Movie Music U.K. As Heard In The Film 2003

Movie Music U.K. As Heard In The Film 2003

OUT OF TIME

GRAEME REVELL

"AS HEARD IN THE FILM" REVIEW COMING SOON.

COLD MOUNTAIN

GABRIEL YARED

I wasn't very impressed with Cold Mountain. A wannabe Civil War sweeping epic, it has the right look to it - sweeping vistas and authentic sets - but somehow missed the mark where the characters and the story arc are concerned. Directed by Anthony Minghella and based on the popular novel by Charles Frazier, it stars Jude Law as Inman, a soldier on the Confederate side of the American Civil War. Hailing from the town of Cold Mountain, NC, Inman left his beloved beau Ada Monroe (Nicole Kidman), but is now thoroughly disillusioned with the fight and decides to desert the army and return home. Wounded, weary, and with many miles ahead of him, Inman trudges home, encountering various oddballs along the way, and having to avoid the Home Guard at every turn - who have orders to shoot deserters on sight. Meanwhile, Ada - having only just moved to Cold Mountain, and with no experience of farming - is left to fend for herself when her minister father (Donald Sutherland) falls ill and dies. Unable to care for the farm, she lets it fall into rack and ruin, until she receives help from an unexpected place: ragtag tomboy Ruby Thewes (Renee Zellweger). It's a story that has been oft-told - a man's journey from hell into the arms of his true love - but, unfortunately, Cold Mountain's personal story is swamped by too many peripheral characters, a lack of emotion from the protagonists, and a whole load of surprisingly unconvincing over-acting. The performances of Kidman, Law, local bigot Ray Winstone, eccentric goat-woman Eileen Atkins, and disgraced preacher Philip Seymour Hoffman all seem forced and unconvincing, undermined by bad accents and a layer of grime. Only Zellweger, as the smart-mouthed Ruby, holds any interest, mainly through her barbed one-liners and bad-girl manner. Visually, the film is superb, with John Seale's cinematography, Dante Ferretti's design, and the Transylvanian mountains (standing in for the USA) the standouts. Gabriel Yared's original score has been roundly praised by all the critics, but I found it to be one of his least impressive works for many years. Ignoring the Appalachian setting and the civil war action, Yared's music is dominated by long-lined, mournful strings that never rise above the faintly romantic and quietly longing. Other than during Ada and Inman's lovemaking scene (which features a lovely statement of Yared's theme), the music is totally anonymous, never coming to the fore, never making a statement, and not remaining in the memory. The original "period" bluegrass songs by T-Bone Burnett, Jack White, Elvis Costello and Sting are actually much more interesting, and their clever use excellent authenticity may be one of the reasons why Yared's work has been carried along on the tide. Performers such as Alison Krauss, Tim Eriksen and the Sacred Harp Singers contribute spirited vocal performances, and for fans of the genre will be definite highlights. The soundtrack CD, on Sony/Columbia, includes four score tracks, amounting to just over 15 minutes of Yared music.

ELF

JOHN DEBNEY

As sweet-natured and heart-warming a holiday movie as you could imagine, Elf is the perfect vehicle for comedian Will Ferrell. He plays Buddy, a human child adopted and raised as an elf after he inadvertently found his way into Santa's toy sack one Christmas Eve many years ago, and was whisked away to the north pole. 30-years later, Santa Claus (Ed Asner) reveals to the now-adult Buddy the truth about his human heritage, and convinces him to travel to New York to seek out his real family. Buddy's father turns out to be Frank (James Caan), a millionaire publisher of children's books who is seriously lacking in Christmas spirit, and who is none too pleased to find a six-foot elf on his doorstep calling him "daddy". However, Buddy's child-like innocence and infectious good humour wins over Frank's wife Emily (Mary Steenburgen) and son Michael (Daniel Tay), and even begins to melt the heart of Jovie (Zooey Deschanel), the beautiful elf helper in the Gimbel's Department Store Christmas grotto. But can he win the affections of his father, and restore Christmas spirit to the beleaguered city? Director Jon Favreau and screenwriter David Berenbaum have made Elf a delightful, undemanding, wholly enjoyable festive affair, which combines sight gags and pratfalls with some deliciously subversive humour and a whole dollop of Christmas goodwill. Ferrell is perfectly cast as the innocent abroad, and captures the sense of excitement and wonderment Buddy feels in his new home - the looks of utter delight on Buddy's face while viewing Christmas trees with Jovie are a wonder to behold. James Caan has a ball playing the gruff businessman whose stern demeanour hides a heart of gold, while Zooey Deschanel is lovely and luminous in a potentially star-making performance as Buddy's love interest. It's also worth mentioning a few of the little touches, like the adorably cute stop-motion critters which inhabit the north pole, dwarf actor Peter Dinklage's scene-stealing role as a hotshot children's writer, and veteran comedian Bob Newhart's deadpan turn as Buddy's adopted elf father. John Debney's score is as delightfully whimsical as the film itself, revelling in the sweetness and innocence a film like Elf provides. His main theme is a bouncy whistled melody with an effortless charm and upbeat refrain, which generally tends to accompany Buddy's elvish antics. A superb full-orchestral performance of the theme erupts as Buddy embarks on his epic journey from the North Pole to New York, while the action music for the snowball fight in Central Park has all the life and energy of an Elmer Bernstein western. The rest of the score is lush and charming, with Debney adding the usual tricks of sleigh bells, light percussion and prancing strings and the like to give it that seasonal cheer. Add into the mix a beautiful rendition of "Baby It's Cold Outside" by Deschanel (who sounds like a young Judy Garland), and stocking-full of seasonal songs from the likes of Ella Fitzgerald, Lena Horne, Eartha Kitt and Jim Reeves, and you have of the best comedy/Christmas scores for many years. There are two Elf CDs - the Christmas album, released by New Line Records, and Debney's score, on Varese.

TIMELINE

BRIAN TYLER

A thoroughly ludicrous action/thriller from the pen of Michael Crichton, Timeline is an archaeological adventure with no brains, no thrills, and very little in the way of redeeming features. Directed by Richard Donner, it stars Paul Walker as Chris Johnson, who along with archaeology students Kate (Frances O'Connor) and Marek (Gerard Butler), are excavating the site of an ancient castle in rural France. However, when Chris's father Professor Johnson (Billy Connolly) goes missing, the mysterious ITC Corporation rears its ugly head. It seems that while developing another system, ITC accidentally uncovered a way of "faxing" people back in time through a wormhole, and that, after using it to go back in time, Professor Johnson has now become trapped in the year 1357 - at the exact same spot in France where the excavation is taking place. In order to save the Professor, Chris and the archaeologists must travel back in time themselves, find the Professor, and return home - all within six hours. What they don't count on, however, is arriving at the precise time when the English and French armies are embroiled in a violent siege around the castle itself, or that Marek will fall in love with Lady Claire (Anna Friel), the beautiful figurehead of the French legions. The first big problem with Timeline is, somewhat oddly, the casting, which almost wholly wrong. Walker is wooden and emotionless; O'Connor is hysterical and helpless one minute, as giddy as a schoolgirl the next; Connolly doesn't seem to realise that the film isn't a comedy; and David Thewlis completely unconvincing as the "ruthless" head of an international technology corporation who doesn't seem to be able to repair a simple transformer. The second big problem with Timeline is that, without exception, it is quite fundamentally stupid. The science doesn't make sense. The actions of the characters don't make sense. And, with the cinematic laws of time-travel firmly established with regards to changing in the past in the future and creating paradoxes, the screenplay is awful. Considering a track record that includes Jurassic Park among others, one would think that an author of Michael Crichton's calibre would at least make sure that the basic scientific elements of his story were not butchered by the screenplay adapters... or that a director of Richard Donner's capability would realise that his film is fundamentally flawed. With tales of re-shoots and re-edits now firmly established, one can see why Timeline sat for so long unreleased: it's a bad, bad movie. The equally turbulent musical history of Timeline, notably the rejection of Jerry Goldsmith's original score, has been well documented elsewhere, and doesn't need to be discussed here. Suffice to say, that if I were to choose someone to follow in the maestro's footsteps and compose a thunderous action score, it would have been Brian Tyler, who with Darkness Falls, The Hunted, Children of Dune, and now Timeline, has become the break-out composer of 2003. His muscular music tries its best to make up for the lack of excitement in the film itself, driving the movie on with powerful brass-led themes, militaristic percussion, and a touching string-based love theme for Marek and Claire that provides far more emotional impact than the actors do. Tyler makes the action scenes seem bigger and more intense; the tension his themes create make the protagonists' race against time seem more edgy. In the end, it was all could be asked of him, and if nothing else, proves that Tyler can make a bad movie better through the inclusion of his music.

BROTHER BEAR

MARK MANCINA

As Disney's 2003 animated release, Brother Bear follows in the footsteps of a number of successful movies from the Magic Kingdom with animal protagonists: from Bambi, through 101 Dalmatians, to The Fox and the Hound and The Lion King. With Pixar's CGI wizardry becoming more and more popular, and with strong competition from the maestros at Dreamworks, the traditional cel-drawn animation style is coming under increasing threat, possibly to the point where it will become obsolete. Sadly, Brother Bear will do nothing to buck the trend: although entertaining and endearing enough, it shows very little development in terms of style in the decade since Pocahontas was on our screens. Story-wise, Brother Bear revisits all the familiar Disney touchstones of friendship, tolerance, and understanding, this time wrapped up in a tale of honour and courage amongst Inuit hunters. When his eldest brother is killed by a bear, young Native American warrior Kenai (Joaquin Phoenix) sets out into the wilderness to find the animal and avenge his death. After killing the bear, the great spirits of the forest magically change Kenai into a bear himself, to teach him the meaning of tolerance and understanding. Teaming up with a talkative cub named Koda (Jeremy Suarez) Kenai must travel to where "the light hits the mountain" before he can return to his human form. However, Kenai's other brother Denahi (Jason Raize) is hot on his trail: he thinks that Kenai is the bear who killed his brother, and will not stop until he has carried out his revenge. As a family oriented Disney offering, Brother Bear is inoffensive stuff: visually impressive, offering wholesome moral teaching, and with enough cute parts to keep the kids happy. First time directors Aaron Blaise and Robert Walker have certainly crafted a handsome looking movie, but unfortunately it will not go down in the annals of animation history as a "classic" - it's probably Disney's most un-memorable feature since their renaissance began with The Little Mermaid. Their only touch of genius was in casting Rick Moranis and Dave Thomas as Rutt and Tuke, a pair of dim-witted moose whose characters are quite obviously inspired by the Canadian slackers from the 1983 comedy classic Strange Brew - an unexpected, yet brilliant homage. As one of the new musical men at Disney, Mark Mancina has built on his contributions to The Lion King and Tarzan with another score in the same vein, utilising a large and lush orchestra augmented by a native choir. Working again with megastar singer/songwriter Phil Collins, Mancina re-treads the same thematic ground as before, and with a great deal of success in terms of emotional impact, even if the "sound" is now becoming overly-familiar. There's a surprising amount of good, percussion-heavy action material to accompany the bear encounters, and some of the "spiritual" sequences (notably Kenai's astonishing transformation sequence) feature some unusual and effective Inuit vocals, but on the whole this is a rather bland affair, and lacks the magic and energy that Alan Menken brought to his work for the studio. Phil Collins's songs, including the catchy "On My Way" and the supposedly soul-stirring "Great Spirits" (performed by both Collins and Tina Turner), are actually surprisingly insipid, pandering to the middle-of-the-road, not-wanting-to-offend-anyone crowd which tends to inspire mediocrity. I foresee no Oscar here. The Disney album contains nine songs and three of Mancina's score cues - "Three Brothers", "Awakes as a Bear" and "Wilderness of Danger and Beauty".

