould) and ageing shyster Saul Bloom (the brilliant Carl Reiner) make up the main players in the group. Through an elaborate series of plots and scams, the intrepid eleven make it into the heart of Benedict's empire - but does Ocean really have a motive other than $150 million up his sleeve? In truth, the plot Ocean's Eleven is a thin concept on which to base a movie, but such is the sense of fun and visual delight inherent in the film that it still succeeds as good entertainment. Even back in the 60s, the movie was nothing more than an excuse for Sinatra, Martin and Davis et al to come together and goof around: the same could be said today of Clooney, Pitt and Damon, who obviously have a ball with their characters. Cinematically, the film is superb: Soderbergh portrays Las Vegas as a genuinely decadent paradise of high rollers, bright lights and beautiful people - although I'm not sure what happened to all the Mexicans who hand out porn on the Strip, or to the grandmas from Wisconsin on the five cent slots. Anyone who has been there can vouch for their existence! Nevertheless, as a good-time caper with appealing performances and a touch of glamour, Ocean's Eleven is a worthwhile attempt, and about as far removed from Traffic as it is possible to be. Irish DJ and re-mixer turned composer David Holmes, who collaborated with Soderbergh on the 1997 thriller Out of Sight, provides the original score here as well. His work is a hip and clever amalgam of modern jazz and funk, all Hammond organs a loungey horn section. The opening sequences of Clooney putting together the gang bubble with a kind of laid-back ease and down-at-heel sophistication that Quincy Jones or any other blaxploitation composer would be proud to call their own, while the heist itself throbs to modern dance beats as Holmes ups the tempo and creates a little musical urgency. A couple of instrumental performances of "Theme for Young Lovers" by Percy Faith and his Orchestra underscore the romantic entanglements between Clooney and Roberts, while a sparkling (and unexpected) rendition of Claude Debussy's classical masterpiece "Clair de Lune" from Suite Bergamesque is heard as the Eleven are contemplating the Bellagio fountain at the end of the movie. The soundtrack, on the Warner label, features ten score cuts (mostly with dialogue overlaid in them), two of Holmes' own original songs ("Gritty Shaker" and "69 Police"), as well as songs by Perry Como, Arthur Lyman and others. And where would a Vegas album be without Elvis Presley? The King lives, and he's singing "A Little Less Conversation".
SHALLOW HAL
IVY
Director brothers Peter and Bobby Farrelly are not exactly known for their taste and subtlety - which is why the sweet and enjoyable romantic comedy Shallow Hal is a wonderfully unexpected surprise. The fantastic Jack Black stars as the eponymous Hal, a generally good-natured fellow who just happens to have one major character flaw. As a result of a conversation with his father on his death bed, Hal is incredibly choosy when it comes to women, and will only consider dating those who live up to his unrealistically high standards of physical perfection. Consequently, Hal is single. However, this all changes when Hal gets stuck in an elevator with self-help guru Tony Robbins, who gives him a wonderful gift: from then on, Hal will only see the "inner beauty" of the people around him, regardless of the external appearance. Unaware of his new "reverse beer goggles", Hal thinks all his Christmases have come at once when he embarks on a fulfilling relationship with the gorgeous, kind-hearted Rosemary (Gwyneth Paltrow), the daughter of his boss. All is well with the world, and Hal thinks he has finally found his perfect woman: that is, until his equally shallow buddy Mauricio (Jason Alexander) meets Rosemary and sees what Hal cannot - that Rosemary weighs well over 300 pounds! With the reputation of the directorial duo, one could be forgiven for thinking that a comedy about obesity could be grounds for the most un-politically correct humour going... but you would be wrong. Shallow Hal is sweet and endearing; espouses the sentiment that beauty is only skin deep - its what's inside that counts; and features a couple of lovely lead performances by Black and Paltrow, especially the latter, whose eyes convey so much emotion and need for love it almost breaks your heart. It is very very funny as well: Alexander is a hoot as Hal's best pal with a dark secret down his trousers, and there are several smashing scenes of Hal and Rosemary's courtship, where Hal can't work out why chairs keep collapsing beneath his beloved, and why her panties suddenly grow to double-size when they