Movie Music U.K. As Heard In The Film 1999

Movie Music U.K. As Heard In The Film 1999

DOGMA

HOWARD SHORE

The controversy around Dogma is all to do with director Kevin Smith's motives. Is it, as Smith contends, merely a work of light-hearted fiction that takes a "what if" standpoint with regard to the Catholic church, or is it an intentionally blasphemous attack on the Christian faith and the beliefs of millions world-wide? I personally vouch for the former because, if anything, Dogma actually affirms the nature of religion, ultimately ending with the message that worship, in all its forms, is a good and positive thing, if undertaken in the right manner. The film stars Ben Affleck and Matt Damon as two angels, Loki and Bartleby, who were cast out of heaven and have been living unnoticed on Earth for thousands of years. When a Catholic priest in New York agrees to perform an unconditional absolution of sins to all comers, the angels see this as an opportunity to exploit a loophole and return home - despite the fact that, by doing so, they will prove God to be fallible and thereby destroy all of creation. It falls upon humble family planning clinic worker Linda Fiorentino to stop them, aided and abetted by such notable heavenly bodies as seraphim Alan Rickman, muse Salma Hayek and 13th apostle Chris Tucker. Unusually for a Smith movie, Dogma features a fully orchestral score courtesy of Howard Shore, whose work on this film is without a doubt one of the best scores for a comedy in 1999. He regularly incorporates a large choir, with solos for a boy soprano, into the lush orchestral backing, lending the film an unexpected sense of scale and grandeur. Many times during the film, Shore's music lifts the whole thing to another level, with moments such as Alan Rickman's initial appearance in Fiorentino's bedroom, the fight on the train, and the conclusive battle in front of the New Jersey cathedral being of special note. Also worth mentioning is the bizarre buzzing leitmotif Shore uses to signify the appearance of the "Stygian Triplets", demons disguised as rollerblading teenagers who use a hockey stick as their weapon of choice. The album, on Maverick, includes a generous proportion of Shore's score, as well as the new song "Still" by Alanis Morrissette, which plays over the end credits. Click here for a full review of Dogma.

MYSTERY MEN

STEPHEN WARBECK

Mystery Men, advertising genius Kinka Usher's first feature film, is a great idea bolstered by superb visuals but let down by surprisingly poor dramatic execution and a limp screenplay. The concept - in which a real life super-hero is captured by an evil genius, leaving the fate of a bustling metropolis in the hands of a bunch of wannabes - should have made for an excellent, tongue-in-cheek comic book spoof. The actual characters are marvellous: Hank Azaria is The Blue Rajah, an effete Brit who throws cutlery at people; Ben Stiller is Mr. Furious, whose super power is to get really really angry; William H. Macy is The Shoveller, who smacks people over the head with a spade; Paul Reubens is The Spleen, whose weapon is his flatulence; Janeane Garofalo is The Bowler, who has a magic bowling ball with her dead father's skull inside; Wes Studi is The Sphinx, who is extremely mysterious; Kel Mitchell is Invisible Boy, who can become see-through - but only when no-one is looking at him... and so on and so forth. But the problem is that, once the premise has been established, there is very limited scope for the film to progress, and the initial joke wears very thin after a while. The film looks great (especially the production design, costumes and the amazing vistas of Champion City), and there are several funny moments, but Usher fails to stretch it out into a consistently entertaining 2-hour film. To be truthful, Stephen Warbeck probably only landed this scoring job because he won the Oscar last year. He has no pedigree in either the action or science fiction genres, and while this should not necessarily hold him back, he does seem to be a little out of his depth here. The film cries out for a memorable main theme, but doesn't get one, instead relying on some pseudo-Elfmanesque crescendos and wave upon wave of bland but serviceable action material. One cue, for the scene in which Bill Macy delivers his "stirring speech", comes across better than most, but far too much time is spent working in a series of pointless and crass R&B songs than developing a better underscore. Some of Warbeck's efforts were replaced with music by Shirley Walker before the final cut, although I have no idea which bits are hers. None of Warbeck's score features on the CD either.

ANNA AND THE KING

GEORGE FENTON

A spellbinding romantic epic, Anna and the King is one of those movies which it is often said they don't make like they used to - except that, in this case, they have! Based upon the diaries of Anna Leonowens and directed by Andy Tennant, the film tells the perennially popular story of a prim and proper English governess (Jodie Foster, in the Irene Dunne/Deborah Kerr role) who travels to Victorian-era Siam to tutor the son and heir of King Mongkut (Chow Yun-Fat, in the Rex Harrison/Yul Brynner role) in the ways of the West. At first shocked by the ways and customs of the East, Anna slowly begins to accept her new homeland, and even embarks upon a chaste relationship with the revered Mongkut, something which would have been previously unthinkable, while all the while political and social reform begins to sweep across Siam. Despite telling a familiar tale of love and respect across cultural boundaries, and running for almost 3 hours, Anna and the King is a magnificent movie. It could be that the word "sweeping" was invented specifically to describe the breathtaking vistas on display here, which range from bustling Bangkok streets to the opulence of Mongkut's palace and the lushness of the Siamese countryside. Dramatically, as well as visually, Anna and the King impresses, with Chow especially revealing a whole new side to his screen persona, while the screenplay by Steve Meerson and Peter Krikes is intelligent, witty and socially aware. For a film like this, it goes without saying that it needs a score on a large scale, and George Fenton pulls out all the stops. Mixing a large symphony orchestra with a group of Oriental soloists, Fenton's music is equally adept at musically conveying both the emotions and passions and the geographical setting. A gorgeous love theme for piano and orchestra is afforded several fabulous renditions, and there are more than a few moments where the music takes centre stage, including Anna's arrival in Bangkok, her arrival at the palace, during the celebration dinner, for Tuptim's execution, and while the King's cortege is travelling on the river to the monastery. There are even some action cues underscoring the nefarious General Alak's efforts to overthrow the monarchy. The end credits song, "How Can I Not Love You" performed by Joy Enriquez, is also of high quality, leading me to give Anna and the King - both movie and music - my unreserved recommendation. Click here for a full review of Anna and the King.

THE IRON GIANT

MICHAEL KAMEN

The Iron Giant is the first non-Disney animated film to generate positive reviews from the vast majority of critics, many of whom cited its intelligent script, excellent voice casting, striking design and genuine emotional content. The film is based on poet laureate Ted Hughes' book "The Iron Man", and is set in 1950s America at the height of the Government-enduced xenophobia of Sputnik and the Cold War. Hogarth Hughes (voice of Eli Marienthal) is a ten-year old boy obsessed with space and science fiction who, while wandering in the woods near his home, encounters a 100-foot robot who has crash landed there from outer space. Initially afraid, Hogarth and the Giant eventually become friends and, with the help of his mother (Jennifer Aniston) and a local beatnik (Harry Connick Jr.) the young boy teaches the metal-munching machine about life, death and the importance of individuality. It is only when the FBI, in the shape of Agent Kent Mansley, comes knocking on their door that things start to turn sour. Although intellectual and structural comparisons with E.T. other classic children's fantasies are sure to be drawn The Iron Giant is not as derivative as one might imagine. The script is fresh and witty, quite obviously as a result of having Simpsons alumnus Brad Bird in the director's chair, and the ending, although emotionally shattering, never seems quite as manipulative as Steven Spielberg's seminal tearjerker. In animation, music plays much more of an important role, having to convey feelings much more obviously than in live action. Michael Kamen's score for The Iron Giant is one of his best ever, lending it a sense of emotional gravity, a light-hearted playfulness and a grounding in reality. Despite the lack of a really memorable theme, Kamen's cues are deliciously structured, from the thunderous opening in a thunderstorm, to the first encounter between Hogarth and the Giant, the militaristic arrival of the army, and the fantastic finale. It is also highly refreshing to watch an animated feature which has no irrelevant songs seemingly crowbarred in to keep the kids happy. Only one word seems fitting to sum up The Iron Giant: superman!! Click here for a full review of The Iron Giant.

THE STRAIGHT STORY

ANGELO BADALAMENTI

The Straight Story is one of those exquisite films more like a poetic dream than any kind of conventional movie - but what do you expect when it is directed by David Lynch? Eschewing the patented weirdness that has characterised his earlier works, The Straight Story is not about the depravity that goes on behind the white picket fences of suburban America, but about the general decency of humanity. It is a slow, thoughtful, beautiful motion picture which tells a simple, straightforward true story with a breathtaking visual style, and features an Oscar-worthy performance by 79-year old former stuntman Richard Farnsworth in the lead role. Farnsworth plays elderly widower Alvin Straight who, upon learning that his estranged brother Lyle has suffered a stroke, embarks upon an epic journey from Iowa to Wisconsin to visit him - on a converted lawn mower. And that's it. Alvin encounters various people on his travels, shares nuggets of wisdom with them, recounts tales of his youth, smokes cigars and eats roasted hot dogs under the starry sky. Sissy Spacek takes on the an unusual part as Alvin's slightly backward but kind-hearted daughter, and a few familiar Lynch faces crop up in supporting roles, but on the whole this is Farnsworth's film. His performance is so genuine and so truthful that we learn more about Alvin Straight in a single scene than we do about other characters in whole other movies. Freddie Francis's burnt umber cinematography is simply stunning, revelling in the visual splendour of the American Midwest, and Angelo Badalamenti's gorgeous score simply caps it off. Badalementi goes for pure, sentimental beauty on The Straight Story, presenting cue after cue of light fiddle solos, expressive acoustic guitars, an occasional harmonica, and a wash of live and synthesised strings which are occasionally reminiscent of his Twin Peaks music but without the sense of irony or foreboding. There are many moments when the music is the absolute centre of attention, accompanying the panoramic vistas of endless cornfields, swooping low over the combine harvesters at work, guiding Alvin on his way. This is by far the best Angelo Badalamenti score I have ever heard, and is likely to both surprise and impress all the people who thought he was as weird as Lynch. Click here for a full review of The Straight Story.

END OF DAYS

JOHN DEBNEY

After a three-year hiatus, during which time he had open heart surgery, Austrian superstar Arnold Schwarzenegger returns to the big screen with a bang in End of Days, a millennium action thriller. Arnie plays Jericho Cane, a suicidal security guard whose faith is put to the ultimate test when he is forced to do battle with Satan himself who, in the guise of Gabriel Byrne, returns to Earth on Millennium Eve to choose his bride. Legend has it that if Satan successfully mates with his chosen bride - in this case Robin Tunney - between 11.00 and midnight on 31 December 1999, he will take over the world... It's all preposterous stuff of course, but Schwarzenegger fans will welcome every punch, stunt and explosion like a long lost friend. Director Peter Hyams handles the action excellently, and gives New York a dark, dank, squalid look not too dissimilar to David Fincher's vision of urban hell in Seven. The problems come when Schwarzenegger is asked to show some emotion and depth to his acting. He is simply incapable of convincing an audience with his performance, and this is the film's only let down. Gabriel Byrne, on the other hand, is marvellous as "The Man", oozing sinister charm and seductive evil. Hyams's regular composer John Debney has responded to the film with a suitably apocalyptic score, making use of a large and loud orchestra augmented by lots of different types of vocals. There is a boy soprano intoning an Agnus Dei, a large mixed-voice choir lending weighty Omenish tones to several scenes, and some highly unusual ethnic throat singing that occurs whenever The Man is about to do something nasty. Add in a more than a couple of thrilling action cues and you have a superb blockbuster score which demands to be heard. Click here for a full review of End of Days.

ANYWHERE BUT HERE

DANNY ELFMAN

Essentially a study of a mother-daughter relationship, Wayne Wang's Anywhere But Here showcases the acting talent of Susan Sarandon and Natalie Portman who, in the lead roles, simply shine. Their depiction of a forced co-dependency at breaking point is drenched in realism and one cannot help but feel sympathy for the two lead characters - especially as, unlike most films of this type, it is the mother who regularly goes of the rails, and the level-headed daughter who constantly brings her irresponsible parent plummeting back to grim reality. As good as Sarandon is, Natalie Portman steals every scene she is in, bringing a sense of maturity and emotional depth that has previously been hinted at but hitherto unseen at this level, despite her excellent work in films such as Leon. Her scenes with Sarandon, and also with would-be boyfriend Shawn Hatosy, are excellent, and could easily see her bag her first Oscar nomination for Supporting Actress next Spring. Danny Elfman, working with Wayne Wang for the first time, is pretty subdued for the most part, his music never really rising to take centre stage at any point in the film. From what I could make out, the score is stylistically very similar to his other recent scores, but with subtly different orchestrations that scream "road movie" - guitars, fiddles, harmonicas and so on - and a slightly less fragile, more conventional string section to underscore the scenes of catharsis and redemption between mother and daughter. The soundtrack album features a fairly lengthy score suite tagged on the end of a whole load of chick flick mainstays, including efforts from k.d. lang, Lisa Loeb, LeAnn Rimes, Carly Simon and Sarah McLachlan.

THE WORLD IS NOT ENOUGH

DAVID ARNOLD

To continue with the wordplay which has surrounded the release of this film, the 19th Bond movie is most definitely more than enough to satisfy fans of the genre. With Pierce Brosnan reprising the role of the debonair super spy for the third time, The World Is Not Enough sees 007 off on a globetrotting adventure which takes him from Bilbao to London to Azerbaijan to Kazakhstan to Turkey and beyond in 120 breathless minutes, locking horns with Bosnian terrorist Renard (Robert Carlyle), who is suspected of assassinating wealthy oil magnate Sir Robert King. Along for the ride are King's beautiful daughter Elektra (Sophie Marceau), nuclear weapons expert Dr Christmas Jones (Denise Richards) and Russian arms dealer Valentin Zukovsky (Robbie Coltrane, who also appeared in Goldeneye). The plot of TWINE is almost too complex for its own good this time round, but for aficionados of the series all the elements are in place: a breathtaking opening title chase along the River Thames, a couple of sexy Bond girls with improbably suggestive names, several great action set pieces, the obligatory throwaway remarks, gadgets, cars, M and Q... It's one of the most mindlessly enjoyable Bond flicks for a while, and keeps the thrills coming without ever losing the narrative thread or its marbles. Undertaking scoring duties once again is David Arnold, whose music throbs and hums to continuous synth loops and exciting electronic pacing. It's an unexpected change of tack for the series, but although the brass fanfares and performances of the famous "theme" are still intact, Arnold's new approach seems the right way to go - a Bond for the modern age. Notable musical moments include the pre-title sequence, the ski chase, the attack on Zukovsky's caviar factory and the finale on board a submarine deep beneath the Bosporus. The title song is by American rock group Garbage and, although not one of the series' best, still leaves a decent impression. Click here for a full review of The World Is Not Enough.