LOVE ACTUALLY

CRAIG ARMSTRONG

Billed as the "ultimate romantic comedy", Love Actually is the latest film from the people who brought us Four Weddings and a Funeral, Mr Bean, Notting Hill and Bridget Jones - namely writer/director Richard Curtis and producer Duncan Kenworthy. In the broadest sense, Love Actually is about love in all its forms, and tells around half a dozen intertwining stories, all of which take place in a romantically stylised London on the run-up to Christmas. There's a story of the love a father has for his son; the love a sister has for her brother; the love between old friends; unrequited love, puppy love, lustful love, office romances, and good old-fashioned romantic love - the love of lingering stares, passionate embraces and outpourings of emotion. Curtis has assembled a stellar cast to tell his multi-faceted story: Hugh Grant plays a new British Prime Minister with surprising desires for Martine McCutcheon, the Downing Street tea lady. Emma Thompson is the PM's sister, having marital problems with her husband Alan Rickman. Rickman's American colleague Laura Linney is herself besotted with a co-worker. Keira Knightley is a new bride with a secret admirer in her husband's best friend Andrew Lincoln (from "This Life"). Colin Firth is a writer who falls for his Portuguese chambermaid while on holiday in France. Liam Neeson is a recently widowed stepfather whose stepson fancies the "coolest girl in school". Bill Nighy plays a washed up pop star with a surprising hit single on the horizon. Martin Freeman from "The Office" is a down-to-earth porn star who embarks on a surprisingly sweet relationship with his co-star. And then there are a host of surprising cameos, including Billy Bob Thornton, Denise Richards, Shannon Elizabeth, and of course Rowan Atkinson as a pedantic department store clerk. It's a wholly uplifting motion picture that will appeal to fans of any of Curtis's earlier films, despite the high saccharine content. As if often the case with these films, the accompanying soundtrack includes a whole host of great classic songs - Hugh Grant's impromptu boogie around Downing Street to the strains of the classic Pointer Sisters track "Jump" is hilarious - but the strongest aspect is, unusually, the score. Whereas Richard Rodney Bennett, Trevor Jones and Patrick Doyle respectively were overshadowed in the previous Curtis movies, Craig Armstrong has written what could almost be considered the ultimate romantic comedy score. There isn't a cynical note in its make-up, instead presenting cue after cue of beautiful romantic music built around pianos, guitars, and a sweeping string orchestra, brought up to date with a modern synthesiser kick. The various romantic climaxes of the stories are all scored with full-on lushness, with melodies which simultaneously tug at your heartstrings and plant a smile on your face. The soundtrack album is as song heavy as usual, made up of tracks by Dido, Nora Jones, Eva Cassidy and American Idol winner Kelly Clarkson - with just one track of score, "Glasgow Love Theme", tagged on the end. British fans fare better for a change, with several bonus tracks including Girls Aloud's remix of "Jump", Billy Mac's hideous in-movie single "Christmas Is All Around", and two additional Armstrong cues being included in the UK release. All in all, this is a superb soundtrack to a superb movie, which just needs a score promo to be perfect.

IN THE CUT

HILMAR �RN HILMARSSON

A terribly slow-moving "thriller" from director Jane Campion, based on the successful novel by Susanna Moore, In the Cut is notable only for its brave, unrestrained performance by Meg Ryan as a woman caught in the middle of a murder mystery. She stars as Franny, an introverted English teacher who embarks on a steamy, torrid affair with Malloy (Mark Ruffalo), the police detective investigating a series of vicious murders on women in her neighbourhood. Franny witnessed the latest murder victim performing oral sex on a man in a bar shortly before she was killed, and has now become central to the case... but question marks surrounding Malloy's trustworthiness, the threatening presence of Franny's increasingly irrational ex-boyfriend John (Kevin Bacon), and John's unhealthy attraction to her half-sister Pauline (Jennifer Jason Leigh) leads Franny to think she may be next in line. While the synopsis may make the film sound dark and exciting, the reality is that - as has been the case with the majority of Jane Campion's films - any potential for thrills or tension is destroyed by the interminably languid pace, the unnecessarily showy cinematography, and an oppressively overbearing tone that tries to invoke "atmosphere" but only creates boredom. Meg Ryan, in an uncharacteristically serious and sexual role, is good, but will not shed her "girl next door" image by simply scowling a lot and showing her assets - she was far better as an alcoholic mother in When A Man Loves A Woman. Ruffalo, Bacon, Leigh, Nick Damici and Sharrieff Pugh are solid but unmemorable in their supporting roles (Leigh and Bacon look as though they should have swapped their prescription drugs to make one less manic and the other less comatose). The technical aspects are accomplished but try to hard to be "arty", with Dion Beebe's photography especially irritating for its odd camera angles and perplexing habit of going in and out focus during scenes. The music for In The Cut is by Icelandic composer Hilmar �rn Hilmarsson, whose previous work includes the popular "Angels of the Universe", several films for acclaimed director Fri�rik Th�r Fri�riksson, and who is making his international debut here. Unsurprisingly, given Jane Campion's predilection for pseudo-classical scores, Hilmarsson follows the same path as Michael Nyman (The Piano) and Wojciech Kilar (The Portrait of a Lady) by contributing a minimalist, string-led score which adds an atmosphere of quiet detachment to the film, making it one of the few aspects that work well. Some of the darkly romantic scenes between Franny and Malloy are scored with understated lyrical passages, while the finale takes on an almost dream-like quality as Hilmarsson's electronically-enhanced violin melodies rise to one of their few tender peaks. Much of the rest of the score is low-key, not exactly dissonant, but more 'textured', as though Hilmarsson simply wanted to add something to the sound palette, but not identify it as music. The use of songs - notably a deconstructed reworking of the old Doris Day classic "Que Sera Sera", and the pointed inclusion of Kaci's "I Think I Love You (So What Am I So Afraid Of?)" - is clever and effective, but unfortunately no soundtrack album exists at this time.

INTOLERABLE CRUELTY

CARTER BURWELL

A romantic comedy with bite, Intolerable Cruelty is the latest film from the creators of Fargo and O Brother Where Art Thou, Joel and Ethan Coen. George Clooney stars as hotshot L.A. divorce attorney Miles Massey who - after winning a seemingly impossible case - finds himself locking horns with the newly-divorced and significantly less well-off than she anticipated Marilyn Rexroth (Catherine Zeta-Jones). Despite their obvious attraction and chemistry, Miles and Marilyn remain adversaries, with Marilyn keen to exact a money-making revenge scheme on the man she sees as the one who cost her millions. To this end, Marilyn becomes involved with a washed-up TV producer (Geoffrey Rush), also the victim of a Massey divorce settlement, a jive-talking private investigator (Cedric the Entertainer), and a wealthy Texas oil baron (Billy Bob Thornton)... but will Marilyn go through with her scheme, or will her growing feelings for Miles get in the way? Despite being the most mainstream movie of their career, Intolerable Cruelty does not pander to the audience, nor does it lose the cutting satirical edge that has defined the Coen's output over the last twenty years. Instead, the Coens make their surreal brand of comedy just slightly more accessible to the public at large, and look certain to have the biggest box office success of their career. Clooney and Zeta Jones are luminous in their lead roles, with Zera Jones especially cementing her reputation as Hollywood's current sex-on-legs. The supporting cast, in addition to Rush and Thornton, included Edward Herrmann as Marilyn's philandering, train-fixated husband Rex Rexroth; Paul Adelstein as Massey's spineless legal assistant; and Jonathan Hadary as an outlandishly effeminate Swiss doorman with the unlikely name of Heinz, the Baron Krauss von Espy. Watch out for the "suicide by inhaler" moment as well... destined to be a comedy classic. Carter Burwell - who has scored all of the Coen's ten films to date - returns to provide music for Intolerable Cruelty that is, by turns, lushly romantic, buoyant and lively, jazzy and peppy, but all the while with that familiar Coen/Burwell quirk that makes it sound just that little bit subversive. After the opening credits die down, Burwell pays music tribute to the excess of the Hollywood lifestyle with a finger-snapping mambo, while the "love is good" speech at the NOMAN convention is accompanied by some of the most flowery romantic scoring of Burwell's career - intentionally overblown and Hollywoodised, but superb all the same. In addition to seven Burwell score tracks, the Hip-O Records CD also features several finger-snapping pop tunes from the likes of Simon & Garfunkel, Elvis Presley, Melissa Manchester, Tom Jones and Colin Linden.

HOLES

JOEL McNEELY

An offbeat children's film from Disney, based on the multi-award winning novel by Louis Sachar, Holes stars Shia LaBeouf as Stanley Yelnats, a young boy wrongly convicted of stealing a pair of training shoes, who is sent to the brutal Camp Greenlake detention camp, situated deep in the searing desert. At Camp Greenlake, Stanley and his fellow juvenile inmates are forced to dig hundreds of holes in the ground by the sadistic staff - warden Sigourney Weaver, taskmaster Jon Voight and psychologist Tim Blake Nelson, supposedly to "build character". However, as time goes on, the holes get deeper, and the warden becomes ever more impatient with her charges, Stanley begins to realise that there is more to Camp Greenlake than first imagines. So, along with his friend Zero (Khleo Thomas), Stanley attempts to unearth the mystery of what is beneath Camp Greenlake - a mystery which concerns a fabled Wild West outlaw named Kissin' Kate Barlow (Patricia Arquette), her black lover Sam (Dule Hill), and a terrible gypsy curse placed on the Yelnats family a hundred years previously. Directed by Andrew Davis, whose previous films have included high-octane action fare such as The Fugitive and Under Siege, Holes takes its time to weave together three narrative threads - Stanley's experiences at the camp, Kissin' Kate's wild west love story, and the origin of the gypsy curse - resulting in a film which unfolds gradually, with plenty of gentle humour and eccentric characterisations. The adults in the film - Weaver, Voight, Nelson, Henry Winkler and Siobhan Fallon - are comic foils for the adolescent protagonists, who are generally excellent. LaBeouf and Thomas, as the two main children, are natural and relaxed, and collaborate well with the other inmates of Camp Greenlake to create a Lord of the Flies-type atmosphere of pubescent pecking orders and one-upmanship, masking a core of mutual respect and support. Holes takes its time to unfold, but is worth the wait, and is helped by Stephen St. John's vivid cinematography, and authentic production design - the establishing shots of the hole-ridden desert landscape is wondrous to behold. In broad terms, Joel McNeely's score for Holes is a cross between John Williams's theme-driven lyricism and Ennio Morricone's spaghetti western style. The emotional moments, notably in the flashback relationship between Kissin' Kate and Sam, are scored with orchestral lushness and romantic swells, while the turgid drudgery of the Greenlake regime has impressionistic guitar flourishes, Jew's harps, harmonicas and other assorted "western" orchestrations that add a sly musical pastiche to the setting. Unfortunately, none of McNeely's score features on the soundtrack CD, which showcases instead the multiple songs which litter the movie (some of which, admittedly, are very appropriate, and lend a workhouse Negro-spiritual edge to the "digging" sequences). Shaggy, Moby, The Eels and Eagle Eye Cherry are included in the roster of artists, in addition to the end credits rap "Dig It", written and performed by members of the cast under the moniker of The D-Tent Boys. As good as the soundtrack CD is, I will be avidly searching for a promo of McNeely's score... it cannot go unheard! Can anyone fix that?

MYSTIC RIVER

CLINT EASTWOOD and LENNIE NIEHAUS

A superb crime drama directed by Clint Eastwood and based on the novel by Dennis Lehane, Mystic River stars Sean Penn, Kevin Bacon and Tim Robbins as three childhood friends caught up in a murder mystery. As kids, Jimmy Markum (Penn), Sean Devine (Bacon) and Dave Boyle (Robbins) were inseparable - until Dave was abducted by a paedophile and subjected to four days of torture before escaping from the clutches. Thirty years later, Jimmy is a shopkeeper with a criminal past, married to the devoted but hard-hearted Annabeth (Laura Linney) - whose sister Celeste (Marcia Gay Harden) is married to Dave. Their world is turned upside down when Jimmy's daughter Katie is found brutally murdered, on the same night as Dave returns home covered in blood. Enter Sean, now a cop with the Boston PD, who has been assigned to the case with his partner Whitey Powers (Lawrence Fishburne). As Sean and Whitey dig deeper into the events, fingers begin to point firmly at increasingly irrational Dave, and the two officers must solve the case before Jimmy carries out his own brand of vicious street justice. Mystic River is an actor's movie, with the three male leads all superb. Sean Penn, who looks more like Robert De Niro with each passing day, holds sway as the tortured, tightly-wound Jimmy, whose grief at the death of his daughter makes him increasingly dangerous. Kevin Bacon, a vastly under-rated actor, intentionally holds his emotions in check as the officer whose childhood loyalties threaten to affect his police impartiality. And Tim Robbins, unrecognisable from his comedic performances, is a convincing sad-sack introvert whose childhood demons seem to have more influence on his fragile psyche than first imagined. To reveal more would spoil a superb whodunit - suffice to say that, despite the languid pacing and generally quiet tone, is nevertheless a superbly absorbing and intelligent thriller. After years of providing original themes for his movies (which were then fleshed out into full scores by his long-time collaborator Lennie Niehaus), Mystic River marks the first occasion where Eastwood has composed an entire score himself. With the help of orchestrator Patrick Hollenbeck, and with Niehaus still on hand to conduct the Boston Symphony Orchestra and Tanglewood Chorus, Eastwood's score is a big, dramatic feast - short on theme, but long on large-scale performances and portentous tones. As usual for Eastwood, pianos form the backbone of everything, providing a thematic link while the orchestra eddies in the background, adding weight and importance to the drama. In most sequences, the music is rather unnoticeable, but at certain points - usually establishing shots of the Boston skyline, or as the camera pans across a street scene - Eastwood's melancholic romance comes to the fore. The lightness of the music occasionally seems to stand at odds with the serious of the subject matter, but on the whole Eastwood's work is good, and further establishes him as one of cinema's true icons. The album, on Warner, features sixteen tracks of Eastwood's score along with two original jazz pieces penned by Clint's son, Kyle Eastwood.