sleep together for the first time. The Farrellys have a history of hiring pop acts to write their music scores: Todd Rundgren on Dumb & Dumber, Pete Yorn on Me Myself & Irene, and of course the hilarious Jonathan Richman on There's Something About Mary. Impressed with their work on their last two song albums, the brothers hired Ivy, a three-member post-modern pop group from New York, to write the score here. Ivy comprise writers Andy Chase and Adam Schlesinger, and Paris-born vocalist Dominique Durand, and this is their first score-composing experience (although some may remember Schlesinger as the writer of the Oscar-nominated title song from Tom Hanks's 1996 movie "That Thing You Do"). Their score is much like their album work: melodic, slightly melancholy, modern, guitar-driven, and generally enjoyable, although as is often the case with scores of this type, it is very difficult to discern the original music from the instrumental intros to the many, many songs that litter the soundtrack. It is this very issue that results in the three-star rating: its not that the music is bad, or inappropriate. It's just that you can't actually tell the score from the songs a lot of the time, and its impact is lessened as a result. Writing this review, a few days after seeing the film, I'm struggling to recall a single scene where I remember even acknowledging the existence of score music, never mind actually liking it. That must be indicative of something! Unfortunately, none of Ivy's work - either score or songs - is included on the original soundtrack, although I have to admit that the collection is actually a pretty good one: efforts from Sheryl Crow, P.J. Harvey, Shelby Lynne, Rosey and Edison Lighthouse are amongst the dozen or so 80s and 90s nostalgia pieces Island Records feature.
GOSFORD PARK
PATRICK DOYLE
REVIEW COMING SOON
VANILLA SKY
NANCY WILSON
North American remakes of European films tend never to be as good as the original: losing some of the subtleties in translation is one of the hazards of trying to entertain foreign audiences with Spanish sensibilities. Vanilla Sky is an Americanised version of Alejandro Amenábar's 1997 thriller "Abre Los Ojos", directed by Cameron Crowe and starring Tom Cruise and Penélope Cruz. Cruise plays David Aames, a multi-millionaire playboy publisher with a gorgeous pad, a car to die for, and a "fuck-buddy" in the shape of the stunning Julie Gianni (Cameron Diaz). Things change, however, when he meets the lovely Sofía Serrano (Cruz) at a party... Gianni becomes jealous of David's blossoming relationship and, in a fit of anger and self-pity, drives them both off a bridge to their death. Skip forward in time; David is in a prison hospital, his face horribly disfigured and hidden by a plastic mask, being questioned by kindly psychologist Kurt Russell about a murder David has no memory of committing. What happened after Julie's bout of madness? Where is Sofía? And why does David have recurring nightmares and bizarre visions of loneliness and terror? Vanilla Sky both intrigues and confuses as a motion picture: I personally spent much of last half of the film trying to work out what the hell was going on rather than just enjoying it as a film experience. Crowe is much more adept at handling the romance of the film, as opposed to the sci-fi and thriller elements. The spark of passion between Cruz and Cruise is plain to see, and their screen chemistry makes their relationship both enjoyable and convincing. Similarly, Cameron Diaz continues to expand her dramatic range with a scene-stealing turn as David's spurned girlfriend, while Kurt Russell and Jason Lee offer solid, uncomplicated support. It's also perhaps worth mentioning my continued admiration of Cruise for not being afraid to appear ugly on-screen. His facially-scarred performance is brave, considering his Hollywood idol status, and it is refreshing to see someone of his magnitude unafraid to do this in the cause of a film. The cinematography and design of the film is exquisite but, on the negative side, , the total exposition of the film's plot during the final few minutes is totally unnecessary. This could almost be seen as insurance that the less cerebrally-advanced audience members did not go home wondering what the hell the film was all about: another example of Hollywood dumbing-down at its worst. Musically, Crowe's film is as score-less as his previous efforts Jerry Maguire and Almost Famous. Crowe is one of a small group of directors who prefers the song-score approach to film music - which makes sense, as he is a former journalist with Rolling Stone magazine, and is married to former Heart singer/songwriter Nancy Wilson, who composes