THE ASTRONAUT'S WIFE

GEORGE S. CLINTON

An effective but unusual film, The Astronaut's Wife is a pick 'n mix from a number of genres (science fiction, paranoia thriller, horror, romantic drama), making it difficult to comprehensively classify. It stars Johnny Depp as a top NASA astronaut who, while on a routine spacewalk, loses contact with the Earth for two minutes and immediately falls terribly ill. Upon his return to terra firma, and after his recovery, he inexplicably quits his job and moves to a New York engineering firm with his newly-pregnant wife Charlize Theron. But things have changed in their relationship, and after several peculiar occurrences take place, suspicions are aroused in Theron which lead her to believe that things may not be quite right with Depp's personality. What really did happen up there in the blackness of space? Director Rand Ravich's intentions seem to have been to make a Rosemary's Baby for the 1990s, and although this film never comes close to recapturing the intensity of Roman Polanski's masterpiece, it is still a clever and engaging experience. Rather than focusing on shocks and horror, Ravich instead concentrates on the interplay between Depp and Theron, making this film less a frightener and more an intriguing character study with horrific overtones. Composer George S. Clinton has built his original score around a lovely main theme characterising the changing relationship between Depp and Theron. Written for soft strings and piano with accompaniment from live and sampled voices, Clinton's music develops cleverly as the film progresses - initially conventionally romantic and quite lovely, but slowly becoming more and more disturbing as the shocking truth about Depp's two minutes is revealed. Much of the score is written in this style, making it one of the most melodic and attractive works I have heard from him, but there are also a few darker moments of synth-based action and tension. A CD of Clinton's music for The Astronaut's Wife is available on the Sire label. Click here for a full review of The Astronaut's Wife.

ONEGIN

MAGNUS FIENNES

Despite the sincere best efforts of virtually the entire Fiennes family, this new cinematic version of Pushkin's classic poem Onegin is, unfortunately, one of the most tedious films I have ever had the misfortune of watching. Martha Fiennes directs her brother Ralph in the lead role of Evgeny Onegin, a Russian aristocrat who inherits a country estate from his uncle, and attracts the attentions of his neighbour's daughter, Tatiana (Liv Tyler). Onegin arrogantly spurns Tatiana's advances and is forced to kill Tatiana's brother-in-law Vladimir (Toby Stephens) in a duel, after which he disappears from public life. Upon his return six years later, Onegin realises that he loves Tatiana after all, but discovers that she has been introduced to St. Petersburg society, and is now married to the dashing Prince Nikitin (Martin Donovan). At the time of its writing, Onegin was an undisputed literary classic, telling an emotional and timeless tale of love and obsession. But, despite being visually magnificent (Remi Adefarasin's sweeping photography combines wonderfully with Jim Clay's intelligent, sumptuous production design), this new interpretation is almost passionless and oh-so-slow, given to long moments of near silence, punctuated with peculiar sound effects and a somewhat stilted screenplay that makes watching it a painfully drawn out experience. Equally peculiar is the score, by another member of the Fiennes family, composer Magnus. His music is a strange, dissonant affair, full of choppy Goldenthalian strings and jarring little melodies overlaid with a variety of ethnic instruments including an Armenian duduk and a balalaika. Only towards the end of the film does Fiennes attempt anything more conventionally orchestral, introducing a series of sombre string themes and a solo piano trying to capture Onegin's loneliness. The society ball scenes are underscored with a variety of classical pieces, from Schubert to Beethoven, and provide a welcome break from the dissonance.

FANNY AND ELVIS

STEPHEN WARBECK

A British comedy about love, pregnancy and Catherine Cookson novels, Fanny & Elvis is a film which tries desperately hard to be likeable, but only succeeds on a limited basis. Written and directed by Kay Mellor (of TV's Band of Gold fame), the film is set in the Yorkshire town of Hebden Bridge and stars Kerry Fox and Ray Winstone as Kate and Dave, respectively a neurotic novelist and a loud-mouthed used car salesman, who are inadvertently thrown together when her husband runs off with his wife. When Kate is told that her biological clock's alarm is about to go off, she decides that her life will only be complete when she has a baby - but should she choose misogynist Dave, her gay lodger Andrew (Ben Daniels) or her estranged partner Rob (David Morrissey) to be the sperm donor? There is little to dislike about Fanny & Elvis in itself - it is a warm, charming and funny film with some sparkling moments, but it's just too "normal" for its own good to be a true standout. That said, the cast are uniformly superb, especially the normally brutal Ray Winstone who finally gets the girl and behaves like a "nice bloke" instead of a monster, and former Coronation Street actress Gaynor Faye, who has a great cameo as Dave's ex-wife Samantha, wearing a PVC basque and brandishing a chainsaw. Oscar-winner Stephen Warbeck's original score is attractive enough, with several tender cues for a string ensemble, woodwinds and guitar underwriting Dave and Kate's hesitant courtship. The most spectacular moments, however, come in the opening titles and during Kate's "dream sequences" on the windswept Yorkshire moors, in which an intentionally overblown but stunningly beautiful orchestral love theme briefly takes centre stage. There is no CD soundtrack of Fanny & Elvis available as of yet, which is a real shame because, as well as Warbeck's score, the end credits also feature a great new arrangement of Gordon and Warren's "The More I See You", performed by the unusually-voiced Cerys Matthews from Catatonia.

FIGHT CLUB

THE DUST BROTHERS (MICHAEL SIMPSON and JOHN KING)

Contrary to popular belief, Fight Club is not a film about people fighting. Yes, fighting does take place, and it's pretty brutal at times, but David Fincher's hallucinatory, abstract work is a much more intelligent and probing piece of cinema than the gutter press would have you believe. In fact, it's all about the notion of men being stripped of their masculinity, about people being reduced to nothing more than slaves to fashion and fads, and about society's notion of what is "acceptable" behaviour. Edward Norton stars a white-collar slave who, disaffected with his drone-like consumer-led life and his Ikea apartment, falls into the company of Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt), a travelling soap salesman. Discovering a mutual affinity for the adrenaline rush brought on by violence, the two set up a "fight club" in the basement of a bar, where men with similar emotions can go beat the hell out of each other - not for money or glory, but simply because they want to. To reveal any more would spoil the film's impact, as well as the shocking twist in the end which even I didn't see coming. Suffice to say, it is an excellent, if a little confusing movie, with a superb cinematic style and several breathtaking visual flourishes. Norton and Pitt are excellent, as are Helena Bonham Carter (in a completely different role for her as Pitt's socially barren girlfriend) and rock star Meatloaf as a man with breasts (I kid you not!) Unusually for a Fincher film, music is not one of this film's strong points - a surprising turn considering the excellent scoring in Alien 3, Seven and The Game. Techno producers The Dust Brothers (aka Michael Simpson and John King) contribute a dark, pulsating electronic score which, in certain moments (especially the opening titles) creates the perfect mood, with turbulent dance rhythms and an incessant synth beat heightening the sense of oppression. Unfortunately, it has no soul - it's just interesting noise - but that is not necessarily a bad thing in a film like this. In a way, this passionless, faceless "music" is a perfect accompaniment to Fincher's bleak vision of a passionless, faceless society.

EAST IS EAST

DEBORAH MOLLISON

The latest in a long line of British women writing film music, Londoner Deborah Mollison makes her feature scoring debut with East Is East, a sharp and witty comedy set amongst the British Pakistani community circa 1970. Directed by Damien O'Donnell and starring Asian character actor Om Puri and a supporting cast of familiar faces from British TV (including soap stars Jimi Mistry from "Eastenders" and Chris Bisson from "Coronation Street"), the film takes a funny and poignant look at the mixed-race Khan family, Manchester fish and chip shop owners, as they try to maintain their cultural heritage while integrating themselves into modern English life at the same time. Never pandering to stereotypes, East Is East is a funny and moving film which addresses several interesting issues (arranged marriages, patriarchal family units, domestic violence, the need for acceptance) without ever becoming too serious, and manages to work in a number of genuine belly laughs, including a superb Bollywood pastiche and a couple of deadpan one-liners courtesy of the perennially parka-clad youngest son Sajid (Jordan Routledge). Mollison's score is never truly prominent enough to take centre stage, but is nonetheless attractive, accentuating the moments of comedy and pathos with equal skill. For the most part Mollison uses a familiar orchestral string lines with a small ensemble featuring trumpet, harmonica and saxophone solos, but occasionally she dips into traditional Asian music - there are several smashing bhangra-inspired tunes that feature sitar and tabla, and even an original song, "Allah-hu" written by Mollison and Rajan Kochhar, performed by Latafat Ali Khan and Shahid Sunny.

RIDE WITH THE DEVIL

MYCHAEL DANNA

Part civil war epic, part love story, part rumination on life, Ang Lee's wonderful revisionist western Ride With The Devil is one of the surprise packages of the year. An adaptation of Daniel Woodrell's Woe To Live On, the film stars Tobey Maguire and Skeet Ulrich as Jake Roedell and Jack Bull, two Missouri boys who, after their parents are mercilessly killed by Yankee soldiers, join up with a band of "bushwhackers", a ragtag army fighting the Confederates without the blessing of the Southern generals. However, as the years go by and the bloodshed increases, their attitudes change, as they slowly begin to question whether the cause they once believed in so strongly is really worth dying for. Director Lee, not really known for his action movies, really delivers the goods on this occasion, combining moments of great poignancy and reflection with blood-curdling battle sequences which pull no punches with their realism or relentlessness. The script, by James Schamus, is insightful and poetic, and there are several superb supporting performances, including singer Jewel as Sue Lee Shelley, the object of Roedell's affections; Jeffrey Wright as Daniel Holt, a former slave with a hidden agenda, and Jonathan Rhys Meyers as the callous bushwhacker Pitt Mackeson. The films looks and sounds wonderful but, in my opinion, the best things about Ride With The Devil is the score, by Canadian Mychael Danna. Writing completely against type, Danna illustrates the American landscape with some lovely folksy tunes for guitar and fiddle, captures the blossoming love between Jake and Sue Lee with some gentle and tender string writing, intensifies the confrontations between the Yankees and the Bushwhackers with a series of thunderous action cues, and wraps the whole thing up in a massive, sprawling western theme. Yes, you read that right. Mychael Danna - otherwise known as Mr. Minimalism - has written a beautiful, full orchestral western theme. Ever since I saw glimmers of hope in 8MM after his earlier low-key efforts, I have been silently praying for Danna to let rip with a massive theme that would shock everybody who thought he couldn't do it. Well, I'm pleased to report that he most definitely can. It's one of my favourites of the year to date. Click here for a full review of Ride With The Devil.

THE SIXTH SENSE

JAMES NEWTON HOWARD

A masterful chiller-thriller, The Sixth Sense is remarkable for three things. Firstly, it sees Bruce Willis give by far his best acting performance since Pulp Fiction. Second, it announces the arrival of wonderful child actor Haley Joel Osment who, as the centrepiece of the film, gives a master class in acting scared. Third, it acts as a showcase for new directing talent M. Night Shyamalan, whose studio feature debut this is. The Sixth Sense is a film which is best seen blind, not knowing much about it before you go in. The basic plot outline concerns Willis, a respected Philadelphia child psychologist who takes the case of a traumatised ten year old boy (Osment) who claims he can "see" dead people. The supporting cast includes Toni Collette and Olivia Williams, and there is a cracking twist at the end of the movie, but as far as the plot is concerned, that's all I'm telling you. The score, by James Newton Howard, has been almost universally acclaimed as one of the best thriller scores of the year. Fully orchestral, with moments of extreme dissonance, it certainly fulfils its aims, by being both chilling and awe-inspiring in equal measure, and reaches several superb choral crescendos to accompany certain key scenes - especially Cole's confession of his secret, his encounters with the ghosts, and the shocking finale. This is the second of five high-profile James Newton Howard scores hitting the UK in the course of a few months, and with Runaway Bride Behind him and Stir of Echoes, Mumford and others to come, this looks to be his year. Click here for a full review of The Sixth Sense.

THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT

ANTONIO CORA

Take three young actors, two novice directors, a couple of hand held cameras and a whole load of Internet-generated hype and you have The Blair Witch Project, the most successful film ever made. I'm sure no-one needs me to spell out the plot but here goes anyway: three student filmmakers (Heather Donohue, Joshua Leonard and Michael Williams) head off into the woods near Burkitsville, Maryland to make a documentary about the 'Blair Witch', a local spectre that supposedly haunts the forest. They are never seen again. A year later, their jerky video footage is found and cobbled together to form a film - this one - telling the tale of them getting lost, finding unusual artifacts made of rocks and twigs and - most frightening of all - hearing bizarre cackling noises coming from outside their tent in the dead of night. The brilliance of Blair Witch lies purely in its simplicity - there is no false lighting, no professional camerawork, no script (the dialogue was all improvised), no special effects (you never see the witch) and no scary music. Blair Witch scares you silly with nothing more than shadows, eerie muffled sounds and pieces of foliage. It is a film about normal people who, despite being aware of the ludicrousness of their situation, are nevertheless reduced from sophisticated and intelligent beings to screaming, stumbling wrecks running for their lives from an unknown entity. It preys on all the deepest-seated fears of human nature and builds them up, almost to breaking point. I loved it, and I don't mind admitting that my legs were like jelly as I walked back to my car after leaving the cinema. So how do you make a soundtrack for a movie which has no music? Well, Compass III have cleverly put together an album subheaded "Josh's Blair Witch Mix" which is supposedly made up of the songs on a tape found in the missing cameraman's car. Tracks from artists such as Lydia Lunch, Skinny Puppy, The Creatures, Afghan Wigs and Type O Negative make up the bulk of the running time, although tagged on the end is one track of Tony Cora's original score entitled "The Cellar". Cora's work is actually best described as original sound effects than original score, and is mainly made up of ambient noise and unearthly synth droning designed to scare the listener witless. I can't actually remember what the cue sounds like, as I was far too engrossed in the film's horrifying ending to really notice. Therefore, as this is an "as heard in the film" review, and as there is no music in The Blair Witch Project, I am going to leave this one unrated. Like the directors of the film itself, I'm leaving you to make up your own minds.