KILL BILL (VOLUME 1)

THE RZA

A gloriously irreverent homage to all his personal favourite movies, Kill Bill is the fourth feature of maverick director Quentin Tarantino. Essentially a revenge thriller, Tarantino's bloodthirsty tale embraces a number of genres, from spaghetti westerns to Japanese samurai flicks, Hong Kong kung-fu epics, and his own brand of smart-mouthed crime sagas. Uma Thurman stars as The Bride, a former assassin betrayed by her boss Bill (David Carradine), who is shot and left for dead on her wedding day by members of the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad: O-Ren Ishii (Lucy Liu), Vernita Green (Vivica A. Fox), Budd (Michael Madsen) and Elle Driver (Daryl Hannah). Awakening from a coma four years later, The Bride vows revenge on those who ruined her life, and heads for Japan to seek out kung fu master Hattori Hanzo (Sonny Chiba), who trains her to use the samurai sword which will enable her carry out her vengeance. With a bare bones story, the rest of the film is simply a series of action set pieces choreographed to be as visually overwhelming as possible. Two remain in the memory. Firstly, the fight at the House of Blue Leaves, where The Bride faces down a hundred of O-ren Ishii's men in a gloriously gory swordfight, before going one-on-one in a beautiful, snowbound Japanese garden. After the intense carnage of the previous encounter, Robert Richardson's graceful camera movements and superb framing are a delight to behold. Secondly, the story of Ishii's childhood is told as an anime flashback - a bold, daring move that works wonderfully well in context, bringing a vibrancy, immediacy, and cultural relevance to the story. Tarantino's style-over-substance approach makes it the kind of movie that screams "cool", from the slow-motion image-framing that Tarantino is famous for, to shots a yellow-leather clad Thurman zooming round a neon-lit Tokyo on a motorbike. It's the kind of movie Tarantino would pay to go and see himself. Roll on Volume 2. If the soundtrack to Kill Bill plays like Quentin Tarantino's record collection - it's because that's exactly what it is! Long-forgotten 60s pop hits, surf music, rockabilly and spaghetti western scores combine with original music by hip-hop composer RZA to make one of the most eclectic soundtracks in recent memory. Throughout Kill Bill Tarantino uses cues from other film scores in new settings: Bernard Herrmann's "Twisted Nerve" as a leitmotif for Elle Driver, tons of stuff from Luis Bacalov's "Il Grande Duello", Ennio Morricone's "Death Rides a Horse" in the anime sequence, Isaac Hayes's score from the blaxploitation pic "Truck Turner", Quincy Jones's "Ironside" as the revenge theme, Charles Bernstein's "White Lightning", and Tomoyasu Hotei's brilliant trailer music "Battle Without Honor of Humanity", which comes from a recent Japanese movie entitled "Shin Jingi Naki Tatakai". All this, plus several great songs, including one by Nancy Sinatra, and a brilliant theme by Romanian master pan-flute player Gheorghe Zamfir as well. RZA's original score is good, but does get a bit lost - hip hop and R&B rhythms with a lush string section to add a bit of class. It's unusual, breathless, brilliant stuff - a further testament to Tarantino's standing as the king of geek-cool.

THE MOTHER

JEREMY SAMS

Containing by far the best ensemble drama acting performances I have seen for a long time, The Mother is the latest film from director Roger Michell - a low key English drama in stark contrast to last two films, the Hollywood blockbusters Notting Hill and Changing Lanes. Written by Hanif Kureishi, the author of the successful The Buddha of Suburbia, the film boasts a mesmerising and brave performance by British character actress Anne Reid as May, a grandmother in her early 60s who, while on a trip to London to visit her adult children, is unexpectedly widowed. Having spent the majority of her life caring for her husband, May suddenly finds herself lost, alone, and frightened, and decides not to return home. Instead, she moves in with her self-absorbed daughter Paula (Cathryn Bradshaw), who is in a relationship with Darren (Daniel Craig), the best friend of her son Bobby (Steven Mackintosh), and who is building a conservatory on the side of their house. Finally released from the grasp of her loving but completely domineering husband, May finds herself blossoming - socially, personally, and sexually - and begins an affair with Darren, who is half her age. However, her "reckless" actions rekindle burning tensions within the family, and threaten to have serious repercussions for everyone. Essentially the story of a woman finding her own personality after years of subjugation, the core of The Mother is Anne Reid, whose staggeringly good performance is completely removed from her familiar persona of small-screen fare such as Dinner Ladies and Coronation Street. Now aged 68, Reid's romantic interactions with 35-year-old Daniel Craig (last seen in Road to Perdition) are as believable and real as they could be, and the level authentic intimacy between the two, while graphic, illustrates in no uncertain terms the level of "awakening" May is experiencing. Similarly, the relationships between May and her children are perfectly depicted - Paula, Bobby and his wife Helen are so selfish they fail to see, or understand, the pain their mother is going through, instead placing the blame for their dysfunctional lives firmly at her door, without taking the time to examine their own actions and life choices. Roger Michell's semi-voyeuristic style of filming occasionally makes you feel like an eavesdropper on a real-life drama, and Kureishi's screenplay asks some serious questions about the nature of familial relationships. While The Mother is unlikely to make any kind of impact on the North American market, I can see it causing a splash with British critics, with the cast members - especially Reid and Craig - being remembered when the BAFTA Awards come around next spring. The music, by BAFTA Award winning ("Persuasion", 1996) British composer Jeremy Sams, is small-scale but powerful. Despite probably amounting to no more than fifteen minutes in total, the music is used wonderfully well, never becoming over-slushy or drowning the drama in false sentiment. The actual "scenes" with dialogue are generally left unscored, allowing the honesty and immediacy of the performances to be experienced undiluted. However, the lonely, poetic shots of May walking aimlessly through a loud, fast, confusing London are given life by Sams's moody piano riffs and jazzy plucked double bass, lending a the film touchstone of emotional pathos and contemplation. Unfortunately, no soundtrack CD exists for The Mother - and due to brevity of the score, I find it unlikely that one will ever emerge.

CABIN FEVER

NATHAN BARR and ANGELO BADALAMENTI

Billed as a cross between The Evil Dead and The Andromeda Strain, director Eli Roth's much-lauded debut film Cabin Fever is a terrible let-down that suffers from over-hype and overly-positive publicity that raises expectations to levels that cannot be met. Young actors Rider Strong, Jordan Ladd, Joey Kern, Cerina Vincent and James DeBello play five college friends who head to rural North Carolina to a rented cabin in the woods, where they plan to celebrate their graduation. However, their hi-jinks are cut short by the grisly appearance of a local hermit, who seems to have been afflicted by a hideous Ebola-like virus which is, quite literally, eating his flesh from the inside out. Before long, the virus has spread to the friends, who suddenly find themselves not only having to contend with the effects of the disease, but the less than sane local redneck community, which seems determined to ensure that the virus - and therefore the students - does not escape from the forest. There are a couple of positive aspect to Cabin Fever: the special effects make-up by the excellent trio Robert Kurtzman, Greg Nicotero and Howard Berger is a wonderful gory delight, there are a few effective jump-stingers, and there are a couple of laugh-out-loud one-liners, usually courtesy of one of the rednecks, but beyond that the film is desperately disappointing. It's not scary, its not especially thrilling, and the interaction between the protagonists too often descends into banal, expletive-littered shouting matches and/or laughable "bonding" scenes. I genuinely cannot remember the last time a mainstream Hollywood horror movie genuinely affected me... I seem to be looking more and more to the Far East for my scares these days. For the score, Roth (a former assistant to David Lynch) initially turned to his employer's regular collaborator Angelo Badalamenti, who in return wrote a selection of themes - including a backwoods jazz piece for guitar and hammond organ for the doofus local deputy sheriff, and a familiar Twin Peaks-style synth 'n' string love theme, used to its best effect in the peculiar masturbation scene between Kern and Vincent. When more score was required, Badalamenti was unavailable, so Roth hooked up with newcomer Nathan Barr, a former assistant to Hans Zimmer at Media Ventures. Barr's score is traditionally instrumental, but plays deep down in the bowels of the orchestra, rumbling along with deep cello chords, edgy plucked bass, and rattling percussion - there isn't much in the way of melody, but there's atmosphere a-plenty. Sparse vocal performances add a little class to the proceedings - notably during the bizarre kung-fu attack DeBello suffers at the hands of a Deliverance-style "weird kid" - but generally, Barr is content to merely add a level of heightened tension to Roth's imagery without drawing undue attention to himself. A solid, but inauspicious mainstream debut. The soundtrack CD, on the new La-La Land label, includes significant selections by both Barr and Badalamenti, as well as songs by the likes of Scrappy Hamilton, Happy Wednesday and Your Mom (whose most delightful entry is a happy little ditty entitled "Shitstorm").

SPY KIDS 3-D: GAME OVER

ROBERT RODRIGUEZ

My wife had never seen a 3-D film before. I had only ever seen one (the IMAX movie Galapagos, several years ago). And so, armed with our decidedly stupid-looking red and blue cardboard glasses, we settled down together to watch director Robert Rodriguez's third part of his Spy Kids trilogy... and at the end of the film, I felt even stupider than I did wearing the glasses for wasting 84 minutes of my life. Basically, the movie is one long filmed video game, filled with cartoonish action sequence after cartoonish action sequence, sanctimonious preaching to the children, and with the slimmest narrative thread to hold it all together. Child actors Alexa Vega and Daryl Sabara return, this time as the main stars, with the latter having to venture deep into the matrix of a new video game called "Game Over" to save the former, who has been captured by an evil genius known as the Toymaker. The singularly most impressive aspect of Spy Kids 3-D was not the three-dimensional visual effects (which I found oddly disappointing), but its utterly spectacular supporting cast. How many directors would sell their own mothers to have Antonio Banderas, Sylvester Stallone, Ricardo Montalban, Salma Hayek, Alan Cumming, Tony Shalhoub, Bill Paxton, Steve Buscemi, George Clooney and Elijah Wood in their movie? Sadly, Rodriguez's stunning failure to have any of them turn in a decent performance is what makes Spy Kids 3-D such a let down. I realise that it has no pretensions of being anything other than a kids movie, but I left the cinema with absolutely no positive feeling whatsoever - more than anything, it was a relief to take the blessed glasses off! I liked Desperado and The Faculty, but it now seems a long, long time since Rodriguez wowed the world with his low-budget action epic El Mariachi. As if being the writer, director, producer, director of photography and editor were not enough, Robert Rodriguez is now scoring his own movies as well: he contributed small score cuts to the original Spy Kids, co-wrote Spy Kids 2 with John Debney, and has undertaken the whole thing this time around (albeit with help from Austin-based conductor/orchestrator George Oldziey). The familiar Latin-inspired Cortez Theme from the original film is there again, flashing around as a heroic leitmotif, with lush flamenco guitars leading the way. The action music is generally electronic, and not unlike that which you would hear in a video game itself - all simple repeated rhythms and familiar chord progressions. It's also, by and large, somewhat redundant, relegated to playing nothing more than a supporting role to the mega racer cars, CGI lava monsters and robotic villains, and never truly revels in its own heroism. It's saying something that the he conclusive end credits song, "Game Over", performed by lead actress Alexa Vega, is one of the highlights. The score CD is available on the Milan label.