what original score is included in his films. Wilson's contribution to Vanilla Sky is minimal at best: a few guitar stylings here and there for transitional and montage sequences, most notably in the scene where David and Sofía meet in Central Park on a beautiful autumn day. Otherwise the music is all songs and, to Crowe and music supervisor Danny Bramson's credit, they are all sensible choices, each one reflecting and in some cases telegraphing the intentions and undertones of each scene. On the album, prominence is given to REM's "All The Right Friends", Todd Rundgren's "Can We Still Be Friends", Peter Gabriel's "Solsbury Hill", and tracks by artists as diverse as Radiohead, The Monkees, Bob Dylan, The Chemical Brothers, Jeff Buckley, Icelandic pop stars Sigur Ros and Paul McCartney, whose title track has been up for several major awards this year. My only gripe: that Joan Osborne's wonderful "One of Us" is not included - if one song summed up the entire film within its lyrics, this is it. One of Wilson's score tracks, "Elevator Beat", is tagged on the end.
SOUL SURVIVORS
DANIEL LICHT
Director Steve Carpenter holds a rather special place in film music history, as it was he who gave Christopher Young his first film music assignments in the early 1980s with his low-budget horror flicks The Power and The Dorm That Dripped Blood. 20 years later, and having hardly been heard of since, Carpenter returns to the fray with Soul Survivors, an interesting little horror/thriller which can be quickly summed up as "Jacob's Ladder for the teen generation". Cassie (Melissa Sagemiller), Sean (Casey Affleck), Matt (Wes Bentley) and Annabel (Eliza Dushku) are a quartet of friends who set off to University with their futures ahead of them. Escaping from the boredom of the frat house initiation, the four head off for a wild night of drinking and dancing at a Gothic party in a local disused church. However, the evening quickly turns sour, and in the aftermath of the 4-way romantic argument which ensues, Cassie crashes the car. Sean, Cassie's boyfriend, is killed in the accident - but the tragedy does not end there, as Cassie soon becomes haunted by nightmare visions of a man in a hideous plastic mask, a horribly disfigured dancer, and Sean himself, who seems to be visiting her from beyond the grave. To reveal more of the plot would be unfair... except to say that not everything is as it seems. The parallels to Jacob's Ladder are well founded, and although Carpenter's screenplay is easy to second guess, the specifics of the final revelation are quite clever. The four main protagonists are all decent: Eliza Dushku has certainly grown up since she played Arnold Schwarzenegger's pre-teen daughter in True Lies; Wes Bentley continues to impress post-American Beauty, and there are a couple of intriguing cameos from Luke Wilson as a kind-hearted priest, and Angela Featherstone as an eerily androgynous mystic named Raven. The only thing missing from Soul Survivors really is... well... horror. It has a couple of "jump" moments and a couple of OK chase sequences, but anyone expecting a film to continue the blood-letting trend set by Scream, Urban Legend and I Know What You Did Last Summer will be sorely disappointed. For the longest time, Christopher Young was intended to continue his professional relationship with Carpenter and score Soul Survivors, but the interminably long post-production period (which included a heavy editing session to get the rating down from R to PG-13) meant that, when the time finally came, Young was unavailable. Enter Daniel Licht, composer of Hellraiser Bloodline and Cabin By the Lake among others, who stepped in to fill Young's shoes with a score that Old Pumpkin-Chops would be proud to call his own. To say that Licht's score is Youngesque would be an understatement: it's Copycat meets Murder in the First meets Hellraiser. It's also very, very good, adding a level of operatic creepiness and angelic beauty to the film. Strings and piano are dominant throughout: the love motif for Cassie and Sean is notably beautiful, and the gorgeous montage sequence that accompanies Cassie's walk though Midtown in the fall is a definite highlight. The choir comes in to hammer home the ecclesiastical overtones of Cassie's conversations with Father Jude, while the few action and suspense sequences are enhanced (but somewhat telegraphed) by the brief introduction of the brass section - you always know something bad is going to happen when you hear horns! A song album, on the Gold Circle label, features performances by Harvey Danger, Project 86, Mygrain and Matt McKenna amongst others; Licht's score album is available on the Flash Cut label.