PUSHING TIN

ANNE DUDLEY

One would not automatically assume that a romantic comedy/drama about air traffic controllers would be inherently entertaining but, surprisingly, Mike Newell's Pushing Tin is an intriguing, if a little underwhelming example of just that. John Cusack stars as Nick Falzone, one of New York's top controllers ("he really pushes tin!" on character remarks), who enjoys a good career, respect from his co-workers and an idyllic marriage to ditzy, kind-hearted Cate Blanchett. Nick's world is thrown into chaos, however, by the arrival of Russell Bell (Billy Bob Thornton), a hotshot controller from Utah with an unconventional manner, an abrasive attitude and an "interesting" personality. A deep rivalry quickly develops between Nick and Russell, leading to confrontations which stretch beyond the control tower and deep into their respective marriages and personal lives... All this is quite entertaining in a very undemanding kind of way, with Cusack's patented neurosis and Thornton's silent menace ably supported by a bevy of familiar faces (including the lovely Angelina Jolie). Anne Dudley's original score is somewhat similar to her other "quirky comedy" outing The Full Monty, and she makes use of a proliferation of bouncy rhythms and finger-snapping tempos for strings, pianos, synths and a blues harmonica. But whereas The Full Monty lacked an emotional kick, Pushing Tin seems more well-developed and doesn't have to contend with a couple of dozen disco classics taking centre stage all the time. The album, from Restless Records, is a score-only release of around 30 minutes.

BOWFINGER

DAVID NEWMAN

A sly sideswipe at the Hollywood studio system, Bowfinger is the first on-screen pairing of comedy actors Steve Martin and Eddie Murphy. Martin plays Bobby Bowfinger, a down at heel movie producer who tricks red-hot action star Kit Ramsey (Murphy) into starring in his new movie Chubby Rain by filming him without his knowledge and getting his no-hoper cast and crew to act and interact around him. It plays almost like a modern day Ed Wood, with Bowfinger the eponymous director whose budget is as tight as his fist, but whose creativity and spontaneity knows know bounds. Most of Martin and Murphy's movies of late have failed to recapture their respective glory days of Roxanne and Beverly Hills Cop but - shock, horror! - Bowfinger is actually rather funny. Martin and Murphy are good in the lead roles, with Murphy putting in an especially good turn in a dual role as Kit and the hapless Jiff, hired to act in Bowfinger's movie because of his resemblance to the former superstar. There is also a great supporting cast, especially Heather Graham as the starlet who will sleep with anyone to get to the top, and Christine Baranski as the spaced out would-be acting diva who "respects Kit's acting style". David Newman's jazzy original underscore is actually rather nondescript and does not figure highly in the movie, with the exception of two major scenes: the grand finale at the observatory, and the scene in which Bowfinger receives a package from Federal Express. At the precise moment the blue and white van drives up to Bobby's house, the orchestra swells into a huge, sweeping, utterly gorgeous theme which Newman really should have saved for a more appropriate movie. The soundtrack, from Varese, features a plethora of soulful, funky songs from the likes of Johnny Adams, Marvin Gaye, Perry Como and James Brown, limiting Newman's score to just six cues running to about 17 minutes. The Fed-Ex cue is on there, though, much to the relief of many soundtrack fans. Click here for a full review of Bowfinger.

TARZAN

MARK MANCINA

With the age-old combination of action, emotion and humour, and the familiar "outcast from society finally being accepted into the fold" chestnut as its central theme, the Walt Disney corporation have hit paydirt again with Tarzan, the latest in their long line of spectacular animated features. There can be few people in the world who are not familiar with Edgar Rice Burrows' celebrated story of Tarzan the Ape Man, but for those few here is the short, short version: mother, father and new-born baby are shipwrecked in turn of the century Africa; Mom and dad are killed, and the baby is raised by a family of gorillas who name him Tarzan. Tarzan grows up to be "King of the Jungle", adept at swinging through trees and conversing with the wildlife, but never quite fits in with the others. Enter Jane, the daughter of kindly explorer Professor Potter, who are on a trekking expedition in the dark continent. Tarzan sees her, falls in love, and the rest is history. There is much to admire about Tarzan: The Disney Version, not least the animation which, by way of a new digital compositing technique known as "deep canvas", is frequently stunning. There is a boo-hiss villain, a spunky heroine, comic relief in the shape of Tarzan's best buddy, a nervous elephant and a baby baboon, and action galore to keep everyone happy. The principal voices are provided by Tony Goldwyn, Minnie Driver, Brian Blessed, Nigel Hawthorne, Lance Henriksen, Rosie O'Donnell and Glenn Close as the mother gorilla. Now there's a casting choice you don't see very often! For the music, Disney have again asked a respected film music composer to collaborate with a rock legend in the hope of recapturing the magic of the Hans Zimmer/Elton John pairing on The Lion King. This time, the duo consists of Mark Mancina and Phil Collins. Phil's songs are not performed on-screen by the characters, but instead by Phil himself as legitimate background music. I would not be surprised in the least to see him Oscar-nominated for his work here. The best of Collins comes in the opening powerhouse ballad, "You'll Be In My Heart", the rousing coming-of-age herald "Son of Man" and the touching "Two Worlds". Meanwhile, Mancina's score treads a fine line between traditional Disney string-laden emotion and more a ethnic African style, with heavy percussion and deep vocal performances combining perfectly with the orchestra. The funky "Trashing The Camp" cue is loads of fun, and there are several moments of high drama accompanied by a soaring main theme which, although occasionally reminiscent of Return to Paradise, certainly makes the spine tingle. Click here for a full review of Tarzan.

RUNAWAY BRIDE

JAMES NEWTON HOWARD

The much-heralded re-teaming of Richard Gere and Julia Roberts for the first time since Pretty Woman, Runaway Bride turns out to be a perfectly amiable, perfectly enjoyable, perfectly bland romantic comedy with appealing leads but not much else. Roberts plays Maggie Carpenter, a small-town hardware store owner with marriage problems - she has left three potential husbands standing at the altar while she hotfoots it back down the aisle. Richard Gere is the cynical New York newspaper columnist who travels to rural Maryland to cover Maggie's upcoming fourth wedding to sports jock Bob, but doesn't count on falling in love with the woman he textually disparaged so quickly back in the Big Apple. Gere and Roberts are, of course, extremely adept at playing this kind of light comedy, and the softly lit, quiet direction from Garry Marshall ensures that the entire movie is geared towards audience pleasure, but there is not the same amount of wit and sparkle as there was in Pretty Woman, and in the end the whole thing turns out to be enjoyable but terminally lightweight. However, Marshall mainstay Hector Elizondo has an acidic bit part as Gere's best friend, and there are some good supporting performances from Joan Cusack, Rita Wilson, Christopher "Focus On The Ball" Meloni and an over-acting Laurie Metcalf as a busybody bakery owner. One of the things I like very much about the songs in Runaway Bride is the fact that, unlike most pop compilations, the selections here actually bear some relation to the plot of the film, and are not just arbitrarily placed here and there without a thought for their relevance. It makes a welcome change for film producers to actually think about what they are doing in terms of their song score, and the resulting album is infinitely stronger because of it. Just looking at the song titles alone - "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" by U2, "Ready To Run" by The Dixie Chicks, "Maneater" by Hall & Oats, "You're The Only One For Me" by Allure, "Where Were You On Our Wedding Day" by Billy Joel - is enough for anyone who has seen the film to realise the relationship each of them have to the plot of the movie. The only drawback to this superb CD is that James Newton Howard doesn't get a look-in, meaning that none of his score is included. For the first hour or so, Howard's music is soft and unobtrusive romantic string 'n guitar stuff, but during the last half hour he pulls out all the stops and bowls you over with some smashing, fully orchestral love themes which rank among the best of 1999. Two scenes in particular captured my attention - the one in which Roberts escapes from the church on a Fed-Ex van, and the final reconciliation scene on the balcony of Gere's New York apartment. Runaway Bride is the first of six Newton Howard movies due to be released in the UK between now and Christmas, and if he has maintained the form he has shown here, we will be in for a real treat. I just hope that a promo of this score emerges some time soon.

DEEP BLUE SEA

TREVOR RABIN

An underwater laboratory in the middle of the Pacific, conducting hi-tech research into finding a cure for Alzheimer's disease. A group of brilliant scientists dedicated to their work. A powerful multi-millionaire inspecting the facility in order to secure its future funding. Oh, and a pool full of genetically modified, super-intelligent sharks, which break loose from their confines and wreak havoc after a massive hurricane hits the installation. This is the premise of Deep Blue Sea, director Renny Harlin's latest action epic, a film which does its best to knock the appeal of snorkelling way back to the days immediately after the release of Jaws. With a decent cast that includes Saffron Burrows, Thomas Jane, Samuel L. Jackson, LL Cool J and Stellan Skarsg�rd, Deep Blue Sea is one of the most unexpectedly enjoyable summer popcorn movies, a film which doesn't take itself too seriously, and delivers the action, shocks and suspense with aplomb. In fact, I would probably go as far as saying this is Harlin's best movie to date - it even has convincing set of CGI sharks! Trevor Rabin continues his efforts in the action genre with a suitably rousing score chock-full of orchestral histrionics and the usual (for him) electric guitars. Unfortunately, for the most part it gets buried under the screaming sound effects, and with the exception of two or three emotional climaxes, never really takes centre stage. From what I could make out, Rabin went down the heroic road again, with a bombastic main theme which is given a superb rendition upon the film's conclusion. 99% of the rest of the score is action music, pulsating and pounding to fit the on-screen mayhem and synchronising perfectly with all the shocks and jump cuts. I'd have to hear the score CD to give a proper evaluation, but from what I heard in the film it sounded pretty good. Click here for a full review of Deep Blue Sea.

AMERICAN PIE

DAVID LAWRENCE

If you like teen comedy films with a high sex and booze quotient, American Pie is most definitely the movie for you. Heralded as "Porkys for the 1990s", Paul Weitz's scatalogically-obsessed debut follows the fortunes of four regular American high school kids, all of whom happen to be virgins. One night, three weeks before the graduation, they make a pact to "do it" either on or before prom night, so that they can arrive at college safe in the knowledge that they are no longer "coitus minumus" and are, in fact, men of the world. Chaos ensues as the guys try their hardest to get it on with their girlfriends, with everything from the usual gross-out moments (involving semen and laxatives) and bizarre sexual encounters (flutes and the eponymous pastry product) to occasional moments of genuine sentiment. The male leads (Jason Biggs, Chris Klein, Thomas Ian Nicholas and Eddie Kaye Thomas) are all pretty amiable, but it's the chicks who steal the show, with Tara Reid's pickiness, Natasha Lyonne's cynicism, Mena Suvari's innocence and Alyson Hannigan's split personality coming across as by far the strongest character traits. 99% of the music in American Pie is made up of popular songs by popular bands - Third Eye Blind, Dishwalla, Dan Wilson, Bic Runga, Shades Apart, Bachelor Number One, Goldfinger, The Loose Nuts and The Atomic Fireballs all contribute to the hit soundtrack - but sadly there is no place for the wonderfully-timed rendition of "Mrs. Robinson" by Simon and Garfunkel. The score is by David "Nessim" Lawrence, an up-and-coming young writer whose most high profile outings to date have been the comedies Camp Nowhere and Sleep With Me. His contribution is small but important, with several soft romantic cues, a triumphant orchestral blast for the "pact" sequence, and some interesting Indian-influenced pieces for the scenes concerning Kevin's sex manual being his most memorable efforts. Unsurprisingly, none of Lawrence's cues have made it on to the CD.

A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM

SIMON BOSWELL

I have always maintained that the only person who can "do" Shakespeare is Kenneth Branagh, but this new production has made me eat my words. A Midsummer Night's Dream, Shakespeare's play of unrequited love, fairies and elves, magic and merriment, is transported to the lush valleys and rolling hills of 18th century Tuscany by director Michael Hoffman, and turns out to be a wonderfully enjoyable romantic comedy with a heart of gold. The sumptuous photography by Oliver Stapleton, the sparkling production design by Luciana Arrighi and the imaginative costumes of Gabriella Pescucci make A Midsummer Night's Dream an undisputed feast for the eyes - a land full of the greens and golds of nature - and while the language may be a little antiquated and difficult to fathom, the performances by the fifteen lead-billed actors are more than adequate at conveying Shakespeare's bawdy humour and social commentary. Kevin Kline is grandiose and bombastic as Bottom the Weaver, Michelle Pfeiffer is luminous as the fairy queen Titania, Rupert Everett and Stanley Tucci are mischievous as the elf king Oberon and his sprite Puck, while the four mis-matched lovers (Christian Bale, Calista Flockhart, Anna Friel and Dominic West) make for attractive and likeable romantic leads, even while wrestling in the mud. Unusually for a modern film, director Hoffman has raided the classical vaults and emerged with an armful of famous Italian opera pieces with which to score his film. Music by Verdi, Puccini, Donizetti, Bellini, Mascagni and Gioacchino Rossini feature prominently in the finished work, as do several selections from Vladimir Ashkenazy's sumptuous performance of Mendelssohn's own take on the play. The original music by Simon Boswell is more discreet, but no less effective, with his Arabic and Indian-influenced fairy music being performed on screen during a pixie drinking session, and his more straightforward romantic themes underscoring several of the key exchanges between Hermea, Helena and their suitors. The CD, on Sony Classical, features six or seven of Boswell's cues along with several superb performances of the classical selections by important vocalists such as Roberto Alagna and Luciano Pavarotti. Click here for a full review of A Midsummer Night's Dream.

ELECTION

ROLFE KENT

In the UK, we don't have student government, especially not in secondary ("high") schools. Secondary schools are not democracies - they are dictatorships where the teachers are always right, and if the students don't like it, it's tough. So, for British audiences, the idea of a film about a high school student election campaign may be a little peculiar - but it doesn't make it a less enjoyable film. In fact, Alexander Payne's witty, satirical movie addresses some interesting and relevant topics, including the nature of the American electoral procedure, the unstoppable course of fate, student-teacher relationships, and teenage lesbian angst. It's also very funny. Matthew Broderick and Reese Witherspoon take centre stage, the latter being especially impressive in the role of Tracy Flick, the over-achieving, go-getting star pupil of Carver High who will let nothing stand in the way of what she sees to be her destiny. Broderick, on the other hand, maintains his youthful persona as the popular teacher who, for whatever reason, makes it his business to see that Flick fails. Rolfe Kent's music for Election is surprisingly prominent and surprisingly lush, especially considering that films in this genre tends to be song-heavy on the soundtrack. A large string section maintains a light, generally bouncy tone, only occasionally dipping into darker and more mature material (such as the frivolous tango which underscores Broderick's fumbling attempts at having an affair.) Kent also makes good use of a sample of Ennio Morricone's "Aaaaaagh" Main Title from Navajo Joe in several key scenes, although you are never quite sure whether it's inclusion is straight-faced or an ironic in joke. The soundtrack CD features one cut of Kent's score, alongside several songs by the likes of Donovan, The Commodores, Tim Carroll and Spacehog.