THE ORDER

DAVID TORN

A much delayed spiritual thriller from the pen of writer/director Brian Helgeland, The Order (or "The Sin Eater", as it is known in the UK) arrives in theatres over a year after its intended schedule, the victim of re-shoots, re-writes, and significant re-working of special effects. Re-uniting much of the cast of Helgeland's previous feature, A Knights' Tale, The Order stars Heath Ledger as Alex Bernier, a New York priest who belongs to a mystical order known as the Carolingians. When the head of his order is killed in mysterious circumstances, Alex and fellow priest Thomas Garrett (Mark Addy) head to Rome to investigate. What they find is the legacy of the mythological "sin eater", an immortal who has the power to provide absolution for the dying against the will of the church: someone who "holds the key to the gates of heaven". When Alex comes across Eden (Benno F�rmann), the human form of the immortal being, he finds his faith in God, and his beliefs in general being tested: both by Eden, the beautiful Mara (Shannyn Sossamon), whom Alex loves, and by Cardinal Driscoll (Peter Weller), whose motives and desire for power stretches into the deepest parts of the Vatican. While The Order is well made, features some startlingly good special effects, and asks some serious theological questions about the nature of the church and its effect on the lives of its followers, there are also some serious and unfortunate flaws in logic. Lots of things go unanswered, making watching this film a curiously unsatisfactory experience. Ledger, Addy, Sossamon and German actor F�rmann are generally good, and it's GREAT to see Peter Weller on the big screen again, but Helgeland's screenplay does tend to veer towards preponderance and self-importance on too many occasions. No wonder 20th Century Fox didn't quite know what to do with this movie, or how to pitch it to the film-going audiences of the world. The music for The Order is by David Torn, a successful and critically acclaimed guitarist, who has collaborated with Mark Isham on a number of films, and who occasionally worked under the peculiar pseudonym "SPLatteRCeLL". Torn's music is actually quite apart from what you might expect, considering his background: to illustrate the film's quite serious liturgical background, Torn uses a clever combination of string orchestra and ethnic percussion, with extended parts for a portentous Latin choir and a soft, intimate Indian bansuri bamboo flute. At several key moments, Torn's music adds a layer of intrigue to the scene, reflecting the middle Eastern and Aramaic source of the sin eater's power, and the choir kicks in to give weight and drama to Alex's seemingly impossible task. Torn engages in some familiar Hollywood action music during the more thrilling moments (watch out for the scene with the creepy demon children in the graveyard!), and gives the forbidden relationship between Alex and Mara an air of exoticness with reminded me in parts of world music artists such as Ali Farka Toure, or even Loreena McKennit. The end credits song - a score/techno hybrid co-written with Adam Smalley - is unfortunately rather headache inducing, but disregarding this blip, The Order is a solid debut for Torn, and I hope we hear more of him.

THE ITALIAN JOB

JOHN POWELL

"AS HEARD IN THE FILM" REVIEW COMING SOON

UNDERWORLD

PAUL HASLINGER

A rather silly gothic action-adventure, Underworld touted itself as "a spin on Romeo and Juliet, but with vampires and werewolves instead of Montagus and Capulets", but its actually nowhere near that clever. Directed by Len Wiseman, it stars a rubber-catsuited Kate Beckinsale as Selena, a vampire assassin involved in a centuries old war between her own blood-sucking race, and the hairy old Lycans. Selena spends most of her time looking moody and dispatching werewolves with high-powered silver bullets, but finds her loyalties to vampire leader Kraven (Shane Brolly) tested when she saves the life of - and unexpectedly falls for - a human named Michael (Scott Speedman). The immensely convoluted plot then goes on to encompass things like the resurrection of a dead vampire king, the re-emergence of a supposedly dead werewolf leader, double-crossing between the clans, and the importance of Michael to both factions, but by that time I had become numb. It's not that Underworld is a BAD movie per se... it's just so unremittingly dark, oppressive, and LOUD, your spirit and will to continue watching buckles by the hour mark. Len Wiseman's eye for art direction is certainly assured, reworking the best parts from The Matrix and Interview with the Vampire, and using the Hungarian locations to their fullest potential. Similarly, some of the special effects are quite superb, especially the werewolf transformation sequences, which bring to mind the best work of Rick Baker and American Werewolf in London. It's just that some the action scenes are quite woefully choreographed, almost to the point of being totally confusing, while Danny McBride and Kevin Grevioux's wooden screenplay gives talented actors like Beckinsale, Michael Sheen and Bill Nighy some of the worst lines of their career. The score is by former Tangerine Dream member Paul Haslinger, whose work here is hopefully (for him) a breakout score, having spent most of his career to date as Graeme Revell's synth programmer, and scoring movies for director John Stockwell (Crazy/Beautiful, Blue Crush). More than anything, Haslinger's score is LOUD - an orchestral/techno fusion with an emphasis on volume over content. I would have given anything for a big, gothic, orchestral score. Working with industrial sound designer Brian Lustmord, Haslinger batters the audience into submission by layering masses of pounding electronics over the already beefed-up sound effects. A small string and brass section appears to add emotional weight to some of the more intimate scenes, notably between Selena and Michael, and Selena and the resurrected Viktor, but on the whole this is loud, thumping, bombastic, headache-inducing stuff. Additional music is provided by Nine Inch Nails guitarist Danny Lohner, credited here as "Renholder". Four tracks of his angry rock music are included on the widely available soundtrack album, alongside songs by Page Hamilton, David Bowie, Skinny Puppy, Sarah Bettens and others. Haslinger's score is available on a separate CD, on the Lakeshore Records label.

CALENDAR GIRLS

PATRICK DOYLE

A charming comedy/drama directed by Nigel Cole, Calendar Girls tells the true story of a group of women from a branch of Women's Institute in Rylstone, Yorkshire (for those of you unfamiliar with it, the Women's Institute is a British organisation for bored middle-aged housewives, who specialise in such exciting activities as jam-making, cake-baking and various forms of knitting). Following the death of one of their husbands from leukaemia, six of the women (Helen Mirren, Julie Walters, Celia Imrie, Annette Crosbie, Linda Bassett and Penelope Wilton) - decide to break with W.I. tradition and make their own fund-raising calendar - with a difference. Instead of the usual landscape shots, THIS calendar will feature the girls undertaking traditional W.I. activities... naked! While the calendar itself sells wonderfully well, and turns the women into overnight media celebrities, not all the results are positive - their antics ruffle feathers in the W.I. hierarchy, cause stress for several of their husbands, generate feelings of bitterness and jealousy within the group, and SERIOUSLY traumatises one of their sons when he keeps walking in on his mother in the nude! Touted as a female version of The Full Monty, Calendar Girls certainly has its fair share of laugh-out-load moments and is infused with a similar sense of emotional loss and tragedy, but never quite recaptures the spirit of the Sheffield strippers. Having said that, Walters and Mirren are especially good, as the bereaved wife and calendar brainchild respectively - the two slip into their roles as lifelong friends with ease, and manage to capture the building tension their years of friendship have previously hidden. Ciar�n Hinds and George Costigan also offer solid support as two of the bemused husbands, Philip Glenister leaves an impression as the shell-shocked photographer, and there are cameos from American chat show host Jay Leno and (bizarrely!) metal band Anthrax. It is also appropriate to mention the work of cinematographer Ashley Rowe, who has managed to capture the natural beauty of rural Yorkshire perfectly. Patrick Doyle's charming score (his first major one for almost two years) does not play really a major part in proceedings, but prances lightly behind the action, fuelled by a light string orchestra and merry pianos. Doyle gives John's funeral a touch of human pathos, and accompanies the cathartic scene on the Hollywood backlot an emotional oomph ("One More Hour"), but on the whole is content to play a supporting role, adding to the comic charm of the film. The accompanying soundtrack, on Hollywood Records, features fifteen minutes of score, and is padded out with songs The Temptations, BB King, Quincy Jones, The Meters and Beth Nielson Chapman's 'I Find Your Love', co-written by Doyle.

SPIRITED AWAY

JOE HISAISHI

A gorgeous animated fantasy from revered Japanese Anime director Hayao Miyazaki, Spirited Away (or "Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi") won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature in 2002, and has finally reached British cinemas almost a year after its North American opening. A fantastical fable of witches, dragons and ghosts, Spirited Away follows the adventures of a little girl named Chihiro (voiced by Daveigh Chase), who is moving to a new town with her family. She and her parents get lost, accidentally finding what they think is a disused amusement park... but when her parents tuck into a seemingly abandoned mountain of food, Chihiro can only watch in horror as they turn into pigs. It becomes apparent that Chihiro has been transported to another world, and she soon finds herself working inside a giant bath house presided over by a witch named Yubaba (Susanne Pleshette), where all manner of spirits from the Japanese Shinto religion come to cleanse their souls. With only chambermaid Lin (Susan Egan), spidery engineer Kamaji (David Ogden Stiers), and the mysterious Haku (Jason Marsden) for help, Chihiro must survive daily life in the bathhouse - and all that entails - while simultaneous trying to save her parents so she can return home. While the references to spiritual entities may confuse some western audiences, there is no denying that Spirited Away is a stunning film. Miyazaki is the director of such classic Anime films as Nausica�, Laputa and Princess Mononoke, and certainly has a flair for visuals, whether it be the gorgeously rendered landscapes of the spirit world, the grotesquely detailed characterisations, or the fantastical spirits themselves. Much of Spirited Away is to do with personal identity - Chihiro has her name changed to Sen and must remember her real name if she wants to go home, her parents need to return to their human forms, some of the spirits are not what they seem to be, and even Haku has a mysterious past. A lot of this will go over the heads of the children in the audience, who will be more enraptured by the antics of the sootballs and the hamster Boh, but provides the refreshing deeper meaning for adult viewers which is missing from a great deal of animated fare. Spirited Away is the seventh collaboration between Miyazaki and Joe Hisaishi - Anime is obviously a great source of inspiration for them both. As with his previous scores, Spirited Away is a delicious mix of east and west, with a full symphonic orchestra combining with delicate oriental soloists. Hisaishi himself performs much of the thematic material on piano, gently illustrating Chihiro's nature with a sweet theme, and ominously forewarning of the appearance of Yubaba with stark chord clusters. A sprightly march heralds the arrival of the spirits into the bathhouse, an unusual percussive leitmotif accompanies the various antics of Noh-Face, and the central sweeping theme appears several times, notably as Sen and Haku return from Swamp Bottom. A Japanese song, "Always With Me" performed by Youmi Kimura, closes the Milan CD.

BLACKBALL

STEPHEN WARBECK

We British make some peculiar movies sometimes. Blackball, the new effort from director/comedian Mel Smith is an attempt to transfer the glorious sporting triumphs of Rocky from inner-city America to picturesque Torquay, on the English south coast... and apply them to the genteel world of crown green bowling. Paul Kaye (better known as the spoof showbiz reporter Dennis Pennis) stars as Cliff Starkey, a genius bowls player from a run-down council estate whose personal ethics forbid him to enter the local upper-class bowling club, and who makes a living instead helping his grandfather Mutley (Bernard Cribbins) with his painting and decorating business. With his best friend Trevor (the brilliant Johnny Vegas), Cliff spends his time wasting time... until he agrees to take part in the county bowls championships, which (if he won) would give him a chance to take on the touring Australian world champions. And so, with the help of a slick American agent (Vince Vaughan), Cliff becomes "the bad boy of British bowls" and embarks on an epic quest to conquer the world of bowls: a world dominated by his nemesis, sneering club champion Ray Speight (James Cromwell). Unfortunately, despite a quite clever premise, Blackball suffers from a lack of a single, important element: humour. Most of the cast, and especially Vegas, are talented comedians in their own right, but unfortunately are hamstrung by Tim Firth's leaden screenplay here. A couple of laugh-out-loud moments, and a bit of forced pathos can do nothing to disguise the overall lack of mirth, and even the romantic sub-plot between Cliff and Speight's daughter (Alice Evans) seems tacked on. It's a shame, because the amount of dramatic and comedic talent further down the cast list is immense - Tony Slattery, Ian McNiece, Kenneth Cranham, David Schneider, and even Angus "Statto" Loughran make appearances. Musically, Blackball is a mixed bag, but a hugely enjoyable one. The film features a number of standout songs, notably "Stuck In A Moment You Can't Get Out Of" by U2, "Don't Stop Me Now" by Queen, "Make Me Smile" by Steve Harley, and further efforts by Madness, The Who and The Doves. However, Stephen Warbeck's score is simply wonderful, opening with a tremendously upbeat rock piece that has more to do with his pub band The Kippers than Shakespeare in Love, before heading down the full orchestral road. All the important moments of drama - especially Cliff's triumphs on the bowling green, are scored with a series of sensational orchestral fanfares that make you think you are watching a film about man's unending triumph over adversity rather than a bloke rolling wooden balls down a bit of grass. They are vastly overblown, but add a sense of heightened reality and actual dramatic warmth to a film which is, sadly, lacking. As one might expect, none of Warbeck's score features on the soundtrack album, meaning that Blackball joins the likes of Fanny & Elvis and Birthday Girl as yet another great, unreleased Stephen Warbeck score.