LONG TIME DEAD
DON DAVIS
British horror movies usually fall into one of two categories: freaky, scare-the-crap-out of you classics (like The Wicker Man), or unintentionally camp fare (like just about anything from the Hammer stable). Long Time Dead sort of falls in between. Since Scream hit the screens in 1996, self-aware horror with a cast of good looking teenagers has been the American horror staple, and with this new movie, the Brits have finally tried to join up with the likes of Urban Legend and I Know What You Did Last Summer and corner the teen scream market. It's just a shame it's not really very good. The premise is simple: a group of friends mess around with an Ouija board after getting stoned at a party, and inadvertently summon the spirit of a djinn - a fire demon who can only return to its own realm when all those who summoned it are killed. However, after a couple of grisly deaths, it transpires that one of the group has a dark secret relating to an ancient Satan-worshipping cult in north Africa, and could hold the key to finding out how to defeat the demon once and for all. Debutante director Marcus Adams has cast a group of talented young British actors - including Alec Newman from the Dune mini-series, Lara Belmont from The War Zone, Joe Absolom from the soap EastEnders - added a token American in Lukas Haas, placed them in dire jeopardy, and tried to jazz it up with flashy camera work and lashings of deadly atmosphere. Unfortunately it doesn't quite work. The plot is decidedly shaky to begin with, offering nothing more than a flimsy framework on which to hang a series of elaborate death scenes. The history and mythology surrounding djinns themselves is mis-handled and confusing, and the acting from some of the less experienced cast members is somewhat ham-fisted, occasionally bordering on the unintentionally amusing. There are a couple of genuine scares and tense moments which lift the film briefly (Annie's death scene is especially well-handled), and Lukas Haas's ears are quite something to behold, but the best thing about the movie is the wonderful cameo by the ever-disturbing Tom Bell as a decidedly creepy landlord. Would you rent accommodation from this man? It was a good move on director Adams's part to hire Don Davis to write the score. Unexpected, given Davis's standing in the film music world, but appropriate nonetheless. Davis continually seeks to push the envelope in his horror writing especially, and Long Time Dead sees him at his most avant-garde, writing atonal 20th century dissonance of which the likes of Stravinsky and Ligeti would have been proud. Basically, Davis just lets his string section run riot for an hour, overlaying high violin sustains with a chaotic set of phrases for the assembled orchestra that bubble, churn and fight with one another for aural supremacy. The djinn attack sequences are especially well scored, adding a level of tension and excitement that makes them seem more effective than they actually are, but there is very little respite from the carnage. Davis, despite his reputation as a great theme-writer, remains defiantly dissonant throughout. The CD, on the Mercury label, features no score; instead, it is made up of a collection of underground industrial, Goth and garage songs by artists such as MJ Cole, Roni Size, Layo and Bushwacka, Ed Case, Zero 7, DBX and DJ Krust (whose song, "Cat People Putting Out Fire" plays over the end credits).