ANALYZE THIS

HOWARD SHORE

The second "Mafia comedy" of the summer, Analyze This, is undoubtedly the best of the two, with a tighter and more well-rounded script, interesting situations and many, many genuine belly laughs. Directed by Harold Ramis (Groundhog Day, Multiplicity), it stars Robert De Niro as Paul Vitti, a Mafia big shot who finds that the pressure of his job is starting to get too much for him. He can't beat people up anymore, he gets nervous around his colleagues, and he cries at television commercials. So, calls upon psychiatrist Ben Sobel (Billy Crystal in the straight man role) to help him overcome his neuroses and make him a "happy, well-adjusted gangster". This is only the beginning of their troubles, especially when rival mob boss Chazz Palminteri and Ben's wife-to-be Lisa Kudrow start getting involved as well! De Niro sends up his familiar on screen persona to perfection, eliciting humour, emotion and empathy for his character. Crystal is adequate but understated, only truly shining in the climactic mob meeting scene, but the undoubted star of the show is Joe Viterelli as Jelly, the plug ugly, dumb as ditch water henchman who makes Sobel's life a living nightmare. If he doesn't end up getting a Supporting Actor Oscar nomination, there is no justice in the world. The music is typical of the genre, with popular Italiano ballads littering the song-heavy soundtrack, including efforts from Tony Bennett (who appears on-screen crooning on Ben's lawn!) and Louis Prima (who sings the wonderful "Angelina" over the end credits. Meanwhile Howard Shore's underscore is a world away from his more familiar Cronenbergian works. Here, Shore has gone down the road of upbeat jazz, with lofty trumpet solos and a drum 'n bass combo playing a series of lively Italianate tunes. Sadly, because of licensing issues, there is no soundtrack CD.

THE HAUNTING

JERRY GOLDSMITH

More eerie than scary, more atmospheric than frightening, Jan De Bont's remake of The Haunting takes the familiar premise of a group of people stranded in a deserted haunted house and brings it firmly into the nineties with some very special effects. Liam Neeson, Catherine Zeta Jones, Lili Taylor and Owen Wilson are the people in question, brought to Hill House supposedly to take part in an scientific insomnia study, but who are actually participating in experiments to do with the psychological make-up of fear. However, things start doing much more than go "bump" in the night, and soon the group are thrown headlong into a terrifying ancient mystery concerning madmen, missing children and murders. Rather than relying on gore, The Haunting is a curiously old-fashioned chiller which sets out its stall with creepy visual and aural horror. Eugenio Zanetti's wonderful Gaudi-style production design - all Gothic architecture and tortured sculpted faces - is complemented by Gary Rydstrom's massive, occasionally terrifying sound effects and Jerry Goldsmith's moody score, his first proper ghost story since Poltergeist. A trio of central themes dominate - an attractive and light woodwind motif for the lead character of Eleanor; a solemnly beautiful, high-pitched lament reminiscent of 'Carol Anne's Theme' written for Hill House itself; and a calliope-style theme for the recurring plot element surrounding the house's hall of mirrors carousel room. The shrillness of the strings constantly play tricks on the fragile nerves of the viewer, and there are many moments of musical mood-setting with creeping and groaning before it spectacularly comes to life with an awe-inspiring electronic crescendo during the final confrontation with the ghost itself. The Haunting is not a classic horror score by Goldsmith's high standards, and it's certainly not a classic horror movie either, but both of them are supremely enjoyable in a none-too-serious kind of way. Click here for a full review of The Haunting.

THE GENERAL'S DAUGHTER

CARTER BURWELL

The General's Daughter, directed by Simon West, is a rather bland, bloated movie with a nasty core surrounding the humiliation, rape and murder of a highly-decorated female army officer - the daughter of the base's commanding officer. Investigator John Travolta and rape counsellor Madeleine Stowe are brought in to try to solve the case before the FBI get their clammy hands on things, leading them to encounter assorted military types, including cool psychologist James Woods and the General himself. Carter Burwell is an unusual choice to score a movie like this, but although he acquits himself well, it is by no means his best work. For a dark movie, Burwell has written an equally dark score, headlined by the quite moving, elegiac string piece which underscores one of the more revealing "flashback" scenes of an army training exercise. Apart from this one scene, though, and several flavoursome electric guitar interludes, much more focus is placed upon the "negro spiritual" songs adapted by electronic whizz Greg Hale Jones, one of which - "Sea Lion Woman" - features very prominently over the main titles and during the end credits. Although it is nice to see Burwell breaking away from his indie roots and into the mainstream a little, I fear that if he keeps choosing projects such as The General's Daughter (which obviously failed to inspire him), he will disappear as quickly as he arrived. Click here for a full review of The General's Daughter.

INSTINCT

DANNY ELFMAN

Despite receiving a critical mauling, Instinct is one of my favourite movies of 1999. Playing like a cross between The Silence of the Lambs, Gorillas In The Mist and The Shawshank Redemption, the film stars Anthony Hopkins as an eminent professor who disappears into the Rwandan jungle while studying the gorilla population. He emerges years later as a wild man, having brutally killed three men and supposedly having lived as a member of the primate community. After being transferred to a brutal prison in the USA to await trial, a young, eager psychiatrist is assigned to his case with the remit of finding out what happened to this once-brilliant mind. The centrepieces of this engrossing film are the two performances by Anthony Hopkins and Cuba Gooding Jr., who share the same on-screen intensity that Hopkins and Jodie Foster did back in 1990. At first in a simple doctor-patient role, as the film develops the two lead actors gradually redefine their relationship and learn far more about each other than they could ever imagine. I know all this sounds very woolly, but I don't want to give too much away about this marvellous movie, because the payoff at the finale is wonderful. In addition, the direction by Jon Turteltaub is spot on, the screenplay by Gerald Di Pego (who also wrote Message In A Bottle) is intelligent and articulate, and there are terrific supporting turns from Maura Tierney as Hopkins' estranged daughter, Donald Sutherland as Gooding's wise boss and John Ashton as a sadistic prison guard. As far as he music is concerned, Elfman's score left me in raptures. I'm not going to go into too much detail here, because I just bought the CD and will be reviewing it properly in a couple of days anyway, but suffice to say I thought it was marvellous. There are noble brass themes, a heavenly female choir, lots of African percussion, a couple of superb action cues, several truly spine-tingling moments, and all with that Elfman touch. Click here for a full review of Instinct.

RAVENOUS

MICHAEL NYMAN and DAMON ALBARN

Cannibalism is one of Hollywood's last taboos, a subject only broached in worthy films such as Frank Marshall's Alive, or the Italian "mondo cane" shockers of Ruggero Deodato such as the legendary Cannibal Holocaust. However, Ravenous tackles the subject head-on, with frightening, deeply uncomfortable but sometimes deeply funny results. Set in the American-Mexican war during the last century, the film stars Guy Pearce as a soldier sent to a remote military post in the Sierra Nevada mountains as a poison-chalice reward for "bravery" in battle. While there, the ragtag brigade of soldiers (including Jeffrey Jones and David Arquette) encounter a mysterious man named Colhoun (Robert Carlyle), who claims to be the only survivor of a band of travellers who were attacked and killed by a vicious, cannibalistic US Army general named Ives, and who was forced to eat human flesh himself in order to stay alive. With the terribly intense performance of Carlyle as its centrepiece, and stunning direction from Antonia Bird (a late replacement for the original director Milcho Manchevski, who walked out on the production), it's shame that Ravenous suffers from a largely lacklustre screenplay, and by being far too overbearing for its own good. A key element in the latter is the sound mix, which is WAY too loud, and makes Michael Nyman's score sound horrific at times. Nyman, who collaborated with pop group Blur's front man Damon Albarn for the music, has come up with a totally unique score that combines his usual metronomic string lines with a set of unusual orchestrations including a Jew's harp and a squeeze box. The messy, undulating opening title statement does not bode well, but there are nevertheless several memorable musical moments buried in the chaos, including several fiddle-led action cues (one of which, unfortunately, diminishes the tone of the scene and makes it unnecessarily lighter), a string motif with repeated six-notes and seven-notes which seems to go on forever, and some truly disturbing electronic ambiences courtesy of Albarn. It's an unusual, all-over-the-place kind of score which you will either love or hate. Unfortunately, despite its effectiveness and the inclusion of some quite lovely parts, I am leaning towards the latter.

EYES WIDE SHUT

JOCELYN POOK

The legacy of the late, great director Stanley Kubrick is a bizarre, challenging, cerebral rumination on the nature of love, relationships, sexuality and fidelity. Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman play a wealthy New York society couple whose seemingly idyllic marriage is shattered when, after a Christmas party, Kidman discloses that she has long harboured secret sexual desires for an unnamed naval officer they met on vacation. Having always been true to her, and up until then having always been convinced of his wife's faithfulness, Cruise becomes obsessed with having an illicit sexual encounter of his own which would act as a kind of personal and moral "revenge" - an obsession which leads him into a potentially deadly situation at an isolated mansion. Contrary to popular belief, Kubrick's epitaph is not a X-rated orgy from start to finish, but does contain all the style and intensity one has come to expect from his work. It does take some sticking with, though, especially during the sometimes convoluted encounters Cruise has with the less well-bred members of New York society, and some of the sexual revelations may be a little unpalatable for some tastes. Unlike his most recent films, Kubrick did not comprise his soundtrack purely from the classical repertoire, turning to British avant-garde composer Jocelyn Pook to supply an original score instead. Her music is dissonant, sparse and quite unusual, built around an endlessly repetitive six-note piano motif that signifies both the excitement and the danger of Cruise's sexual odyssey, increasing in pitch and intensity (and volume!) as scenes progress. The other moments of note in Pook's score include the hallucinatory electronic textures heard in Kidman's naval officer fantasy flashbacks, and the ominous, mesmerising Hindi choral piece used at the beginning of the notorious orgy sequence, which are actually taken from her own original composition "Migrations". Classical pieces by Shostakovich, Ligeti, Liszt and Mozart, and Chris Isaak's "Baby Did A Bad Bad Thing" round out the key selections. Readers might also like to check out my review of the recent Kubrick film music compilation.

GO

BRIAN TRANSEAU

A Pulp Fiction-style segmented story told in flashback and flash-forward, Go follows a dozen or so twentysomethings (hot young talents Sarah Polley, Katie Holmes, Jay Mohr, Scott Wolf, Timothy Olyphant and others) as they take in a wild night in Los Angeles filled with drugs, guns, fast cars, psychic cats, sulky strippers, rave music and the weirdest Christmas dinner you could ever imagine. Director Doug Liman, who previously made Swingers, has infused his movie with a sense of style, plenty of energy and a lot of humour, making Go an unexpectedly entertaining and engrossing movie. American dance music DJ Brian Transeau, credited as "BT" in the film's opening credits, wrote the original music, but to be honest 99% of his work is totally indistinguishable from the source music selections that litter the rest of the soundtrack. I seem to remember one funky tune for a scene accompanying the four guys driving through Las Vegas, but other than that... The soundtrack CD contains a multitude of hit songs from acts such as No Doubt, Natalie Imbruglia, Eagle Eye Cherry and British rave sensation Norman Cook aka Fatboy Slim.

THE THIRTEENTH WARRIOR

JERRY GOLDSMITH

After a troubled shoot (which took place in 1997), a public bust up between writer Michael Crichton and director John McTiernan, a name change (it was originally called The Eaters of the Dead) and the late sacking of original composer Graeme Revell, The Thirteenth Warrior lumbers into cinemas a year late, showing all the signs of its turbulent past. A would-be Viking epic, it stars Antonio Banderas as an Arab nobleman, poet and diplomat (with too much eye makeup) who is compelled by an ancient legend to travel to Northern Europe in the company of some hairy, hearty Norsemen to help them battle a horde of murderous, flesh-eating savages called the Wendol, who are terrorising their village. Visually, and viscerally, The Thirteenth Warrior is great, with atmospheric forest locations, marvellously rustic production design, and several heart-stopping action sequences which have arrows flying, swords slashing and decapitations by the dozen, and on a pure "enjoyment" scale it hits the mark. Unfortunately, none of it makes any sense, the accents of some of the actors (including Banderas) are occasionally impenetrable, and the way in which it arbitrarily drops key characters from the storyline (especially the fourth-billed Omar Sharif) suggests that an editing knife has been unceremoniously wielded. Jerry Goldsmith's score is as thunderous as the film - although similar to The Mummy in tone and texture, it pushes the action on with cue after cue of massive brass themes with immense accompaniment from a battery of percussion. Viking horns also make guest appearances every now and again, but the regular incorporation of a noble male voice choir is the score's key ingredient: it lends the music a sense of grandeur, power, and honour which makes the Viking quest seem all the more engaging. It's taken a long time coming, but Goldsmith finally seems to be returning to the action territory he regularly visited in the sixties and seventies. Click here for a full review of The Thirteenth Warrior.

RUSHMORE

MARK MOTHERSBAUGH

An amusing, peculiar, but surprisingly poignant high school comedy, Rushmore has been one of 1999's sleeper successes, both critically and commercially. Newcomer Jason Schwartzmann stars as Max Fischer, a nerdy low grade student at the prestigious Rushmore Academy who, in an attempt to overcome his lack of academic success, self-confidently throws himself into dozens of wacky extra-curricular activities - the most high profile being the Max Fischer Players, an amateur dramatics troupe who recreate the horrors of Vietnam with real bullets and dynamite! When Max falls head over heels in unrequited love with new teacher Rosemary Cross (Olivia Williams), he turns to his friend and benefactor, lonely millionaire steel magnate Herman Blume (Bill Murray, in one of the performances of his career) for help. Things take a turn for the unexpected, though, when Herman and Rosemary fall in love themselves. Mutato Muzika frontman Mark Mothersbaugh provides the score, whose style here reminds me of the work of the young Danny Elfman when he was in his Pee Wee Herman phase - all offbeat orchestrations and bouncy, cheesily upbeat themes with fiddles and chimes. There is no real depth or grace to Mothersbaugh's music, but it is fun and appropriate, effectively lending a touch of sparkle and whimsy to Max's misguided antics. Only one of Mothersbaugh's cues - the oddly titled "Snowflake Music" - has made it on to the resulting CD, which includes and eclectic collection of pop and rock tracks by acts including Cat Stevens, John Lennon, The Who, Yves Montand and The Faces.