LARA CROFT - TOMB RAIDER: CRADLE OF LIFE

ALAN SILVESTRI

A dead-in-the-water sequel to a dead-in-the-water original, Tomb Raider: Cradle of Life sees Angelina Jolie reprising her role as Lara Croft, the pneumatically-breasted adventurer based on the popular Eidos video game character. In this instalment, Croft embarks on a dangerous mission to stop evil industrialist Jonathan Reiss (Ciar�n Hinds) from finding, and using, the legendary Pandora's Box, which supposedly contains the power to control the world. Assisting Croft on her quest is rugged former soldier Terry Sheridan (Gerard Butler), and an African tribesman named Kosa (Djimon Hounsou), as she globe-hops from Greece to Hong Kong to China to the remotest parts of Africa, attempting to thwart Reiss's nefarious plans. The description above actually makes it all sounds quite good, in an undemanding popcorn-munching kind of way, but unfortunately Jan De Bont's bland direction, Jolie's sleepwalking performance, and the complete lack of anything remotely resembling intelligence in Dean Georgaris's script wrecks any chance it had of bettering the dismal original film. Some of the stunt work is quite inventive, and some of the special effects make you sit up and take notice, but on the whole Tomb Raider: Cradle of Life is a mess, and will hopefully kill off the franchise here and now. In another unusual parallel of the first film, which had more composer change than any movie in recent memory, Alan Silvestri came into the project at short notice to replace Craig Armstrong, having himself just been dumped from Pirates of the Caribbean in favour of Klaus Badelt. Considering the time constraints he undoubtedly faced, Silvestri's work is enjoyable, but not spectacularly so, and is built around an adventurous main theme accompanied by a multitude of electronic layering, heard every time Lara does something vaguely heroic. The action music is passable, but with the exception of the opening Luna Temple sequence, is nothing special, and the suspense music is unfortunately rather tedious. The finale, however, in the cradle of life itself, it actually a rather stunning orchestral-and-choral elegy which swells to grandiose proportions. It's just a shame that Silvestri couldn't have saved this wonderful five minutes of score for a film which deserved it.

AMERICAN PIE: THE WEDDING

CHRISTOPHE BECK

The third film in the American Pie series, "The Wedding" is actually something of a departure for Jim, Finch, Stifler and the boys. The plot is basic and straight forward, following the preparations for a wedding after Jim proposes to the lovely, flute-playing Michelle. However, rather than concentrating on gross-out antics and adolescent pranks, director Jesse Dylan (the son of Bob Dylan) actually injects a great deal of angst and pathos into the film, which discusses such meaty topics as the nature of growing up, love, and the way people change as they mature. This is not to say that the comedy is diminished - on the contrary, there are a number of hilarious, laugh out loud set pieces: the proposal scene, the cream cake and dogs scene, the bachelor party with the strippers, the gay bar dance, and the cringe-worthy "chocolate truffle" incident. Jason Biggs, Seann William Scott, Eddie Kaye Thomas and Thomas Ian Nicholas all reprise their roles from the first movies; Alyson Hannigan is as gorgeous as ever as the sweet but sex-mad Michelle; newcomer January Jones makes an impression as Michelle's sister Cadence (as do strippers Amanda Swisten and Nikki Ziering!), and Eugene Levy completes the set as Jim's well-intentioned but embarrassing dad. For the music, the powers decided to replace David Lawrence with the young and talented Christophe Beck, hot from his four-year stint as composer for the TV series Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and who has already scored a dozen movies since he left the show. To be honest, Beck's music is not that memorable: a few schmaltzy string lines here and there to underscore the more tender and romantic moments, a subtle melody for the scene where the guys make their "friendship bond" on the clifftop, and a nice orchestral crescendo at the end when Jim and Michelle finally tie the not. The rest of the time, however, Beck is understated and almost invisible, relegated to playing second fiddle to the plethora of pop songs that underwrite the majority of the key scenes. Sadly, like Lawrence before him, none of Beck's score made it onto Universal's album either. Instead, it features songs by popular modern artists such as Foo Fighters, Sum-41, Avril Lavigne, Feeder, Matt Nathanson and others.

TERMINATOR 3: RISE OF THE MACHINES

MARCO BELTRAMI

"AS HEARD IN THE FILM" REVIEW COMING SOON

WHALE RIDER

LISA GERRARD

There aren't many movies made about the Maori people of New Zealand - the only other which springs to mind is Once Were Warriors from 1994 - but Whale Rider looks to change the opinions of many, and open up this largely unknown culture to a wider audience. Based on the novel by Witi Ihimaera and directed by Niki Caro, Whale Rider stars debutante Keisha Castle-Hughes as Pai, a young girl from a rural community in modern New Zealand. According to tradition, Pai's family, the Whangara, are directly descended from Paikea, the legendary Maori leader who arrived in their country on the back of a whale thousands of years ago. Every generation, the first born son of the bloodline is destined to become chief of the tribe. However, Pai's baby brother died at birth, leaving her the sole heir to the chiefhood, and Pai's loving but stubbornly traditional grandfather Koro (Rawiri Paratene) refuses to accept that a girl can be their leader. Sensing that hers is an important position, and acknowledging her heritage, Pai embarks on a quest to prove that she can undergo the rigorous training that will allow her to take her rightul place as head of the Whangara people. In its basest sense, Whale Rider is a coming-of-age drama, primarily about Pai's attempts to communicate and earn the respect of her grandfather. In addition to this, there are insights into Maori spirituality, social commentaries about the way ancient cultures amalgamate with modern living, and the way in which strongly-held traditions are becoming less important to the communities they once supported. It's an interesting movie in many ways, and is bolstered by Castle-Hughes's amazing main performance as confused little girl who cannot understand why her family finds her to be so much of a disappointment. The scene in which she delivers a speech dedicated to her grandfather is truly heartbreaking, and convincing in its emotional authenticity. Musically, Whale Rider embraces the sounds of the sea, the live-giving ocean that represents the cornerstone of the Whangara way of life. Composer Lisa Gerrard has written a soothing, ambient, predominantly electronic score that gently washes the listener with calming tones of mood music, often mimicking the natural sounds of whale song. There is nothing to speak of in the way of thematic material, no standout cues, not even an emotional high-point - instead, Gerrard makes her music ubiquitous, always there, like the sea, but never drawing attention to itself. Occasional piano interludes, gossamer vocal performances by Gerrard herself, and gently rhythmic percussion occasionally interrupt the calm, but on the whole this is quiet, mesmerizing stuff. More a collection of tones than a score, but it works nevertheless. Click here for a full review of Whale Rider by Peter Simons.

FEAR DOT COM

NICHOLAS PIKE

It's very rare, in this day and age, for a major Hollywood studio to make a truly bad horror film but, somehow, Columbia Pictures have succeeded with Fear Dot Com, the latest effort by House on Haunted Hill director William Bindley. Fear Dot Com is a truly horrible movie, but not in a good way, as all horror movies should have an element of horror in them. Instead, almost every aspect of Fear Dot Com fails, from direction to performance, to screenplay and plotting, right through to the basic premise, which is fundamentally flawed. Stephen Dorff (who should have known better) stars as Mike Reilly, a New York homicide detective assigned to a case where a man was mown down by a subway train clutching a book about the internet, and whose eyes were pouring with blood. After the death of a German student, who croaked with similar symptoms, Reilly is joined by public health investigator Terry Huston (Natascha McElhone, who really should have known better), who believes the deaths might be related to a virus. However, as they delve deeper into the mystery, they uncover something far more sinister - a mysterious website, called "feardotcom.com", which seems to cause the death of whoever looks at it, and which has links to "The Doctor" (Stephen Rea, who really really should have known better), a sadistic serial killer who tortures his victims on a webcam, and who Reilly has been tracking for years. For all intents and purposes, Fear Dot Com is a half-assed attempt to cash-in on the furore surrounding the Ring movies, which had a similar supernatural inanimate object (watch the video and die, vs. look at the website and die), and a spooky child which acts as a guide for the protagonists. However, Fear Dot Com is hamstrung by jarring jumps in narrative, plot holes the size of the Grand Canyon, and some truly hideous performances, especially the usually reliable Rea, and the majority of the supporting cast. Nicholas Pike, who hasn't scored a decent film since... well... ever, really, gets a welcome shot at something more mainstream, and is really the only crew member to emerge with some credibility left. His work is dark, moody, but effective. He scores the action with familiar-sounding orchestral rumblings and occasional bursts of tempo and volume, the "creeping around in the dark" scenes with scraping strings and bass-heavy creaks and groans, and gives the sinister little girl a choral leitmotif that echoes Jerry Goldsmith's seminal work on Poltergeist over 20 years ago.

THE FOUR FEATHERS

JAMES HORNER

Having taken an eternity to arrive (it was released in the US in September 2002, and has taken a full 11 months to cross the Atlantic!), director Shekhar Kapur's follow-up to the Oscar-winning Elizabeth is The Four Feathers, a story of honour and nobility set during the final days of the British Empire. Based on A.E.W. Mason's famous novel (which also inspired the classic Zoltan Korda version from 1939, with music by Mikl�s R�zsa), the film stars Heath Ledger as Harry Faversham, an officer in the British Army, whose brigade are ordered to dispatch to the Sudan to quell an uprising by the murderous Mahdi rebels. Fearing that his leaving will jeopardise his relationship with his beautiful fiancee Ethne (Kate Hudson), Harry resigns his commission, but is subsequently branded a coward by his compatriots Willoughby (Rupert Penry-Jones), Trench (Michael Sheen) and Castleton (Kris Marshall), and receives four white feathers from them as a mark of their disrespect. Only his best friend, Jack Durrance (Wes Bentley) refuses to denounce him - despite the fact that he too is in love with Ethne. However, when news of heavy British casualties in the desert filters home, Harry vows to restore his comrade's faith in his valour, and travels to the Sudan alone to ensure his friends return home alive. While it has ambitions of being a sweeping historical epic, The Four Feathers sadly falls a little short of meeting own high standards. It certainly has its fair share of excellent qualities. Robert Richardson's cinematography is simply stunning, capturing the desert vistas in all their sunburnt glory; the attention to period detail is admirable; the time spent illustrating the sheer desperation of men living in the desert is both exhilarating and exhausting; and the performances (especially from Ledger, Bentley and Michael Sheen) are on the whole superb. However, at 2 hours 10 minutes, the film drags, and suffers from a touch of "over-talkiness" that tends to detract from the story's overall emotional impact. James Horner's score has been roundly lambasted, primarily for the inclusion of the "interminable Arabic wailing" that peppers the score throughout its course. Performed by Qawwali vocalist Rahat Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, the vocals actually play a small role in the score overall, and then only to add local colour to the desert setting, and in actual fact work very well in context. When they feature in a couple of action sequences - the sniper chase, and during Harry's escape from the Mahdi prison - the vocals add a chaotic fragrance to Horner's already bombastic music. The rest of the time, Horner goes down the sweeping orchestral road, to great effect, and despite some passing references to the theme from Bicentennial Man, provides appropriate and moving accompaniment. Harry and Ethne's dance, and the extended finale/end credits sequence are of special note.