BLACK HAWK DOWN
HANS ZIMMER
REVIEW COMING SOON
DOMESTIC DISTURBANCE
MARK MANCINA
Without this type of headline cast, Domestic Disturbance would surely have ended up as one of those "movie of the week" thrillers about a seemingly-nice-but-actually-nasty person infiltrating someone's cosy existence - think The Hand That Rocks the Cradle, or Single White Female. In this film, Harold Becker directs John Travolta as Frank Morrison, an all round decent guy who works as a boat-builder in a sleepy Maryland town. His ex-wife Susan (Teri Polo) is about to marry wealthy businessman Rick Barnes (a creepy Vince Vaughn) - much to the chagrin of Frank's beloved son Danny (Matt O'Leary), who has become something of a delinquent since the divorce. Although the town thinks Rick is a model citizen, young Danny senses that something is wrong, a feeling seemingly cemented when a shady character from Rick's past (Steve Buscemi in a cameo) appears at the wedding. However, when Danny accuses Rick of committing a heinous crime, no-one believes him - apart from Frank, who begins a personal crusade to discover Rick's true identity. It's a familiar story line, and everything transpires as expected, but the conviction of the performances raises the film from the realms of the banal and turns it into an enjoyable little thriller. Becker, the director of "Sea of Love", "Malice" and "City Hall", is a master of atmosphere and intelligent plotting, and makes great use of the lush North Carolina locations to create a false impression of idyll and innocence. The performances of Travolta, Vaughn and young O'Leary all strike the right note, with Travolta adopting his blue-eyed boy persona, and Vaughn recapturing the sense of menace he brought to the remake of Psycho a few years ago. It may be predictable, and the ending is a little sappy, but it's still a worthwhile watch. To be blunt, Mark Mancina's score is a Jerry Goldsmith Basic Instinct rip-off - but this is by no means Mancina's fault. Goldsmith was originally hired to score the film, but was unable to do so due an incapacitating bout of appendicitis. Mancina came in at the last minute and was quite obviously instructed to write a temp track clone: hence, an unashamedly blatant reworking of the Basic Instinct/Hollow Man main motif. To be fair, Mancina has a lot of fun with his orchestrations, passing the melody around between piano, strings, woodwinds and even electric guitars in the opening title, and adding a contemporary pulse underneath to give it a little bit of a personal touch. Variations of the main theme are prevalent throughout the score - sweeping when Frank takes his son out on his boat, menacing when Rick is driving in the rain, and so forth. There's also a couple of excellent, energetic action cues, underscoring the fire at the boat yard and the climactic garage fight between Frank and Rick.
ROCK STAR
TREVOR RABIN
To go from total obscurity to living the rock and roll lifestyle is a dream that most wannabe "metal gods" have at some point in their lives, playing air guitar and miming into a hairbrush in the seclusion of their bedrooms. In Stephen Herek's excellent movie Rock Star, this very thing happens to photocopier repairman Chris Cole (Mark Wahlberg), who fronts a tribute band to his favourite rockers, British headbangers Steel Dragons. Chris knows all the moves, all the tunes, and even dresses like his idol, Dragons lead singer Bobby Beers (Jason Flemyng) - so much so that when he is heard out-singing Beers from the mosh pit at a Dragons concert, he is asked to replace the primadonna-ish front man and become the newest member of the legendary band. And so Cole goes from gigs in steelyards with his buddies to embarking on a sell-out tour with his rock idols - but as this is a cautionary tale, soon succumbs to the excesses of sex and drugs, causing a rift with his devoted girlfriend Emily (Jennifer Aniston) along the way. Wahlberg is excellent in the lead role - lest we forget he was once a New Kid on the Block, and has first-hand knowledge of the industry - exuding a boundless enthusiasm and energy which is gradually ebbed away by the excesses of his new lifestyle. Aniston is solid in a worthy supporting role, Flemyng is funny as hell in his cameo as the Steel Dragon to whom there is more than meets the eye, Dominic West (as Dragons guitarist Kirk Cuddy) does a more than passable impersonation of Slash from Guns 'n Roses, and the ever-reliable Timothy Spall is excellent as the Dragons cynical tour manager Mats. Rock Star is based in part on the true story of what happened when Judas Priest replaced their lead singer Rob Halford with a tribute band nobody, and is a marvellously enjoyable movie for anyone with an affinity for theatrical 80s rock - like me! Steel Dragon are a wonderful amalgamation of Def Leppard and Bon Jovi, with a bit of Kiss and Aerosmith thrown in for good measure, and the "concert footage" of Wahlberg strutting the stage in his leather pants and letting his vocal chords rip for all they're worth is a wonderfully nostalgic guilty pleasure, even though some of his performances were over-dubbed by vocalists Mike Matijevich and Jeff Scott Soto. The Steel Dragon songs themselves, all originals penned for the film by a team of writers including Steve Plunkett, Peter Beckett, Richie Blackmore and Brian Vander Ark, could have been hits in their own right during that era: "We All Die Young", Livin the Life" and the anthemic "Long Live Rock and Roll" being of special note. It was a superb decision on Herek's part to hire Trevor Rabin to write the Rock Star score, especially as Rabin himself was formerly a member of the successful rock band Yes, and knows the 80s sound inside out. His efforts mix a series of excellent, high-energy rock instrumentals with one or two more introspective orchestral pieces which lend a little weight to the emotional scenes, notably the one where Emily decides to move to Seattle without Chris. One score track ("Gotta Have It") makes it onto the CD album, which is otherwise made up by several of the Steel Dragon originals, the title track by Everclear, and famous genre songs from the likes of Mötley Crüe, Bon Jovi, Kiss and INXS. Click here to listen to an MP3 of Gotta Have It.