SOUTH PARK: BIGGER, LONGER & UNCUT

MARC SHAIMAN

Stan, Kyle, Cartman and Kenny make their big screen debuts in South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut - a film which, despite having a relevant message about screen censorship, manages to lampoon just about everything you can think of, from Canadian accents and celebrity talk shows to a homosexual relationship between Satan and Saddam Hussein (don't ask!), and all with Trey Parker and Matt Stone's trademark crude animation, profanity and cleverness. Whatever you do, don't take your kids to see this film, as it contains some of the most creatively hilarious swearing I have ever heard in my life, and some of the themes are somewhat, shall we say, graphic. In essence, South Park is actually a musical, thanks to the inventive songwriting of Trey Parker and composer Marc Shaiman, who also contributed the film's orchestral underscore. Parker and Shaiman's songs are spot-on Disney parodies, including the heartfelt "Up There" performed by a restless Satan; the riotous Terrence and Philip refrain "Uncle Fucka" from their hit movie Asses Of Fire; the showstopping "It's Easy Mmkay" in which the kids are taught not to swear; the rocking "What Would Brian Boitano Do?"; the almost sacrilegious "I Can Change", performed by Saddam in an attempt to win back his lover; and the unashamedly camp "I'm Super" performed at an American Army extravaganza by Vegas star Big Gay Al and an animated Shaiman on piano! There is very little else to say except that, for anyone with a slightly askew sense of humour, a high tolerance for verbal obscenities, and a liking for overblown orchestral music, this is the score for you. Just buy the damn CD, and respect my authoritah, mmkay? Oh my God, they killed Kenny!!! Click here for a full review of South Park.

THE THOMAS CROWN AFFAIR

BILL CONTI

A remake of the classic 1968 Steve McQueen/Faye Dunaway crime caper, John McTiernan's version of The Thomas Crown affair stars Pierce Brosnan as the super-rich, super-bored business executive Thomas Crown who, merely for amusement, stages a daring robbery in a famous art gallery and steals a multi-million dollar Monet painting. However, he meets a worthy adversary when the local law enforcement bring in sexy insurance investigator Rene Russo - but unexpectedly finds himself falling in love with the woman who is attempting to bring him down. It's all pure popcorn celluloid entertainment which, despite the unnecessarily convoluted plot and uninspiring screenplay, is superbly shot, has great costumes, and has plenty to offer a more mature audience by way of a steamily provocative tango and several uninhibited love scenes (replacing the now-clich�d "sucking on the chess pieces" scene from the original). The Thomas Crown Affair also sees veteran composer Bill Conti scoring his first major studio movie in several years - in fact, his last assignment with this high a profile could well have been John Frankenheimer's Year of the Gun way back in 1991. The music is unusual almost to the point of being gimmicky, but is undeniably effective when heard in the film. Dense, rhythmic piano clusters compete with jazzy muted trumpets in the peculiarly discordant opening titles while, in the pivotal robbery sequence, Conti cleverly blends a pulsating techno theme for the Romanian thieves with a snappy Mask of Zorro-style handclap and footstomp motif for Brosnan's character (although some rather ruthless digital editing make the musical transitions here seem somewhat forced). As the movie develops, the score becomes softer and more romantic, peaking with a soaringly beautiful full-orchestra theme for the scene in which Pierce and Rene go gliding. The soon to be released soundtrack album combines Conti's score with songs and source music from the film, including Sting's cover version of Noel Harrison's classic "The Windmills of Your Mind" which, of course, won an Oscar for composer Michel Legrand for this very same film in 1968. Composer Jamshied Sharifi receives an "additional music by" credit, while Australian composer Ashley Irwin is listed as being responsible for the "electronic score". Click here for a full review of The Thomas Crown Affair.

MICKEY BLUE EYES

BASIL POLEDOURIS

Mafia comedies are like buses: you wait ages for one, and then two come along at once. So, with Harold Ramis' supposedly superior Analyse This waiting in the wings, we have our appetite whetted by Kelly Makin's Mickey Blue Eyes, a combination of fish-out-of-water comedy, transatlantic romance and gangland executions. I'm kidding about the last one. The ever-British Hugh Grant stars as an auctioneer in New York who proposes to beautiful teacher Jeanne Tripplehorn, only to be turned down on the grounds that her father (James Caan) is a hitman for the Mob, and will end up using the gullible Hugh for his own gains. In the style of a true Englishman, he refuses to let this little problem stand in the way of true love, and sets about ingratiating himself with his beloved's "extended family" - most of whom sport friendly names such as Vito "The Butcher" Graziole. It's been a while, but Mickey Blue Eyes sees Basil Poledouris finally back in the scoring saddle, even if he is playing second fiddle to a soundtrack full of crooned ballads from Louis Prima, Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra and Rosemary Clooney with her familiar "Mambo Italiano". Even Nino Rota's theme from 81/2 makes an appearance! As such, Poledouris is limited to a series of admittedly quite delightful bouncy woodwind themes to accentuate Grant's bumbling comedy performance, a superb full orchestra love theme for Michael and Gina and a wandering violin which would feel right at home in any film dealing with ruthless killers who eat lots of pasta and love their mama. Additional music is credited to German composer Wolfgang Hammerschmid, whose previous credits include Hugh Grant's early "europudding" Night Train To Venice, and the Czech drama Mandragora, but I'm not sure as to the extent of his contribution. Milan's CD release combines half a dozen cues of Basil's music with selections of source music and songs. Click here for a full review of Mickey Blue Eyes.

PLAYING BY HEART

JOHN BARRY and CHRISTOPHER YOUNG

I don't think I have ever seen such a magnificent ensemble performance by a cast than the one by the actors and actresses in Playing By Heart. Director Willard Carroll's wonderful film is a triumph of narrative and style - by taking eleven seemingly disparate people and throwing them together in a series of stories about love, trust, relationships and sex, and ever-so-slowly weaving them into an interconnecting tapestry, Carroll has achieved what would seem to be impossible: he takes every possible way that two people can have a relationship, and makes each of them believable, well rounded and totally involving. Sean Connery, Gena Rowlands, Gillian Anderson, Jon Stewart, Dennis Quaid, Madeleine Stowe and Anthony Edwards are all very good, but the absolute cream of the crop are Ryan Philippe and Angelina Jolie, two young people who meet and gradually fall in love in the night-clubs of LA; and Ellen Burstyn, as a mother keeping a bedside vigil for her son Jay Mohr, who is dying of AIDS. John Barry had 75% of his score inexplicably removed from the final print of the film, but Decca's subsequent concept album earmarks it as one of the finest compositions of the year. It decadently evokes the mystique of smoky jazz clubs with authentic Chet Baker-style grooves, and then depicts the life and love that can exist between two people with gorgeous, full orchestral themes that drip with emotion and beauty. The three or four scenes towards the end of the movie in which Barry's music still remains symbolise the perfect balance between film and music, and stimulate the intellect and heart in a way only truly great film music can. Contrary to popular belief, the replacement score by Christopher Young is *not* uncredited - his five cues ("It's Only Sexual", "Lost Baby", "An LA Groove", "Bluff" and "Homecoming") are listed as individual songs at the end of the credits reel. His music is similar to Barry's, but not as emotionally involving, limited mainly to soft jazzy textures similar to those heard in his scores for Rounders and Norma Jean & Marilyn. Click here for a full review of Playing By Heart.

WILD WILD WEST

ELMER BERNSTEIN

Wild Wild West, the new blockbuster based on the 1960s TV series, is not the summer smash everyone anticipated. Although amiably entertaining, occasionally funny and boasting impressive special effects, it suffers from the all too familiar "no brains" syndrome prevalent in Hollywood today - something that even the charisma of Will Smith, the deadpan humour of Kevin Kline, the hammy acting of Kenneth Branagh and the buttocks of Salma Hayek can't prevent. Barry Sonnenfeld's direction is several steps below his earlier triumphs The Addams Family and Men In Black, and the aforementioned screenplay by Brent Maddock and SS Wilson tries too hard to please everybody, and makes some surprisingly ill-advised racial comment. One of the great things about Wild Wild West, though, is the return of Elmer Bernstein to the genre for which he is best known and most well-loved. With the help of his son Peter, Elmer's score is everything you would imagine an Elmer Bernstein western score to sound like. It's big, bold, brassy, has a huge vibrant main theme and superbly rhythmic action cues that definitely help push along the set pieces. In short, it's a typical Elmer western in all best possible ways and, although an ondes martenot creeps into the love theme, I feel it's his most enjoyable score in years. Click here for a full review of Wild Wild West.

THE HI-LO COUNTRY

CARTER BURWELL

Carter's best score, of that there is no doubt. There is something highly musical about the sights and sounds of the old west, and Stephen Frears' dry, dusty but life-affirming film has inspired Burwell to write the most thematically beautiful and dramatically developed score of his career to date. Starring Woody Harrelson, Billy Crudup and Patricia Arquette, The Hi-Lo Country is a tale of love, honour, friendship and nostalgia in the arid farmland of post-war New Mexico, where the traditions and simple pleasures the old cowboys are slowly being dissolved by the onset of technology and commercialism. With an evocative landscape and powerful conflicting emotions as his motivation, Burwell has created a truly stunning piece of music, inspired by the musical conventions of the genre, but with a contemporary kick. Passages for acoustic guitar, bass harmonica and fiddles regularly fill the air, as do some smaller but no less impressive orchestral cues for the quieter, more intimate moments. However, the true standout is the massive, joyous western theme Burwell composed to accompany the immense cattle drive undertaken by Big Boy and Pete. When the hero drives away into the sunset at the end, and Burwell's main theme rises for the final time, I think I experienced an epiphany. I said to myself, "My God, this Burwell guy can really write!" Click here for a full review of The Hi-Lo Country.

BRIDE OF CHUCKY

GRAEME REVELL

With a knife in his hand and his tongue in his cheek, Chucky returns for the third sequel to the ubiquitous Child's Play series of movies and, bizarrely, this is the best of the lot. Despite being nice enough to resurrect him, Chucky's Goth chick former girlfriend Tiffany (Jennifer Tilly) is quickly despatched by the demonic doll, but ends up in a similar state to her plastic pal: her soul trapped inside a two-foot tall bride mannequin. Carnage, as they say, ensues. The clever thing about Ronny Yu's movie is its self-awareness; not in a Scream-type way, but in the way it pokes fun at the very nature of the horror genre (an early victim decries "Chucky? That's so 80s!" while Tiffany chastises Chucky for wanting to despatch another sap with his favoured but "predictable" kitchen knife). However, for the less discerning, there are still plenty of shocks, wisecracks, inventively gruesome deaths, and one utterly hilarious sex scene which raises rubber contraception to a whole new level. Kiwi composer Graeme Revell's score is good, but rather predictable, featuring all the usual shrieking strings and jump-cut tactics, with several hair-raising orchestral action sequences to accompany the antics of the toy world's Bonnie and Clyde. The aforementioned love sequence is also brilliantly scored, with mock-sensual acoustic guitars fanning the flames of plastic passion. Unfortunately, only one Revell track ("We Belong Dead") is featured on the CD, which for the rest of the time defers to Chucky's personal penchant for thrash metal. Rob Zombie's "Living Dead Girl" plays over the opening credits, and there are efforts from Bruce Dickinson, Judas Priest, Motorhead and Slayer.

AUSTIN POWERS: THE SPY WHO SHAGGED ME

GEORGE S. CLINTON

If you were to take every Bond movie clich�, every Pink Panther movie clich�, and every Swingin' Sixties clich�, and condense them into one movie, you would get Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery. If you were to do it all again, but forget to add the same amount of clever humour, you would get its sequel - The Spy Who Shagged Me. Although there are still some belly laughs to be had here (shadow puppets, anyone?), this film takes the adventures of Mike Myers' shagadelic superspy just one step too far and instead of laughing with it, you end up laughing at it. Dr. Evil and his son Scott have a couple marvellous conversations (the legendary "shhhh" routine is replaced with "zip it" in this film), the romantic sub-plot with Frau Farbissina is hilarious, and the copycat antics of the two-foot tall Mini-Me are great, but the misfires come mainly from Powers himself, who spends far too much time simply repeating his own catchphrases into camera ("Yeah, baby!"), and the surprising lack of chemistry with his new beau Felicity Shagwell (Heather Graham). And the less said about Fat Bastard the better... As with the first movie, though, George S. Clinton's score is a true delight. Taking his inspiration from John Barry, Henry Mancini and all the wonderful sixties secret agent scores, Clinton has come up with another wonderfully nostalgic homage. One can spot the appreciative references to Moonraker and You Only Live Twice a mile away, and although this is not a true reflection of Clinton's own sound, his loving rip-offs add volumes to the sixties feel. The soundtrack album, with sadly features none of Clinton's score, does include several great new songs, including a remixed version of Quincy Jones' irritatingly catchy "Soul Bossa Nova" (the one that Myers dances to during the opening credits), Burt Bacharach's "I'll Never Fall In Love Again" (performed on-screen by Bacharach and Elvis Costello), Madonna's sensational new single "Beautiful Stranger", and the Bond song pastiche "Dr. Evil", performed by They Might Be Giants and which should, in my opinion, be nominated for an Oscar. Click here for a full review of the second Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me CD.

STAR WARS EPISODE I: THE PHANTOM MENACE

JOHN WILLIAMS

My review of The Phantom Menace as heard in the film is much, much longer that the ones I usually write in this section, so I have decided to post it on a completely separate page from all the others here. Click here to read my review of the film, or click here to read my full review of the score.

ROGUE TRADER

RICHARD HARTLEY

The name of Nick Leeson will probably be unfamiliar to non-British score fans, but his story is a compelling one: how one man, through a combination of bad decisions, bad luck and sheer stupidity, could bring one of the UK's biggest financial institutions to its knees without his employers finding out until it was too late. Five years ago, Leeson was the hot new trader on the Asian financial market, sent by Barings Bank to trade in futures on the Singapore exchange. Along with his wife Lisa and his trusty cohorts, Leeson initially made a killing, and was hailed a hero back home. Two years later, Leeson had somehow managed to lose almost �800 million, and was being sent to prison on charges of fraud. It's an incredible, completely true tale, which culminated in his arrest at Frankfurt airport, which was then splashed on the front pages of every British newspaper. It's just unfortunate, then, that Rogue Trader is such a lazy movie. As Leeson, Ewan McGregor makes a good job of conveying a the terrible sense of desperation and panic that Leeson must have felt, but it is difficult to generate any sympathy for man whose sheer stupidity was his ultimate downfall. Similarly, Anna Friel is wasted as Lisa Leeson, while the cache of supporting players either reinforce all the old British stereotypes, or wave their arms around frantically on the market floor like demented wasps in their yellow and black striped jackets. Composer Richard Hartley's music is similarly uninspiring, but does its job adequately: the scenes in and around the palatial Barings offices are scored with old colonial themes full of pomp and circumstance, with the added texture of a harpsichord really adding to the feeling of quintessential Englishness. The Singapore setting is captured by a few pseudo-oriental melodies, while the hustle and bustle of the trading floor is beefed up by a series of pepped-up synth lines augmented by the orchestra. Songs also play a big part: tracks by Barrett Strong, Leftfield, Kula Shaker, Reef and Blur dominate the soundtrack.