DOWN WITH LOVE

MARC SHAIMAN

"AS HEARD IN THE FILM" REVIEW COMING SOON

2 FAST 2 FURIOUS

DAVID ARNOLD

Guest review by Andy Booth. Well, what can be said? 2 Fast 2 Furious is definitely not a film for those wanting a mental challenge. In fact, the plot is as generally as thin and weak as the G-strings it constantly thrusts into your sight throughout the film. After all is said and done, it is not a complete waste of time to watch and some of the slightly 'younger' viewers might find it at least entertaining. The film sees the return of Paul Walker as Brian O'Conner (with Vin Diesel conspicuously absent), who teams up with ex-con Roman Pearce (played by model Tyrese) to launder money for a Miami smuggler named Carter Verone (Cole Hauser). Unknown to the crime ring, O'Conner is really working with undercover agent Monica Fuentes (Eva Mendes) to bring Verone to justice. That's about it. Cue the car chases. It's quite sickening to think that director John Singleton has gone from directing things wonderful films like Boyz 'n The Hood, Higher Learning and Rosewood to rubbish like this. As for the music, I'm afraid I won't be rushing out to by the soundtrack either. It comprises of mostly modern R&B blasting out at you, spasmodically counter-pointed with occasional orchestrations that quite frankly are as bad as the film. Unfortunately, even the 'James Bond' take-off hidden in the yacht scene leaves you wondering what David Arnold was doing. Being fair, though, if I was writing the score for this film, I'm sure that by this point, having seen the film so many times, my brain would have frozen over too. The accompanying Def Jam CD, which has been described by various sources as "poppin" and "kickin", features no Arnold score at all - instead, it is littered with songs by Ludacris (who features in the film), Trick Daddy, Joe Budden, Dead Prez, Jin (who also features in the film), Chingy, and other artists whose work I am completely (and thankfully!) unfamiliar. My one favourable comment... Eva Mendes. Homer Simpson drool...

BRINGING DOWN THE HOUSE

LALO SCHIFRIN

A surprisingly hilarious "mis-match" comedy, Bringing Down the House provides a welcome return to form for Steve Martin, who hasn't had a truly worthy comedy vehicle to call his own since Leap of Faith back in 1992 (his dramatic performance in The Spanish Prisoner notwithstanding). Directed by Adam Shankman, Bringing Down the House stars Martin as Peter Sanderson, a tightly-wound Los Angeles tax attorney with an estranged wife (Jean Smart) and two precocious kids (teenager Kimberley Brown, pre-teen Angus Jones). While trying to land a prestigious case handling the affairs of billionairess Mrs. Arness (Joan Plowright, in a wonderful extended cameo), Peter is also wooing the mysterious "lawyergirl", a woman he met in an Internet chatroom. Thinking her to be a sophisticated blonde, Peter arranges a date - only find that "lawyergirl" is in fact a loud, brash African-American named Charlene (the wonderful Queen Latifah), recently released from jail after being wrongly convicted of armed robbery. Charlene quickly attaches herself to the Sanderson family home, wanting Peter to re-open her case and clear her name. Of course, as with all mismatched-buddy movies, Charlene brings much more than mere "street savvy" to the previously whiter-than-white household, and inevitably teaches Peter that there is more to life than cell phones and business meetings. Hilarity ensues... I have to admit I haven't laughed this hard at a movie for a long time. Martin and Latifah have a wonderful sparky energy, playing off each other's supposed racial stereotypes in marvellous ways. Jason Filardi's script is witty and laced with acidic barbs; Eugene Levy is truly brilliant as Martin's jive-talking colleague who falls for Charlene in a big way; Missy Pyle emanates spiteful venom from every pore as Martin's spoiled sister-in-law; Betty White from "The Golden Girls" is everyone's nosy neighbour from hell; and as for Joan Plowright... well, lets just say I imagine her late husband Lawrence Olivier would never have envisaged her doing the things she does in this movie! Bringing Down the House also sees the continued rehabilitation of Lalo Schifrin's previously flagging film music career, which has been going from strength to strength since his mid-1990s return with Money Talks and Rush Hour. Schifrin's score is a light, jazzy affair, with an emphasis on infectious rhythms held fast by a sprightly string section, acoustic guitars, and a pleasant theme. Various transitional scenes of Martin driving round L.A. in his expensive car are scored in this way, while the various encounters at the Country Club feature pseudo-lounge jazz (with the exception of the Charlene/Ashley fight, which is scored as if it were a large-scale action sequence!) Sadly, none of Schifrin's score features on the accompanying soundtrack CD, which is aimed instead at fans of Latifah and her fellow rap contemporaries. Eve and Jadakiss, Foxy Brown, Floetry, Kelly Price, Mr. Cheeks and others make up the bulk of the run. Latifah herself contributes two songs - "Better Than the Rest" and "Do Your Thing" - and the album is rounded out by Barry White's soul classic "I'm Gonna Love You Just A Little More".

DARK WATER

KENJI KAWAI

Dark Water (or, to give it its original Japanese title, "Honogurai Mizu No Soko Kara") is the latest film from director Hideo Nakata, creator of the modern cult classic Ringu. Consistent with the director's previous work, Dark Water is another slow-burning horror movie which takes everyday circumstances and mixes them with a healthy dose of the supernatural, with chilling results. Hitomi Kuroki stars as Yoshimi Matsubara, who moves into a run down apartment block with her daughter Ikuko (Rio Kanno) while her divorce is being finalised. Before long, strange events are happening in the Matsubara home. Water begins to drip from the ceiling; footsteps are heard coming from the vacant apartment above; a strangely sinister red bag keeps turning up in odd places; ghostly images appear on the CCTV camera footage from inside the apartment's lift; and, worst of all, Yoshimi keeps having fleeting glimpses of a child in a yellow raincoat, who seems to bear a remarkable similarity to a little girl who went missing years previously. Is the stress of her life causing Yoshimi to slowly go insane? Or is some spectre haunting her... While Dark Water is certainly nowhere near as viscerally shattering as Ringu, it still cranks up a great deal of tension, building ever-so-slowly to a truly remarkable finale. There are lots of recurring themes and directorial touchstones in Dark Water that can be traced back to Ringu, probably through writer Koji Suzuki (urban legends translated into reality, dysfunctional family units, female central characters, the nature of parent/sibling relationships, fear of abandonment, shots of little girls with long black hair, the use of water as a marker for malevolence, and so on and so forth). Director of Photography Junichiro Hayashi captures the claustrophobia of the tenement block perfectly, framing the "real" scenes with a haze of oppressive moisture from the never-ending monsoon weather, while giving the "dream sequences" an other-worldly feel with shades of sickly green and yellow. Despite all this, Nakata unfortunately never truly recaptures the essence of what made Ringu so wonderful, leaving Dark Water just a tiny bit disappointing - although still tremendously entertaining for those who, like me, have gained an affinity for the leisurely pace of this kind of film making. Composer Kenji Kawai's music once again heads down a familiar road, combining eerie metallic dissonance with one sweeping theme for strings and synthesiser. Many of the early scenes are scored with low-end electronic growls, again playing more like sound effects design than composed music, while the multiple appearances of the tell-tale "red bag" are accompanied by vicious stingers that simply rip through you. Conversely, the scene where Yoshimi and Ikuko embrace in the rain is scored with an almost overpoweringly lush melody, illustrating the love between mother and daughter. The Dark Water CD is available as an import from Japan, and features a large selection of Kenji Kawai's music, along with the closing credits song sung by Shikao Suga.

ANGER MANAGEMENT

TEDDY CASTELLUCCI

I've been intentionally avoiding Adam Sandler movies of late. I watched and enjoyed Happy Gilmore; I watched and enjoyed The Wedding Singer; I watched and enjoyed The Waterboy. But, over the past few years, the quality of his products has gone down, and I have grown tired of his "pent up aggression" schtick (even though I did intend to catch his first "straight" performance in Punch Drunk Love, but missed it). I went to see Anger Management purely to see how Sandler's brand of crude comedy would sit in with Jack Nicholson's involvement, and I have to say that, much to my own surprise, I enjoyed it thoroughly. Directed by Peter Segal, Anger Management stars Sandler as Dave Buznik, a generally mild-mannered individual who works as a designer of clothing for cats who, as a result of a series of severe comic misunderstandings, is arrested for assaulting an air stewardess and sentenced to a undergo anger management therapy. Enter Dr Buddy Rydell (Nicholson), the group therapy leader, whose techniques are somewhat unconventional, and who more often than not seems to be in need of anger management therapy himself! I admit I enjoyed this film far more than I thought I would - the interplay between Sandler and Nicholson teeters on the brink of Lemmon/Matthau territory, there are some great one-liners, and the supporting cast is especially impressive - the underrated Marisa Tomei plays Dave's girlfriend Linda, Luis Guzm�n and John Turturro are two of Dave's fellow group therapy members, Woody Harrelson is disturbing as a German female-impersonator prostitute, Heather Graham appears unbilled as a weight-obsessed beauty, as does John C. Reilly as a monk with a temper control problem, while former NYC mayor Rudy Giuliani and former tennis star John McEnroe appear in cameos as themselves. It may seem condescending to say this, but I actually feel quite sorry for Teddy Castellucci. An accomplished saxophonist, Castellucci owes his break in movies directly to Adam Sandler, but (with just four exceptions) ALL his credits to date have either starred or been produced by him, making him a mandatory part of his team, but also meaning that very few other people hire him. Castellucci's work is generally accomplished, orchestral, sweet, light, and appealing, and Anger Management is very much the same. With Pete Anthony orchestrating and wielding the baton, Anger Management accentuates every pratfall, outburst of temper, and encounter with low-key aplomb, never calling attention to itself until the final sequence in Yankee Stadium, when the syrup levels are cranked up to maximum, and Castellucci lets rip with a large-scale romantic theme. Oddly for a Sandler movie, no CD has been released, but this would probably have no bearing on Castellucci anyway - despite most of his thirteen movies to date having had an accompanying soundtrack, virtually none of his score has been released.

IDENTITY

ALAN SILVESTRI

"AS HEARD IN THE FILM" REVIEW COMING SOON

25th HOUR

TERENCE BLANCHARD

"AS HEARD IN THE FILM" REVIEW COMING SOON

HEARTLANDS

KATE RUSBY and JOHN McCUSKER

Heartlands is a strange movie. Directed by Damien O'Donnell, who previously made the excellent East is East, the film sets out to be an "anti-epic" - an intentionally small-scale and low key affair where the protagonist embarks on a seemingly impossible journey, despite the road trip ahead of him covering only 100 miles, and which you could probably drive in a couple of hours. The protagonist in question is Colin (Michael Sheen), an inoffensive sad-sack from a dreary middle-English town, whose three loves in life are darts, his newsagent's shop, and his wife Sandra (Jane Robbins). When Sandra dumps him for oily policeman Geoff (Jim Carter), and he is removed from the pub darts team on the eve of the national championships, Colin decides to finally take things into his own hands. Armed with nothing more than a dozen bags of crisps, he sets off on his trusty moped through the heartland of England - Derbyshire - heading for Blackpool, where he intends to win back Sandra's hand. However, on the way, he encounters a number of people, whose imparted wisdom open Colin's eyes to the life he has let pass him by. Looking at it from a highbrow point of view, Heartlands is really all about male emasculation, and the re-discovery of life through actually going out there and living it. It's rare for a film of this sort to actually advocate these sentiments - normally, its go to Blackpool, win the darts tournament, get the girl - but O'Donnell and screenwriter Paul Fraser have never really embraced the norm. However, no matter how much you try and talk it up, Heartlands remains too small-scale and bland to be truly worthy of merit. Aside from a couple of nice supporting turns (notably Paul Shane, Celia Imrie, and especially Mark Addy as a loutish pub manager), a couple of funny one-liners (a Blackpool hotel called Nessun Dorma), and some truly lovely Peak District scenery courtesy of cinematographer Alwin Kuchler, there is actually very little else going for it. Sheen is passable as Colin, but he's such a waste of space that you really want to give him a kick up the arse to wake him up, or at least buy him a train ticket so he can stop toddling around at 15mph and get to Blackpool before dinner. And that's the whole problem with the movie - you never feel anything but patronising sympathy for Colin. If I were Sandra, I'd have left him too! The soundtrack is made up predominantly of modern British folk music, courtesy of Barnsley-born vocalist Kate Rusby and her songwriting partner/husband John McCusker, both of whom are making their film music debuts here. Rusby, whose voice reminds me very much of Sarah McLachlan, appears in the film singing to entertain the customers of the Strines Inn, and contributes a number of appealing songs, many of which are taken from her solo album "Ten". The lovely, Celtic-tinged "Fairest of All Yarrow" and the melancholy yet heartfelt "Wonder What Is Keeping My True Love" are the undoubted highlights of Rusby's work, while McCusker's score is gentle and unintrusive, featuring soft strings, fiddles, and mandolin solos. The scene in which Colin pours his heart out and reveals the depths of his love for Sandra to two strangers while camping in a pub car park is especially notably, and is given a bittersweet touch by the music. The album, on the independent Pure Records label, is a nice mix of songs and score: nine Rusby vocals, eight McCusker score cues, and the additional delight of "The Yodelling Song" by Irish-American artist Tim O'Brien.