BEHIND ENEMY LINES
DON DAVIS
In this post-September 11th world, it is perhaps to be expected that all-American flag-waving war films will become more popular. With other, slightly more politically ambiguous battle flicks bumped around the schedules, debutante director John Moore's Behind Enemy Lines has been thrown into the front lines, the distributors intent on capitalising on the gung-ho heroics and uncomplicated international politics the film provides. Everyman Owen Wilson stars as Lt. Chris Burnett, a Navy pilot in the NATO peacekeeping troops who, while on a routine reconnaissance mission over Bosnia, is shot from the sky by renegade Yugoslav forces. Alone, outnumbered, and hunted by a vicious group of Serbian rebels led by the merciless General Lokar (Olek Krupa), Burnett must make his way through increasingly hostile territory to the rendezvous point where a rescue can take place. Meanwhile, back on the USS Carl Vinson, the stalwart Admiral Regiert (Gene Hackman) locks horns with NATO Commander-in-Chief Piquet (Joaquim De Almeida) over the best way to bring him home, avoiding a potentially explosive political incident that could lead to a break-down of the cease fire, and before time runs out. Despite bearing remarkable similarities to the plot of the 1988 actioner Bat-21, Behind Enemy Lines is an exciting, enjoyable motion picture, with a fast pace, a nice line in innovative visual trickery and a protagonist who is both likeable and convincing. Owen Wilson, the star of such films as Bottle Rocket, The Minus Man and Shanghai Noon, is not known for his action movie prowess, and his portrayal of a very human and vulnerable soldier is a refreshing change from the unstoppable super-heroes of the 1980s. Hackman is as good as ever in a role he could have played in his sleep, and special mention should be made of Russian actor Vladimir Mashkov as the ruthless assassin sent after Burnett. Don Davis's score is quite unexpectedly beautiful, opening and closing with a powerful choral opus that sings mournfully for the plight of the peoples of the former Yugoslavia. In the meantime, it's predominantly action all the way, keeping pace with Wilson as he doggedly treks across the dangerous mountainous terrain. A massive, patriotic theme for horns erupts whenever something vaguely heroic takes place - the climactic rescue on the frozen lake is stirring but over-eggs the pudding just a little - and emerges as one of the most attractive Davis themes in recent years. A little techno here and there to add a contemporary edge rounds out the music. Unfortunately, no score album is available for Behind Enemy Lines at the time of writing; a shame, as it would undoubtedly make for a rewarding listen. Click here to listen to an MP3 of the Main Title music, or here for the patriotic finale music. [Audio clips courtesy of The Official Don Davis Website]
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Movie Music U.K is designed and maintained by Jonathan Broxton (c) 2002. All opinions and views expressed on these pages are my own and are in no way intended to reflect those the University of Sheffield. All photos and album artwork used on Movie Music U.K. are only for the non-profit making promotional purposes and no copyright infringement is intended.