10 THINGS I HATE ABOUT YOU

RICHARD GIBBS

It seems that turning a literary classic into a "teen movie" is the in thing at the moment - after Clueless (Emma) and She's All That (Pygmalion), we now have 10 Things I Hate About You, an updated version of Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew. The shrew in question is grungy high school student (Julia Styles), who becomes the target of an elaborate plan to allow her popular sister (Larisa Oleynik) to go to the prom either with shy, retiring Joseph Gordon-Levitt or superstud Andrew Keegan - which can will happen if the shrew starts dating with supposed local psycho Heath Ledger. It's all very complicated, as Shakespeare tends to be, but director Gil Junger keeps the right balance of romance and comedy, as well as throwing in a couple of fruity one-liners ("remove head from sphincter, then drive!"). The performances from the young, talented leads are all appealing, especially Stiles as the girl with a prickly personality and a heart of gold. Songs dominate the soundtrack - popular artists such as Letters To Cleo, Save Ferris, Jessica Riddle, George Clinton, Joan Armatrading, The Cardigans and Madness abound - leaving very little room for composer Richard Gibbs. His music is lively, energetic, and sometimes quite fun, but with very little originality to make it stand out from the crowd. Gibbs' music is predominately synth based, with an occasional electric guitar melody and (I think!) one orchestral "love theme" cue, although I could be mistaking a song intro for score. That's the problem with scores such as this - identifying where songs end and score begins. One cut of Gibbs' music appears on the album - the cryptically titled "One More Thing".

ENTRAPMENT

CHRISTOPHER YOUNG

There's really only one reason for a red-blooded male to go and watch Entrapment - Catherine Zeta Jones. Her performance as Gin Baker, an insurance investigator turned thief, is not particularly memorable in itself (although her American accent is good and she pouts a lot) but the long, sensuous camerawork director Jon Amiel uses for Zeta's close-ups is a feast for the eyes, and the costume designers have accentuated every curve of her figure. The plot itself is fairly inconsequential - ageing thief (Sean Connery) is persuaded by the aforementioned double agent insurance investigator to assist her in two daring robberies: snatching a priceless Chinese mask from a heavily guarded Scottish castle, and downloading $8 billion from a Malaysian bank's computer at the stroke of midnight on Millennium Eve. It's all light, exciting, globe-trotting stuff that takes nothing for granted and plays everything for audience gratification. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. Chris Young's throbbing score is a highlight, although the one thing missing is a memorable theme to whistle as you leave the theatre. Lots of smooth electronic sounds merge with a large string orchestra and percussion loops to skilfully depict the hi-tec world of the master thief, and there are a few interesting "ethnic" touches to capture the different flavours of the far-flung locations. A lovely romantic string and piano theme for Gin and Mac is the score's highlight, and receives a full and lush treatment during the finale in Kuala Lumpur station. Click here for a full review of Entrapment.

VIRTUAL SEXUALITY

RUPERT GREGSON-WILLIAMS

At long, long last, a British film maker has attempted something the Americans do really well - the teen movie. Taking its lead from films such as Varsity Blues, She's All That and 10 Things I Hate About You, it's just a shame that Virtual Sexuality is such a bad movie, because it could have been a hit. Despite lively and generally likeable performances from the leads, especially Laura Fraser, Rupert Penry-Jones and Luke De Lacey, the film is too over the top for its own good. With flashy quick cuts, silly little pop-up caption boxes and occasionally idiotic dialogue, it seems to be trying far too hard to impress, and ends up being almost a parody of itself. The film is a "teen sex comedy" with a similar theme to the hit comedy Weird Science, except that here the leading lady literally turns into her dream man after an accident in a virtual reality simulator, and then spends the rest of the movie ogling at his/her own anatomy and trying to find the best way of getting laid. The subject matter of the film itself is a little hard to swallow, and the occasional bad language and nudity would seem to be too mature for its potential audience of pre-teens, leaving me to wonder just to whom this film is going to appeal. It's a shame for composer Rupert Gregson-Williams, whose modern, funky music is likely to be overlooked, despite being one of the film's high spots. Rupert (the younger brother of Harry) uses synths with lively pop rhythms, 80's style "scratches" and hammond organs to capture the teen spirit and sense of fun the script failed to do so abysmally. Dozens and dozens of pop songs also make up much of the musical background, although I have to say that I am having trouble recalling any of the titles right now. Stay and listen to the end credits for a proper taste of Gregson-Williams' talents - if you haven't run from the cinema screaming before then, that is.

THE MUMMY

JERRY GOLDSMITH

The Mummy is an old-fashioned adventure romp straight out of a boy's own comic, in which Brendan Fraser, Rachel Weisz and John Hannah star as three adventurers on an archaeological expedition near Cairo in the 1920s who, while exploring the fabled lost city of Hamanaptra, inadvertantly awaken the long-dormant mummy of the accursed Egyptian high priest Imhotep (Arnold Vosloo) - and subsequently face his wrath. Directed with loving attention to detail by Stephen Sommers, vibrantly shot in sumptuous deep focus, and with some of the most impressive special effects I've seen this year to date, The Mummy is a feast for the eyes, if not for the brain. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to decipher the plot, and the dialogue and characterisation are kept to the bare minimum, seeking only to provide the briefest of introductions and to throw in a couple of cheek one-liners. Accentuating all this is Jerry Goldsmith's rich, exotic, thunderous orchestral score, the best orchestral blow-out of this year so far. His melodies pulsate with exotic textures and massive orchestration, from the violent-sounding brass motif for Imhotep himself, to the sweeping love theme for Rick and Evelyn. In particular, the action cues are scintillating, putting one in mind of the grandeur of The Wind and the Lion, especially the scenes in which the Guardians of the Lost City attack the adventurers. As well as being a hugely entertaining Saturday matinee flick, Goldsmith's superb score is a definite highlight. Don't forget to stay through the end credits either - it sounds AWESOME in extremely loud Dolby stereo! Click here for a full review of The Mummy.

THE BIG HIT

GRAEME REVELL

Many people would probably find The Big Hit a difficult film to digest, combining as it does light romantic humour with excessive violence in the story of a gang of wisecracking assassins who, after a bungled kidnapping, find themselves pitted against each other. Directed with great attention to detail by Hong Kong veteran Che-Kirk Wong, and starring Mark Wahlberg, Lou Diamond Phillips and Deep Space Nine's Avery Brooks, The Big Hit is actually quite a clever movie if you can get over the initial shock value of watching hitmen calmly discussing the benefits of using non-dairy creamer during an extremely bloody shoot-out. The screenplay is peppered with some very funny one-liners, Elliott Gould gets to vomit over everyone, and there is one romantic scene between Wahlberg and newcomer China Chow that invents a whole new way of stuffing a chicken. Unfortunately, composer Graeme Revell is left with little to do, as most of the film is packed with hit tunes from Fun Lovin' Criminals, LaTanya and Wahlberg himself. As the protagonists are all ultra-cool guys, what score there is is full of souped-up synth lines, incessantly propelling the string themes forward in an attempt to match the frenetic action. Prominent drum machines, techno style beats, the occasional funky Latino melody. I'm sure you know what I'm talking about. I couldn't whistle Revell's main theme to you but, when all's said and done, I don't think I'm supposed to remember it anyway.

A SIMPLE PLAN

DANNY ELFMAN

Watching A Simple Plan is a painful experience - not because the film is bad, but because you know exactly how it's going to end well before it gets there, and it's torture seeing these regular, decent, hard-working people go to unimaginable, horrible lengths to attain material wealth. Directed by Sam Raimi, who has certainly matured since Evil Dead, the film stars Bill Paxton, Billy Bob Thornton and Brent Briscoe as three friends who, one snowy Wisconsin winter, stumble across a crashed aeroplane and $4.4 million in a gym bag inside. Egged on by Paxton's pregnant wife Bridget Fonda, the three decide to keep the money for themselves and lay low for a while before cashing in but, as things tend to do in these situations, tensions arise, old quarrels are re-ignited and everything comes to a tense, and bloody, head. The performances are uniformly excellent, especially from Thornton as the slower-witted but morally superior member of the trio, and Fonda as the quietly manipulative driving force behind the mayhem. Scott B. Smith's intelligent screenplay is peppered with telling references to the American dream, while the stunning cinematography makes the cold, seemingly inhospitable vistas come alive (another echo of a film it resembles - Joel Coen's Fargo). Danny Elfman's score as heard in the film is masterly. His music is not present to enhance the emotional content of the film, but instead created an overall tone of mounting dread and impending doom. The intentionally off-key pianos, extremely high-range woodwinds and unconventional percussion are the perfect accompaniment for the stark white landscapes, as well as the increasingly corrupted natures of the protagonists. It's not an attractive score by any means, but it effectively fulfils its aims of creating a soundscape whereby the viewer is constantly on edge and a little uncomfortable. Click here for a full review of A Simple Plan.

CRUEL INTENTIONS

EDWARD SHEARMUR

It may seem a touch contrived to take the classic novel of French decadence, Les Liaisons Dangereuses, and remake it in modern-day New York, but in actual fact Roger Kumble's parable of spoilt little rich kids playing games of sexual one-upmanship is a triumph all round. The crackling screenplay is laden with more explicit double entendres than the entire series of Carry On films, while the performances of the arrogant Ryan Phillippe, the manipulative Sarah Michelle Gellar, the virginal Reese Witherspoon and the impossibly naive Selma Blair are uniformly excellent. After John Ottman's score was rejected, young Brit Edward Shearmur was called in to provide a late replacement, and although the music is wholly appropriate, it never truly leaves a lasting impression. It's fully orchestral, and is given a contemporary edge through the constant use of a cool drum 'n bass beat underneath the string section, but there's nothing to latch on to in terms of a musical theme. Instead, the most memorable moments occur through the inspired use of modern pop classics, including tracks by Placebo, Blur, The Cardigans, Fatboy Slim, and especially The Verve's anthemic "Bittersweet Symphony", which underscores the conclusive downfall of Gellar's coolly uncaring Kathryn Merteuil. The CD contains none of Shearmur's score.

TRUE CRIME

LENNIE NIEHAUS

Lennie Niehaus has worked with Clint Eastwood for years and years now but, as time goes on, it seems as though his contributions to the movies are getting less and less. True Crime is Eastwood's take on the hoary old "innocent man on death row" plotline, in which he plays a down-on-his-luck journalist assigned to write a human interest story about a convicted killer (Isaiah Washington) languishing on death row. As the time of execution draws nearer, Eastwood starts to discover discrepancies in the witnesses' stories (don't they always!) and finds himself in a race against time to clear the man's name before the lethal injection is carried out. Eastwood looks suitably grizzled, James Woods chews the scenery as his editor, Diane Venora cries a lot as his wife, and Washington gives a performance of great depth and complexity as the proud man condemned to die. All in all, it's predictable but enjoyable stuff. Niehaus, however, for the most part, is virtually unnoticeable. Eastwood, as usual, has come up with the main theme, a soft and tender piano melody which gets a fine rendition during a heart-to-heart between Eastwood and his wife, and which, surprisingly, is turned into a song for the end credits. Niehaus's major contributions are some synthy atmosphere tracks for Clint doing his investigative stuff, and a comedy jazz piece for the bizarre, out-of-place montage of Eastwood taking his daughter on a whistle-stop tour of the Oakland Zoo. Unsurprisingly, there is no soundtrack album for this one, probably because even Varese would have trouble finding enough music to fill the CD.

THE MATRIX

DON DAVIS

What is the matrix? Well, I'm not saying anything - you're just going to have to go and experience this incredible movie for yourself. If you like your films to have good acting, good writing, to look phenomenal, to have stunning action sequences, and to challenge your intellect AND stimulate your senses, then The Matrix is the film for you. Anyone who saw the Wachowksi's last movie - Bound - will know what to expect in terms of visual style, but this movie is double the movie Bound was. With excellent performances by the deadpan Keanu Reeves, the so-cool-it-hurts Lawrence Fishburne, the oozing Hugo Weaving and the stunning Carrie Anne Moss, this film has it all. I'm not telling you ANYTHING about the plot, because it will spoil everything for you. Just go see it. Now. In terms of music, The Matrix is slightly less successful, but Don Davis' score is nonetheless appropriate and entertaining. It's mostly orchestral, with a few augmented synthesisers to depict the recurring theme of technology, and bears quite a few resemblances to the work of Elliot Goldenthal, especially his score for Alien 3. There are several stunning musical sections, notably the immense choral piece where Keanu Reeves wakes up and sees the matrix for the first time... well, you'll see. The action music is appropriately pumping, especially in the final sequence, but to be honest the score is not the most important thing in a film like this. The Matrix is all about visuals, and while Don Davis does an entirely satisfactory job, you won't come away from the cinema humming the main theme. Click here for a full review of The Matrix.

THE DEEP END OF THE OCEAN

ELMER BERNSTEIN

In The Deep End of the Ocean, Michelle Pfeiffer faces surely the most traumatic event any parent can experience - a child going missing. Ulu Grosbard's engrossing, quietly shattering movie takes this already frightening premise one step further when, nine years after little Ben's mysterious disappearance, during which time the rest of the family struggled to cope with their loss, he re-appears, throwing into chaos once more their precariously balanced relationships. Pfeiffer conveys the mounting panic of a mother's worst nightmare with aplomb, and the supporting cast are all excellent, especially Treat Williams in a rare dramatic role as her husband, Whoopi Goldberg as a concerned cop, and Jonathan Jackson as the elder son who gets left behind and, ultimately, left out. It is also very encouraging to see that, despite being almost 80 years old, Elmer Bernstein is still writing high quality film scores. He endows The Deep End of the Ocean with a soft, delicate, but wholly appropriate underscore which effectively enhances the turbulent emotional state of a family in crisis. His main theme is written for a bold, tender-sounding piano with a gentle orchestral accompaniment, and is performed many times during the movie, most noticeably during the pivotal scene where Ben and Beth share a profound conversation in a cemetery, and during the lengthy end credits. Recommended, especially for those who believe that good film music began during the Seventies (Elmer scored his first in 1951!) Click here for a full review of The Deep End of the Ocean.

VIRUS

JOEL McNEELY

Also known as Dumb and Dumber II. Really, Gale Ann Hurd should know better than to lend her prestigious name to a completely stupid movie as Virus. The film's entire publicity campaign shrieks "from the producer of Aliens and T2!!", and basically this film wants to be just like Aliens, but on a boat. Wait a minute, though - didn't Deep Rising try to do that last year? Despite having a top name cast including Jamie Lee Curtis, one of the Baldwins (I think it was William, but they all look alike) and Donald Sutherland doing his best salty old sea dog impression, Virus never generates any kind of tension or the least bit of interest from the audience. The script is leaden and packed to the hilt with every genre clich� invented, the direction from special effects wizard John Bruno is uninspired and predictable, and the fight sequences seem lazy and confusing. Visually and aurally, though, the film is good, with impressive CGIs and eerie sound effects creating an appropriately menacing haunted-house style visage. Similarly, Joel McNeely's score is workmanlike but uninspiring, creeping and groaning and occasionally exploding into tumult as the on-screen action requires - much like Aliens did ten years earlier. The two cues which do stand out are the main and end titles, both of which include large-scale orchestral themes and, in the finale, an immense Russian choral piece. In the end, though, the Virus score is much like the picture it accompanies - completely derivative from other, better versions. Click here for a full review of Virus.