HOW TO LOSE A GUY IN 10 DAYS

DAVID NEWMAN

As far as high concept comedies go, How To Lose A Guy in 10 Days is certainly one of the most convoluted. Donald Petrie's film stars Matthew McConaughey as hotshot advertising executive Ben Barry who, in order to prove that he can secure a lucrative diamond contract, bets his boss that he can make any woman in the world fall in love with him in just ten days - likening wooing women to selling the precious gems. Meanwhile, journalist Andie Anderson (Kate Hudson) has just been given a new assignment by her boss - to write an article entitled "How To Lose A Guy In 10 Days", chronicling all the things women do wrong in relationships. To give it a first hand point of view, Andie agrees to a real-life experiment where she will go out with a guy, and act so appallingly that she is dumped within ten days. But, before Andie can choose her "victim", she is picked out of a crowd by Ben's boss to be his subject... To say that the plot is contrived is a gross understatement, but the fun of this endearing romantic comedy is in watching the two likeable leads intentionally trying their hardest to be people they are not for the sake of their jobs, and the interplay as a result. Ben is a paragon of patience and tolerance as Andie puts him through all kinds of humiliations: calling him baby names in front of his friends, making him miss the end of a championship basketball game, filling his bathroom with "sanitary products" and so on. Part of the charm of this film is quietly laughing to yourself when you see and acknowledge things you have done - or have had done to you - in relationships up on the big screen. McConaughey and Hudson are eminently endearing in the leads (you know they're going to end up together, but the fun is watching them get there!); Bebe Neuwirth is all spite and acid as Andie's hard-bitten boss Lana at Composure Magazine; and watch out for a totally unexpected cameo by composer Marvin Hamlisch, playing himself! This kind of movie is bread and butter to a composer like David Newman, who admittedly hasn't scored a romantic comedy like this since Never Been Kissed back in 1999, but is always a reliable choice for directors. As such, Newman's score is saccharine sweet and orchestrally lush, accentuating each misadventure with high string washes, tender piano melodies, and the ever-present chimes for that added touch of magic. Various transitional scenes of Ben and Andie busying themselves with their daily lives are scored with modern, urban grooves; the extended set-piece at the De Lauers party is suitably upbeat; while the finale on the Brooklyn Bridge pulls no punches in the emotional stakes. The soundtrack album, on Virgin Records, does not include any of David Newman's score, instead concentrating on songs: Keith Urban, Carly Simon, the lovely "Kiss Me" by Sixpence None The Richer, and two efforts by Canadian songstress Chantal Kreviazuk, including a cover of the beautiful Randy Newman ballad "Feels Like Home".

OLD SCHOOL

THEODORE SHAPIRO

In the annals of dumb comedies, Old School is one of the dumbest I have ever seen. I don't normally go in for cinematic entertainment of this kind, but I was dragged to see it by my friend Andy Booth (thanks Andy!) and, although I freely admit I laughed heartily on occasion, I subsequently felt a little unnerved that I found a group of men with breeze blocks attached to their penises, and two women wrestling in KY jelly amusing. Directed by Todd Phillips (who made the equally puerile Road Trip), Old School is basically about a group of guys frightened to death of growing up. After catching his wife about to engage in an "extra-marital relationship", tightly-wound businessman Mitch Martin (Luke Wilson) turns to his old college buddies, stereo salesman Beanie (Vince Vaughn) and newly-married lunk Frank the Tank (Will Ferrell) for moral support. Their solution: to turn Mitch's new house near the University campus into a hard-partying frat house that will - theoretically - boost Mitch's self-esteem, make him popular, and get him laid. Cue the hi-jinks, the breeze blocks and the KY jelly, as the new fraternity brothers undergo several humiliating initiation ceremonies and invoke the wrath of the Dean (Jeremy Piven), who vows to close down the frat house once and for all. All in all, it's very crude and rude and lewd and aims squarely at the world's least discerning cinema-goers. Phillips and co-screenwriter Scot Armstrong seem to be concerned with putting their cast through one outrageous set-piece after another, the majority of which sadly hit wide of the mark. Ferrell and Vaughn are admittedly quite good, Ferrell expending large amounts of energy and Vaughn heaping on the cynicism, and both Juliette Lewis and Seann William Scott elicit a few chuckles in their extended cameos, but on the whole this is bottom-of-the-barrel stuff: a movie for Friday nights in with nachos and beer. Theodore, or "Teddy" Shapiro, is an up and coming name in Hollywood music circles, having recently become David Mamet's composer of choice, and having scored critically movies such as Girlfight, On the Ropes and State & Main. His choice to score Old School may have been financially sound, but it may be a step in the wrong direction for him career-wise, as he seems to have too much talent to be wasting it on hogwash like this. Nevertheless, Shapiro makes pretty good use of his limited opportunities, squeezing a few satisfying moments of underscore into a soundtrack filled mainly with rock and pop tunes by artists as varied as Whitesnake, Duran Duran, Paul Simon and Metallica. The one recurring theme is a breezy little melody overlaid with faux-cheesy "ba ba ba ba" vocals and bright, bouncy orchestrations, that plays in a few transitional scenes. As for the rest of the score... well, it just sort of fades into the background really. Writing this, a mere four days after seeing the film, I'm having trouble recalling any of it, good or bad. Perhaps I'm just trying to block out the image of Andy Dick giving blow-job lessons. (Oh, and there's no soundtrack CD as of yet).

WELCOME TO COLLINWOOD

MARK MOTHERSBAUGH

A heist comedy directed by brothers Joe and Anthony Russo, Welcome to Collinwood takes viewers to the "Beirut of Cleveland", a poverty-stricken neighbourhood where survival at any cost is the name of the game. The caper revolves around the discovery of a "bellini" (a sure fire crime) by jailbird Cosimo (Luis Guzman), who imparts his knowledge to girlfriend Rosalind (Patricia Clarkson), who in turn attempts to find a patsy for Cosimo so that he can get out of jail. Despite gathering together a gang of no-hopers, including slick wannabe boxer Pero (Sam Rockwell), babysitting camera salesman Riley (William H. Macy), suave knifeman Leon (Isaiah Washington), and accident-prone old-timer Toto (Michael Jeter), Rosalind has no luck in finding a "mullinski". However, Pero and crew decide to move in on the bellini themselves - a $300,000 stash hidden inside a safe in a derelict flour factory. With he help of wheelchair-bound safecracker Jerzy Antwerp (George Clooney), the intrepid quartet intend to break in to the factory and take the cash, making better lives for themselves. However, gross incompetence, unbelievable bad luck, and a maid named Carmela (Jennifer Esposito) conspire to make things not go exactly to plan... A re-make of the classic 1958 Italian heist movie Big Deal on Madonna Street, Welcome to Collinwood is a slow-burn comedy which generates its laughs through gentle verbal sparring, and the ridiculous predicament of the protagonists, and only truly comes into its own in the last 20 minutes when the heist goes down and the pratfalls begin. Macy, one of the best character actors of his generation, makes Riley a sympathetic buffoon whose only motivation is to get his wife out of jail; the late great Jeter gives comic pathos to the homeless Toto, who has an uncanny knack of losing his clothing; and Clooney is great in an extended cameo as a tattooed former crook teaching scientific methods of opening safes with drills. The music, by Ohio-born Mark Mothersbaugh, is jazzy and breezy, but somewhat underdeveloped in the movie, featuring as it does VERY low down in the sound mix. Basses, pianos, violins, drums, trumps and trombones are the instruments of choice, underscoring the comic capers with a series of fast-tempo jazz tracks which give life and effervescence to the proceedings. A prominent string performance in the scene where Riley steals the camera, and swaggering brass punches for Pero's seduction of Carmela are musical highlights, but unfortunately the whole thing lacks any kind of real prominence to be truly memorable. 12 tracks of score, along with additional tracks by the totally unique Paolo Conte, Toledo Polkamotion and Johnny Crawford make up the Sanctuary Records CD.

DREAMCATCHER

JAMES NEWTON HOWARD

"AS HEARD IN THE FILM" REVIEW COMING SOON

SHANGHAI KNIGHTS

RANDY EDELMAN

A successful and popular sequel to the 2000 comedy adventure Shanghai Noon, Shanghai Knights see the intrepid duo Chong Wang (Jackie Chan) and Roy O'Bannon (Owen Wilson) teaming up again, this time to save the British monarchy. Having been promoted to sheriff of Carson City, the now-respectable Chong's world is turned upside down when he learns that his father, the keeper of the scroll in China's forbidden city, has been murdered by British aristocrat Rathbone (Aiden Gilen). Rathbone has struck a deal with the leader of the Boxers, Wu Chow (Donnie Yen) that will allow then to become King of England and Emperor of China respectively - but Chong vows revenge and, stopping only to pick up O'Bannon in New York, heads for Victorian London to stop Rathbone and avenge his father's death. Add into the mix a young street urchin named Chaplin, a slightly dim-witted detective named Arthur Doyle, and Chong's beautiful sister Lin, and you have a slick and entertaining sequel that mixes light humour and an unusual setting with Chan's familiar brand of kung-fu action and comedy - look out for the Keystone Cops parody with the revolving door, the wonderful escape from Rathbone's palace, the climactic final fight between Chan and Wu Chow on a Thames riverboat, and the showdown with Rathbone under the bell of Big Ben itself. The film is directed by David Dobkin, making his Hollywood debut. Returning for the second time to the Shanghai scene is composer Randy Edelman, who revisits much of the same thematic material he wrote for the first movie, but with an added bit of British pomp and circumstance. The broad western adventure theme for Chong and Roy is still in evidence, as is the lovely synth and string combination for the Chinese portions of the film, with their soaring Eastern inflections. London, of course, is stuffily depicted by brief blasts of "Rule Britannia", and several other stately themes, but the score on the whole is a treat. In one of the cleverest touches, Edelman also works a rendition of "Singin' in the Rain" into his underscore for a scene where Chan fends off a horde of London street hawkers with an umbrella. Five Edelman tracks - "The Seal in Danger", "Father Theme", "The Buddies Visit Buckingham Palace", "Rathbone's Evil Heart" and "Knights in Shining Armor" are featured on the Hollywood Records CD, along with songs by newcomer Jessica Harp and stalwarts The Who, The Zombies and Harry Nilsson.

JOHNNY ENGLISH

EDWARD SHEARMUR

A wonderfully irreverent spy spoof starring Rowan "Bean" Atkinson, Johnny English is based upon a series of British TV commercials for the credit card company Barclaycard, in which a sophisticated yet useless secret agent named Richard Latham is continually bailed out by his loyal assistant, Bough. In the film, directed by Peter Howitt, Latham (now renamed Johnny English) is called upon to solve a mystery surrounding the theft of the Crown Jewels after all the agents in England are killed in an explosion. Aided and abetted by Bough (Ben Miller) and a mysterious and beautiful woman Lorna Campbell (Australian pop star Natalie Imbruglia), Johnny's trail eventually brings him face-to-face with Frenchman Pascal Sauvage (a wonderfully over-the-top John Malkovich), whose nefarious plan involves him exploiting a loophole in British law which would allow him to become King! Of course, it's all very silly, but HUGELY entertaining, bolstered by Atkinson's intentionally straight-faced performance, mixing verbal witticisms, comic timing and slapstick with great aplomb. He even manages to be convincing in a few action scenes, revealing a new edge to his personality, as well as "getting the girl" and showing a debonair side that is totally at odds with the bumbling buffoons he usually portrays. And, while some may think that this is yet another Austin Powers clone, you would be wrong: while Mike Myers lampoons the English with stereotype, Atkinson and co celebrate their quirkiness without pandering to clich�s. Musically, Johnny English is an absolute treat, with Ed Shearmur's rollicking spy score being everything David Arnold's last two 007 scores weren't, but should have been. With a blistering central theme (co-written by Howard Goodall), all guitar riffs and blasting horns cornerstoning everything, Shearmur lends English a sense of adventure, style and panache. The truck chase cue is simply marvellous, a tremendous amalgam of John Barry-style orchestral fluidity and modern grooves. Even the love theme for Johnny and Lorna reeks of the sun-kissed hues Barry brought to many of his French Riviera Bond scores. With the swinging sixties title song 'A Man For All Seasons' by Robbie Williams (and co-written by Hans Zimmer), selections by Abba and Moloko, and classical tracks by sexy all-girl string quartet Bond, Johnny English is a winning soundtrack all the way. Someone give this man a Bond movie! Click here for a full review of Johnny English.