THE BIG TEASE

MARK THOMAS

Welcome to the cut-throat, high-pressure world of international hairdressing. A unique, quirky comedy, The Big Tease stars Craig Ferguson as a camp Scottish crimper who travels to Los Angeles, mistakenly believing that he will be representing his country in the biggest hair styling festival in the world. With a documentary team in tow, the now homeless and penniless Scotsman goes about getting himself the hairdressers equivalent of an Equity card so that he can take his rightful place in the competition. Although The Big Tease is a bizarre but entertaining combination of Rocky, Strictly Ballroom and Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, the music plays is remarkably straight. Welsh composer Mark Thomas has interspersed the plentiful array of pop songs with several great orchestral cues, some of which contain delightful tips of the hat to the spaghetti western sound of Ennio Morricone - except that in this case the six-shooters are hair dryers and the standoff takes place in a hotel rather than outside the saloon at high noon! There is also a superb, big-sounding lament for the scene down by the beach where the hapless hero contemplates his future. Overall, The Big Tease is an excellent effort, and one which deserves a prominent release.

NOTTING HILL

TREVOR JONES

Ever since the smash hit success of Four Weddings and a Funeral five years ago, rumours have abounded about a possible follow-up or sequel to the classic British romantic comedy. Notting Hill is not so much a sequel, but more of a different remake, if you know what I mean. Basically the story is the same: handsome, diffident Englishman (Hugh Grant) falls in, then out, then in again, then out again, and finally in love with beautiful, successful American woman (Julia Roberts this time) while assorted friends and relatives look on in amusement. The charm of Richard Curtis' script is still there, as are the tourist-friendly London locations and the hysterically oddball supporting characters - the best of these being Rhys Ifans as Grant's squalid Welsh flatmate. Therefore, while not vastly dissimilar to its illustrious predecessor, Notting Hill is a nice enough movie which, as well as being both funny and romantic, makes a few biting jabs as the media and the nature of celebrity. Equally, Notting Hill has a nice score by Trevor Jones, which accentuates all the slushy interludes and moments of romantic drama with a couple of soaring full-orchestra themes and some attractive melodies for woodwinds and an acoustic guitar. As happened on Four Weddings, though, the score is constantly overshadowed by an eclectic group of high-profile pop songs. They include an Elvis Costello cover of Charles Aznavour's "She", a remixed version of Shania Twain's "You've Got A Way", Bill Withers singing "Ain't No Sunshine" during a technically fantastic seasonal montage sequence, and a new song from Boyzone front man Ronan Keating entitled "When You Say Nothing At All". The CD, on the Island label, features two score tracks.

APT PUPIL

JOHN OTTMAN

Taken from the same collection of Stephen King short stories that brought us Stand By Me and The Shawshank Redemption, Apt Pupil is a truly terrifying tale which doesn't need monsters or ghosts to be profoundly disturbing. Ian McKellen and Brad Renfro turn in bravura performances as, respectively, a former Nazi concentration camp guard, and a young American boy who discovers his identity and blackmails him into revealing the grisly details about what happened during WWII. What starts out as be nothing more than a passing fantasy for the boy gradually turns into an all-encompassing obsession with the Holocaust, but as time passes, the tables turn, leaving you to wonder just who is manipulating who. John Ottman, as well as composing the music, acted as the film's editor and co-producer, making this a gargantuan undertaking. As ever, though, Ottman captured the musical soul of the movie, making his score attractive, enticing and interesting - but dark, disturbing and a little threatening too. Much like Ian McKellen's sinister old man. As with previous works, Ottman's music has a large Gothic grandeur, employing a full orchestra with prominent parts for solo piano, strings, percussion and a Germanic chorus. It is yet another impressive composition from this immensely talented young musician, who will undoubtedly be a major player in the film score world during the next millennium. Click here for a full review of Apt Pupil.

EVEREST

STEVE WOOD and DANIEL MAY

By their very definition, IMAX films are supposed to be both visually and aurally magnificent. This particular IMAX, narrated by Liam Neeson, tells the story of mountaineers Ed Viesturs, Jamling Norgay and Araceli Segarra, and their successful ascension of the highest mountain on the planet. To look at, Everest is nothing short of breathtaking. The camera rockets across snowy peaks, weaves its way over and around Nepalese rooftops, and takes the viewer on a dizzying ride of bottomless crevasses and gigantic avalanches until finally reaching the very pinnacle of the Himalayan Mountains. The music, by Steve Wood and Daniel May, is equally impressive, combining a full, large orchestra with traditional Tibetan and Nepalese instruments. The main melody has a surprising Irish influence and bears a remarkable similarity to James Horner's Braveheart, while the many eye-popping landscape shots are accompanied by cue after cue of massive, heroic, emotional-sounding music. In addition, former Beatle George Harrison provided several new themes which worked their way into the score, and performed the song "Here Comes The Sun" over the film's end credits. Overall, Everest is a majestically mounted composition, and accompanies the sumptuous cinematography as well as anyone could have expected. A CD is available on the Ark 21 label. For more information about IMAX scores, I recommend you check out Uwe Sperlich's excellent site, which can be found by clicking this link.

THE WATERBOY

ALAN PASQUA

Surprise number one: I really enjoyed this movie! Adam Sandler plays dumb-as-ditchwater Bobby Boucher, a man-child "without any social skills" who, while working as a water distribution engineer for a local American football team, is discovered to have an incredible talent for tackling opponents. Supported by Kathy Bates as his hilariously overbearing mother, Henry Winkler as the team's schizophrenic coach and Fairuza Balk as his sassy would-be girlfriend, Sandler makes his character a sort of Forrest Gump-lite, and although his speech impediment is annoying at first, becomes increasingly endearing as the movie wears on. And those flying tackles are worth the price of admission alone! Surprise number two: The music is great! Composer Alan Pasqua, whose only other credits was director Frank Coraci's 1995 thriller Murdered Innocence, captures the musical essence of life on the bayou in the early part of the movie with some funky rock-based tunes with fiddles and electric guitars. By the end, though, Pasqua has moved into full-blown Americana territory, celebrating Bobby and the Jackson Mud Dogs' victory in the Bourbon Bowl football match. The music here reminds me of William Ross' work on Tin Cup, and although none of it appears on the highly successful but song-heavy CD, it will be interesting to see where he goes from here.

I STILL KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER

JOHN FRIZZELL

For God's sake, somebody kill off this franchise. I don't think I'd be able to take a second sequel to 1996's surprise smash hit teen horror flick - especially since they'd probably call it I Still Haven't Forgotten What You Did Two Summers Ago. The plot (as if you'd care) sees the hapless Julie James and four new victims, er, friends, being pursued by nasty old Captain BirdsEye to a tropical paradise in the Bahamas after they win a radio phone-in quiz. It surely won't be long until the Bloody Marys being served in the hotel bar are made with real blood... If director Danny Cannon had concentrated less on Jennifer Love Hewitt's cleavage and more on things like plot, dialogue and acting, this could have been a halfway decent film. Cannon certainly has a good eye for detail, has come up with some interestingly gory special effects and has a definite flair for creating an atmosphere of tension. Contributing immeasurably to the latter is John Frizzell's music, a score which accentuates all the shocks and is certainly moody, but which is derivative of just about every other horror score ever written, from Bernard Herrmann's Psycho right up to obvious reworkings of John Carpenter's Halloween theme and Marco Beltrami's cool urban synths from Scream. The CD, chock-a-block with top selling artists (including two members of the cast!), features one score cut - the sweet, tinkly Julie's Theme.

FORCES OF NATURE

JOHN POWELL

Straight-laced blurb writer Ben Affleck is flying to Savannah, Georgia for his wedding to Southern belle Maura Tierney when the first of disasters strikes and he finds himself stuck on the road with crazy, kooky Sandra Bullock - and unexpectedly falling in love. An unassuming romantic comedy, Forces of Nature is a sort of Planes, Trains and Automobiles for the 1990s, but with much more attractive leads than John Candy and Steve Martin. The movie has a surprisingly wholesome and conventional outlook on relationships which, despite the efforts of Bullock, her Panda eye make-up, and several meteorological disasters, merely strengthens the notion of love at first sight and the sanctity of marriage. John Powell, writing the music, is given very little to go, and has to contend with a veritable plethora of feelgood ballads and romantic mainstays from the likes of Gomez, Faithless, Tricky and U2. His music is generally amiable and, occasionally, lifts the spirits with some magical string and chime themes, especially during the climactic scene at the old Savannah homestead. Although the smash hit CD features none of his score, it is nice to see Powell making a break for freedom from Media Ventures and trying his hand at different genre films.

THE HONEST COURTESAN

GEORGE FENTON

For a reason only known to the executives at Fox, this film has been saddled with at least three different titles, depending on which country you live in. In the States, both film and resulting score CD were called Dangerous Beauty, but in the UK, it is been released in cinemas with it's original title, The Honest Courtesan. However, in the shops in the UK, I have seen an Australian import CD with a third title - A Destiny Of Her Own - which has identical track listings but different cover art. Whatever version you happen to pick up, though, be aware that this is one of the best scores to emerge within the last couple of years. The film itself is nothing more than rose-tinted Hollywood saccharine. An enjoyable but inconsequential tale, it stars Catherine McCormack as a broad-minded young woman in 17th Century Venice who, after being spurned by her would-be suitor Rufus Sewell, is trained to become courtesan (high-class hooker) by her mother Jacqueline Bisset, and eventually becomes the toast of the city through her beauty, charm, intellect and wit. Aside from some lovely golden-hued vistas of the Grand Canal, and striking production design and costumes which re-create the opulence of the Renaissance era, George Fenton's music is the element which will remain in most people's memories. Beginning the soothing sounds of an acoustic guitar, the score develops into a sumptuous romantic epic which rises to dominate the entire film in several wonderful montage cues: notably the first scene in the library, during Veronica and Marco's first lovemaking, and the climax at the Spanish Inquisition. Whatever shortcomings the film may have as whole, George Fenton's utterly glorious work stands as one of the most attractive romantic scores for many a year, and should have had more recognition than it ultimately received (especially on Oscar night). Click here for a full review of The Honest Courtesan.

EXISTENZ

HOWARD SHORE

What a damn weird movie! eXistenZ, David Cronenberg's first completely original work since Videodrome has to be one of the most confusing films I have ever seen. It stars Jennifer Jason Leigh as Allegra Geller, the brilliant designer of a new virtual-reality video game in which the players enter a fantasy world by way of a genetically modified organic "game pod" which plugs an umbilical cord into a "bio-port" inserted into the small of the back. If all this sounds really bizarre, it is, as Allegra and her companion Ted Pikul (Jude Law) delve deeper into this peculiar alternate universe of eccentric characters, industrial espionage, nightmarish fish farms and a Chinese restaurant where nobody in their right mind would stop for lunch. To Howard Shore's credit, he refrains from making his score equally wacked-out, and instead has come up with a mature work which one British newspaper aptly described as "mournfully dignified". Shore's music never really hits you as being amazing, but it functions as a perfect soundwash to accompany the film's arresting visuals, expertly merging dense strings with electric guitars and an eerie theremin. The main and end titles are especially memorable as musical set-pieces. Click here for a full review of eXistenZ.

MESSAGE IN A BOTTLE

GABRIEL YARED

Having already directed When A Man Loves A Woman, the big weepie of 1994, Luis Mandoki was the ideal man to helm the big weepie of 1999, Message in a Bottle. A moving, mature romance based on the successful novel by Nicholas Sparks, the film stars Kevin Costner as a widowed boat-builder who is sought out by divorced journalist Robin Wright Penn after she discovers his love letter to his dying wife in a discarded bottle on the beach. It's nice to see films like this being made, where simple emotions such as love, trust and loneliness are tackled in a non-sensational, intensely passionate, highly effecting way. The film boasts a number of additional standout features, such as the excellent supporting performances by Paul Newman and Robbie Coltrane, a dry vein humour running through the screenplay, lovely lush cinematography by Caleb Deschanel, and Gabriel Yared's touching, lyrical score. Yared's music is in a similar style to City of Angels, in that multi-layered strings and acoustic guitars and an occasional choir play a prominent role in conveying much of the emotion. Where this score makes more of an impact, though, is through the marvellous main theme which appears whenever Costner takes a trip out to sea on his wooden schooner. The music rises and falls with the waves, and displays Yared's hitherto unheralded talent for crafting large-orchestra, memorable themes. This is without a doubt the romantic score of the year to date. Click here for a full review of Message In A Bottle.

8MM

MYCHAEL DANNA

Mychael Danna's score for 8MM is everything the film wanted to be, but isn't. It's oppressive, it's mysterious, it's exotic, and encapsulates the fear of descending into a unknown world in a way that director Joel Schumacher could never hope to achieve. The film itself stars Nicolas Cage as a modern private detective hired by a wealthy widow to investigate the background of an 8mm film found in her husband's possession - a film which seems to portray the sadistic torture and murder of a young woman. Cage soon finds himself immersed in Los Angeles' seedy underbelly of pornography and fetishism and, despite the help of a worldly sex shop clerk played by Joaquin Phoenix, quickly finds himself getting out of his depth. Unusually, Danna's score is highlighted by various passages based on Moroccan textures and rhythms - a technique which stands at odds with, but somehow perfectly depicts the city of angels' diverse nature. There are a number of excellent synth-enhanced action sequences - something for which Danna is not really known - as well as some eerie string-led suspense cues, and a beautiful piano theme to represent Cage's relationship with his wife and baby daughter. This could be Danna's first real break into the big time, providing that Hollywood is willing to accept his unique Eastern style. Click here for a full review of 8MM.