TO KILL A KING

RICHARD G. MITCHELL

A rather dour and dispiriting movie about the British civil war, directed by Mike Barker, To Kill A King stars Tim Roth as Oliver Cromwell, who rose from the rank of General to eventually become the only man in the country's history to overthrow the monarchy and briefly turn England into a republic, circa 1650. Approaching the story from slightly different angle, Barker's film explores the relationship between Cromwell and fellow revolutionary Lord Thomas Fairfax (Dougray Scott), and how the breakdown in their friendship impacts on the life of both men, the woman they both love (Olivia Williams), and the monarch himself - King Charles I (Rupert Everett). While the period itself is fascinating, mainly for the political and social upheaval the country withstood at the time, To Kill A King is unfortunately a rather dry and turgid affair, lacking in tension and emotion despite a quartet of excellent performances from the lead actors, and appropriately grubby and realistic production design. Somewhat surprisingly, Richard G. Mitchell's score is rather good, mixing string themes and noticeably excellent cello performances with a whole load or ecclesiastical choral work and evensong. In addition to this, and probably as a result of Barker's previous collaboration with composer Craig Armstrong, Mitchell occasionally adds an anachronistic synth beat under the orchestra lines, notably in the opening establishing shop over the rooftops of 16th century London. Unusually, it doesn't seem out of place at all, and never once does the listener feel transported out of "time and place" due to the music's contemporary nature. In most scenes, Mitchell allows his music to accentuate the emotion without ever drowning it out or drenching it in bombast - Fairfax's speeches and the execution of the King standing out as being of special note. The end result plays like a cross between Braveheart, Karl Jenkins and Enigma. There is no CD as of yet, but the production is likely to produce one eventually.

THE PIANIST

WOJCIECH KILAR

One of the most powerful and critically acclaimed films of 2002, Roman Polanski's The Pianist tells the true story of Polish composer and pianist Wladislaw Szpilman, played by Best Actor winner Adrien Brody. Szpilman's story of surviving life in Warsaw during WWII is a harrowing one: how he and his family (headed by Frank Finlay and Maureen Lipman) are forced from their homes by the invading Nazi army; how they are forced to live in unbelievably squalid conditions in the newly-constructed ghetto; how they have their dignity stripped from them on a daily basis; how instinct and sheer luck keeps him alive in the face of an aggressor who hates him simply because he is Jewish; and how the kindness of an enemy (German colonel Thomas Kretschmann) proves to be his salvation. The Pianist is dotted with images and memories from Polanski's own childhood in war-torn Krakow, making it a gut-wrenchingly realistic experience to endure. Musically, The Pianist unashamedly celebrates the work of famed Polish composer Frederic Chopin, whose mazurkas, nocturnes and waltzes are performed on-screen by Szpilman/Brody, and whose lyricism and beauty stands directly at odds with the horrors going on elsewhere. The film's underscore is by Wojciech Kilar, working with Polanski again after Death and the Maiden and The Ninth Gate. Kilar's music, which was nominated for a BAFTA and won the C�sar (French Oscar) in 2003, is beautifully crafted and understated. Based on what seems to be a combination of Jewish folk tunes and Eastern European romance, Kilar's music adds weight to Szpilman's quiet desperation through a series of lamenting marches, clarinet and other woodwind solos, and soft moody strings. Its closest relation is actually his own classical piece, "Exodus", which was famously used by Steven Spielberg in the trailer for Schindler's List. Sadly, only one track of Kilar's music appears on the Sony Classical CD - a short, two-minute track called "Moving to the Ghetto: October 31, 1940". The rest of the CD is made up of selections from Frederic Chopin, played by modern Polish pianist Janusz Olejniczak.

EVELYN

STEPHEN ENDELMAN

An age-old tale of "one man standing up to fight the system", director Bruce Beresford's film tells the true story of Desmond Doyle (Pierce Brosnan), a working-class painter and decorator in 1950s Dublin who, after his wife leaves him, finds himself fighting to maintain custody of his children. Following an investigation by the local authorities, Doyle is declared an "unfit parent" due to the lack of a female presence in his household, and his children are sent to Catholic-run orphanages. Facing the combined might of the Irish courts and the Catholic church, Doyle enlists the help of sympathetic lawyers Michael Beattie (Stephen Rea) and Nick Barron (Aidan Quinn), and prepares to do battle in the courts. Apparently a pet project and labour of love for star/producer Brosnan, Evelyn (the name of Doyle's eldest daughter) is an old-fashioned film in the same vein as Norma Rae, where the little man (or woman) strikes out for justice against an unjust system. Brosnan, using his actual Irish brogue for a change, pours his heart and soul into the role of Desmond Doyle, but sadly the whole thing is a little underwhelming, and certainly nowhere near as involving as it might have been. Little Sophie Vavasseur is refreshingly un-precocious in the title role, and its great to see Father Jack's Frank Kelly in a performance where he isn't pretending to be roaring drunk, but on the whole Evelyn is nothing more than a sweet diversion - worthy and enjoyable, but little more. Musically, its nice to see Stephen Endelman accruing more big screen credits, following on from lyrical successes such as The Englishman Who Went Up A Hill But Came Down A Mountain, The Proposition and others. The music in Evelyn is unashamedly Irish in all departments, especially from the pennywhistles and fiddles Endelman employs throughout. Overall, its' enjoyable and appropriate, but just a little too predictable to make it truly rewarding - you just know what this score is going to sound like before you even hear it. The main title is underpinned by a bouncing bodhran drum, the lush "Angel Rays" theme features a vocal performance by Sissel "Titanic" Kyrkjeb�, and the finale music for the victorious courtroom verdict is suitably lush, upbeat and celebratory. In addition to a good selection of Endelman's score on Sony Classical's album, there is an additional effort from Van Morrison, and one or two traditional Irish melodies with original vocal performances by Brosnan himself.

THE CORE

CHRISTOPHER YOUNG

I like big-budget disaster movies. Always have. Director Jon Amiel's The Core is, in many ways, a throwback to the 1970s, in which a large cast has to undertake some kind of super-technical scientific feat to avert a disaster which could obliterate the Earth. The disaster in the case of this movie is (in layman's terms) the fact that the earth's molten core has stopped moving, resulting in world-wide electromagnetic chaos, causing everything from the pigeons in London's Trafalgar Square to go berserk, to (more seriously) the Earth's protective atmosphere to collapse, allowing deadly solar rays to penetrate below. After much exposition, it eventually falls to a group of scientists (led by Aaron Eckhart, Stanley Tucci and Tcheky Karyo) and rookie astronaut Hilary Swank to travel into the Earth's core and effectively "jump-start" it with nuclear weapons - using inventor Delroy Lindo's vehicle as transportation. In many ways, this is mindless entertainment - it's nothing more than Armageddon meets Journey to the Centre of the Earth - but it's one of those popcorn-munching throwbacks to a time in movies when any obstacle could be overcome by old-fashioned teamwork and self-sacrifice. Musically, too, The Core is more than a little nostalgic, with composer Christopher Young combining his own big-action style (think Hard Rain) with some cooing choral elements (think Hellbound: Hellraiser II) and more than a little of Jerry Goldsmith's 1970s militaristic sound. Young's never really done a film like this before, and although it doesn't quite have the personality of some of his smaller works, the sheer scale and bombast of his work here makes for more than impressive listening. A main theme replete with angelic voices, throbbing "let's get to work" montage cues, lots of snare drums to depict the army's involvement, and a whole load of huge brass-led action material is the order of the day. The score accompanying the launch of the vehicle is soul-stirring; the rat-run through the diamond cluster chamber is terrifyingly good, and some of the reflective pieces between Eckhart and Swank are underscored with a subtlety and hesitant romance that stands at odds with the rest of the score. Sadly, no soundtrack release is planned for The Core: someone press a promo, quick!!

DAREDEVIL

GRAEME REVELL

"AS HEARD IN THE FILM" REVIEW COMING SOON

FAR FROM HEAVEN

ELMER BERNSTEIN

"AS HEARD IN THE FILM" REVIEW COMING SOON

MAID IN MANHATTAN

ALAN SILVESTRI

"AS HEARD IN THE FILM" REVIEW COMING SOON

JACKASS: THE MOVIE

VARIOUS ARTISTS

I'm actually rather ashamed to admit the following fact: I love Jackass. I crease up with laughter every time I watch it. The big-screen spin-off of the massively successful MTV series, Jackass: The Movie is, basically, a collection of comedy sketches, in which one (or more) people do any number of stupid, puerile, anti-social, or dangerous things, with or without the knowledge of the general public, who generally stand by, goggle-eyed at what is going on. The core cast of jackasses - Johnny Knoxville, Bam Margera, Ryan Dunn, Steve "Steve-O" Glover, Chris Pontius, Preston Lacy, Jason "Wee Man" Acuna, Dave England and Ehren McGhehey - spend the entire movie doing the aforementioned dumb stuff, and film themselves doing it, with the help of "director" Jeff Tremaine, and "writer" Spike Jonze, the man behind Being John Malkovich. Some of the antics include Knoxville almost killing himself crashing a golf cart, Steve-O stuffing raw meat into his underwear and venturing into an alligator pit, Ryan Dunn shoving a toy car up his backside, Chris Pontius offending all of Japan by dancing near-naked in public, Knoxville getting knocked out by heavyweight boxer Butterbean, the entire cast offending all of Japan by running around in panda outfits, Steve-O attaching firecrackers to intimate parts of his anatomy (and then lighting them!), Dave England taking a dump in a store display toilet, Knoxville scaring golfers with an air-horn, Steve-O snorting wasabi, and many more. It's unscripted, unimaginably stupid, and totally hilarious, if you like that thing. Despite not actually having a score, and being an MTV production, the accompanying soundtrack is actually a very good collection of underground punk and rock songs, and includes cuts by such acts as The Rezillos, The Misfits, CKY, Sahara Hotnights, Detroit Cobras and Roger Alan Wade. The familiar theme song, "Corona", by Mike Watt of the Minutemen, with its twangy opening chords, is a welcome inclusion.

CHICAGO

JOHN KANDER and DANNY ELFMAN

John Kander and Fred Ebb's Broadway musical Chicago has been a popular and enduring stage presence in the theatre scene since it first debuted in New York in 1975. As with all successful things, it was only a matter of time before someone made the movie version was made, and director Rob Marshall's big-screen extravaganza does justice to the original. A tale of love, sex, jealousy and jazz in the 1920s, Chicago stars Renee Zellweger as Roxie Hart, a wannabe actress and singer who murders her lover in a jealous rage, and Catherine Zeta-Jones as Velma Kelly, a night-club chanteuse who murders her sister and husband, who were sleeping with each other. A gossip column celebrity, the incarcerated Velma finds her thunder being stolen by Roxie in the newspapers, and is cast into the shadows more when Roxie hires her lawyer, hotshot attorney Billy Flynn (Richard Gere), to represent her as well. And so begins a tale of fame, revenge, and media manipulation, as both Velma and Roxie try to avoid the executioner, clear their names AND remain in the public spotlight. Kander and Ebb's songs - which include such classics as "All That Jazz", the "Cell Block Tango" and "Razzle Dazzle" - are all belted out with aplomb by the cast, who perform all their own vocals. Queen Latifah, as prison matriarch Mama Morton, is a real revelation, singing "When You're Good to Mama" like a Broadway veteran. Richard Gere acquits himself well, especially in the showstopping comedy sequence "We Both Reached For the Gun", while the all-new Zeta-Jones and Zellweger duet "I Move On" earned Kander and Ebb an Oscar nomination. Danny Elfman's score is minimal at best, contributing a couple of clever jazzy pieces for transitional scenes which present a new side to his canon - although why they didn't ask Kander to write the score, I don't know. Two Elfman score cuts - "After Midnight" and "Roxie's Suite" feature on the CD, along with all the songs from the film, plus a couple new cover versions by modern pop artists such as Macy Gray and Anastacia.

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