AN IDEAL HUSBAND

CHARLIE MOLE

The language and wisdom of Oscar Wilde is brought to the silver screen once more in An Ideal Husband, a magnificently performed comedy of errors, misunderstandings and caustic wit. The whole of the top-billed cast - Rupert Everett, Julianne Moore, Cate Blanchett, Jeremy Northam and Minnie Driver - are simply superb, delivering their barbed asides and insightful nuggets with aplomb. Everett is especially delicious as the vain and selfish Lord Arthur Goring, a man so wrapped up in his own world he declares that "to love one's self is the beginning of a lifelong romance", and Julianne Moore delivers an impeccable English accent in her portrayal of the wilful and manipulative Mrs. Cheveley. To complement his excellent eye for the look and d�cor of the period, director Oliver Parker has again teamed up with composer Charlie Mole, who he worked with on his previous feature Othello in 1995. Mole's score is grand, regal, and sumptuous, and swirls to opulent waltzes and period orchestrations. As much of the "action" takes place in around various high society London parties, the majority of Mole's score has a "ballroom" feel to it, and comes across as sounding quite lush and almost decadent in nature. Especially of note is the marvellous end credits suite, which truly epitomises the sound of Victorian London as the curtain begins to close. Click here for a full review of An Ideal Husband.

RETURN TO PARADISE

MARK MANCINA

It's very rare for a big Hollywood studio to produce a film with so much depth, strength, sincerity and unflinching realism as Return to Paradise. Basically, Joseph Ruben's film is a moral dilemma. Three friends - Vince Vaughn, Joaqin Phoenix and David Conrad - are on a Malaysian holiday filled with sun, sex and hashish. Vaughn and Conrad return home. Two years later, they both get a visit from dogged lawyer Anne Heche who informs them that, the day after they left, Phoenix was arrested, charged with drug smuggling and sentenced to death - and the only thing that will save him from the gallows is if the two of them voluntarily return to Penang and spend three years in a hell-hole prison. I won't go any more into detail, because to do so would spoil the dramatic impact of this excellent film, but one thing I will say is that Mark Mancina's score is incredible. It captures the loneliness, torment, turmoil and guilt felt by everyone in the film to absolute perfection, something which is very difficult to achieve without ending up in shamelessly-manipulative territory. The whole score has a grace and delicacy which effortlessly accentuates the unfolding drama on-screen, and is wonderful to listen to in its own right. Authentic pan flutes and oriental percussion are included, but not in a way which panders to stereotypes, and the whole thing comes together at the end in one sensational cue (when Heche is walking in the rain outside the prison). This is undoubtedly one of the scores of the year to date. Click here for a full review of Return to Paradise.

AFFLICTION

MICHAEL BROOK

With two powerhouse performances from Nick Nolte and James Coburn at its core, Affliction is a sober, thought-provoking drama examining the nature of destiny. Adapted from the novel by Russell Banks, Nolte plays a kind-hearted cop in a middle-of-nowhere New Hampshire town who, one snowy winter, starts to crack under the pressure of circumstances beyond his control. His mother dies, leaving him to look after his drunken, abusive father; his wife divorces him, leading his young daughter to become more and more withdrawn; and, to cap it all, he has a raging toothache. Then, when a wealthy businessman is mysteriously killed while on a shooting trip, Nolte begins to suspect that a conspiracy and a cover-up is being carried out. Expertly evoking the themes of loneliness and alienation is Michael Brook's original score. It is suitably bleak and plaintive, and is mainly synthesised with a four-note motif played alternately by horns, guitars and fiddles. It reminds me very much of Fargo - as does the visual style of the film - and throughout there is very little deviation from this motif, something which heightens the sense of isolation and tragedy (in fact the only other piece of music I noted was an unexpected rendition of "The Death of �se" from Peer Gynt). However appropriate in context, though, I would imagine it makes for a rather depressing standalone CD.

A CIVIL ACTION

DANNY ELFMAN

A Civil Action is a very quiet film. Even though it is a Hollywood courtroom drama, there is no grandstanding by the lawyers. There are no tearful, impassioned speeches to the jury. No-one breaks down on the witness stand and confesses all. People simply talk, and think, and interact for two hours in order to come to a meaningful and logical conclusion. Steven Zaillian's low-key but enthralling film stars John Travolta as the real-life personal injury attorney Jan Schlichtmann who, against his own better judgement, and those of his colleagues William H. Macy and Tony Shalhoub, brings a lawsuit to bear upon two large Maine organisations who, it is claimed, have contaminated the water supply of a nearby town, leading to a cluster of terminal leukaemia cases. In keeping with the style of the film, Danny Elfman's original score is soft, low-key and thoughtful. It's also very quirky, and makes good use of a lot of offbeat orchestrations and skewed melodies to put across its story of redemption and justice. In fact, Elfman's score is so unobtrusive that it hardly even features in the first 20 minutes of the film, and only becomes prominent during the scene where Travolta first discovers the chemical dumping site in the woods near Woburn. In several scenes thereafter, fiddles and guitars and woodwinds add a touch of melancholy to the movie as Schlichtmann and his associates become involved deeper in the case and, during the finale, the beloved children's choir that was so prominent in many of Elfman's earlier scores makes a welcome, if rather unexpected, re-appearance. In truth, there's not a lot going on in Elfman's score. But I like it all the same. Click here for a full review of A Civil Action.

THE FACULTY

MARCO BELTRAMI

The hip new horror movies from the pen of Kevin Williamson just keep on comin', this time in the shape of The Faculty, a hybrid of The Breakfast Club and Invasion of the Body Snatchers with snippets of Aliens and The Thing thrown in for good measure. With a cast of good-looking teens and a bevy of familiar older faces (including Salma Hayek, Famke Janssen, Piper Laurie, Robert Patrick and even Harry Knowles of www.aint-it-cool-news.com), Robert Rodriguez's entertainingly trashy movie takes the alien invasion premise a step further by having the teachers and pupils at an urban Ohio high school be taken over by evil squid-like parasites and turned into violent, sex-crazed maniacs - leaving only six 'normal' kids able to stop them. As the target demographic for this movie is quite obviously the "male 16-24" bracket, the film's soundtrack is stuffed to bursting with rock and pop songs from the likes of Sheryl Crow, Oasis, Soul Asylum and Garbage. The producers are obviously hoping that this proliferation of cool bands will sell loads of copies, because the resulting CD is also completely song-dominated - meaning yet again that Marco Beltrami's underscore is completely ignored. Basically, Beltrami is re-doing Scream again, but this is no bad thing since Beltrami is an exceptionally gifted horror composer, as his work on the two Screams and Mimic confirmed. The opening pre-title sequence is appropriately moody and atmospheric, and the following "high school montage" is another cool collaboration between the orchestra and Beltrami's clever synth grooves. Later in the film there are several cracking chasing/killing cues which reverberate around the cinema, and these is a nice romantic ending when the two heroes... well, I won't spoil it. I hope this one is picked up by a score label later on: Var�se Sarabande, are you reading this?

AMERICAN HISTORY X

ANNE DUDLEY

Director Tony Kane allegedly wanted to have his name removed from American History X and replaced with "Humpty Dumpty", saying that his movie was now half the film it used to be after New Line Cinema re-edited it against his wishes. If American History X is now half the film it used to be, then Kaye's original cut must have been extraordinary because, as it stands, this is still one of the most challenging, thought-provoking and mesmerising films I have seen in a long time. In fact, it is probably the most emotionally shattering experience I have had in a cinema for two or three years. The incredible Edward Norton stars as Derek Vinyard, an American neo-Nazi with a swastika tattooed over his heart. But he is not the usual mindless skinhead. He is charismatic, intelligent, articulate, and uses statistics and disturbingly valid reasoning to back up his racial hatred and violence. It is only after he is sent to prison for killing two black men that he begins to question his own morals, and vows to stop his little brother (Edward Furlong) from making the same mistakes as he did. As well as eliciting incredible performances from Norton, Furlong, and the surprisingly good Beverly D'Angelo, and having direction, writing and photography as good as anything I have seen this year, American History X also boasts a stunning orchestral score from Anne Dudley which banishes the memories of The Full Monty forever. The score is built around a stunningly beautiful string and choir elegy which laments not for Derek himself, but for the brother who idolises him, and his ultimate fate. Strings are almost entirely dominant throughout, lending the film an unexpected grace and beauty which counterbalances the traumatic scenes of violence and urban deprivation. In addition, there is an incredibly powerful, pulsating cue for a blacks vs. whites basketball match which throbs to immense percussion, and there are several other moments of amazing orchestral intensity. Anyone still seething about Dudley's Oscar win two years ago would do well to listen to this. It proves she's a composer of real quality. Click here for a full review of American History X.

WAKING NED

SHAUN DAVEY

It was only a matter of time until someone made a movie about someone winning the British National Lottery, but Waking Ned takes this seemingly rather mundane subject and turns it into a wonderful wish-fulfilment fantasy. Set in Ireland but filmed on the Isle of Man, Waking Ned (the film had the "Devine" part of the title dropped upon release in the UK) follows the exploits of two wily old fools, Ian Bannen and David Kelly, who try to dupe the men from city into thinking that Ned Devine is alive and well, living in the village of Tullymore, and is ready to claim his �7 million lottery win - despite the fact that he really died of shock in front of the television, winning ticket in hand. Shaun Davey's music treads the well-worn path of every traditional Irish score since Riverdance, and has fashioned music chock-a-block with Uilleann pipes, drums, fiddles, penny whistles and every other Gaelic musical clich� invented. The gorgeous swoops over vast, emerald fields; the craggy coastline; the good-humoured skulduggery; the whimsical love affair between a pig farmer and his beau; and the uplifting finale where the townsfolk raise a glass to Ned Devine are all captured by Davey's beautiful, lilting score. It may sound like a light-hearted Braveheart but, really, who cares when it sounds this good? Click here for a full review of Waking Ned.

PLUNKETT & MACLEANE

CRAIG ARMSTRONG

Stand and deliver! Bringing the story of two 17th century highwaymen back up to date is director Jake Scott (son of Ridley), whose wannabe hip movie breaks all the traditional period picture rules by employing jump cuts, MTV-style editing, and a speeded up love scene a la A Clockwork Orange. The surly Robert Carlyle, the dapper Jonny Lee Miller, the gorgeous Liv Tyler, the vicious Ken Stott and Boy George lookalike Alan Cumming all give memorable performances in the leading roles, but despite the flashy direction and "modern" language, the film can't quite reach its own high standards and ends up being just a little too clever for its own good, despite the breathtaking design and elaborate visual style. Craig Armstrong, the man who composed the orchestral music for William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet, has provided the film with a score which, while anachronistic, is strangely appropriate. Its modern-sounding synthesisers and techno rhythms marry perfectly with the film's contemporary feel, and are used in inspired manner during a ball dance sequence, where the ladies and gentlemen of court whirl around to urban pop beats. In addition, Armstrong - whose full orchestral work reminds me of Michael Nyman - has managed to tack in a couple of lovely traditional cues, including one absolutely haunting choral elegy for the hanging scene, my personal favourite musical moment of the film. Click here for a full review of Plunkett & Macleane.

MIGHTY JOE YOUNG

JAMES HORNER

In the end, Mighty Joe Young is about as entertaining as a movie about an oversized monkey could hope to be. A remake of the 1930s King Kong rip-off, this 1990s update stars the stunning Charlize Theron as the best friend of the titular gorilla, both of whom are relocated from their African home to the urban jungle of Los Angeles by anthropologist Bill Paxton, who wants to protect Joe from some ruthless poachers. If the plot is a bit hokey and old fashioned, and the dialogue rather clunky ("Ya big palooka, that's no way to ride a Ferris wheel!" is a line that will haunt Paxton for the rest of his career), Joe himself is utterly amazing, a combination of CGI graphics, a magnificent collection of Rick Baker puppets, and an entirely convincing guy in a suit. James Horner's music actually works better in the film than on CD. Windsong, the original African tribal chant composed by Horner and Will Jennings, is actually performed on-screen by the cast several times during the film, and in one instance is used to lull the homesick primate to sleep (how I wish Miss Theron would lull ME to sleep like that...). The action sequences, especially the ones for the opening sequence and the finale in the carnival, are exciting and gripping, while the lush main theme rises to numerous emotional crescendos, and plays majestically over the end credits, bringing a little tear to the eye. A solid and enjoyable score. Click here for a full review of Mighty Joe Young.

PAYBACK

CHRIS BOARDMAN

If the hobbling scene in Misery made you forever squeamish about nasty things being done to people's southernmost extremities, Payback is probably not for you. An unremittingly grim and mean-spirited thriller, the movie stars Mel Gibson as a petty thief and occasional killer determined to reclaim the $70,000 owed him after his ex-partner and ex-wife leave him for dead following a hit on a Chinese gang. It's one of those movies which tries to be noir-ish, with its blue-toned colour wash and gritty voiceovers, but Brian Helgeland's over-styled direction leaves you with a rather sour taste in the mouth as the film is rather sadistic and excessively violent, with virtually no let up for the entire running time except for a few comic interludes courtesy of a nervous dominatrix. Top orchestrator Chris Boardman's original score is a throwback to the 70s, with more than a passing reference to Lalo Schifrin. There is no one real standout musical moment in the film as such, but the whole thing is awash with heavy bass electric guitars, throbbing percussion, jazz-styled brasses and an overall feeling of "funkiness" to suit Mel Gibson's amoral but cool character. The soundtrack album, on Varese, has only 15 minutes of score, the rest being taken up by a series of crooned ballads by the likes of Dean Martin and James Brown. Click here for a full review of Payback.

ARLINGTON ROAD

ANGELO BADALAMENTI

What an incredibly subversive movie! A nail-biting thriller with a frightening degree of plausibility and a startling ending, Arlington Road stars Jeff Bridges as a college professor who slowly starts to believe that his wholesome next-door neighbours Tim Robbins and Joan Cusack could very well be a family of terrorists undertaking a bombing campaign across North America. Director Mark Pellington is certainly a name to watch in the future, and the performances - by Robbins especially - are simply top notch. Angelo Badalamenti's powerful score is unusual, but highly effective in the film, adding a sense of urgency and increasing the tension and uncertainly felt by Bridges' character. There's a lovely but sombre string lament for Bridges' dead wife which re-occurs regularly, some terrific action cues for the climactic chase sequences that are heavy on the percussion pads, and a truly hallucinogenic main title sequence which almost defies description, but certainly creates a sense of disorientation. Badalamenti collaborated with American scoring duo Tomandandy on some of the synthesised cues. The movie has been released here in the UK before the US, but is well worth a look when (or if) it gets to theatres in America. Click here for a full review of Arlington Road.

PLEASANTVILLE

RANDY NEWMAN

I'm not normally one to let a personal incident cloud my judgement, but the impact of this truly amazing movie was completely ruined for me when I went to see it, because four stupid little girlies sat a few rows in front of me giggled through the entire film. Whenever anything remotely sexual in nature was mentioned or shown, they started again. I wanted to go and slap them. People like that should carry a government health warning: Caution: Prolonged Exposure To My Personality May Lead To Insanity, Anger and/or Death. But I digress. Pleasantville is an amazing film: what initially starts as a charming and amusing fish out of water comedy slowly develops into a searing social allegory, tackling hard-hitting issues such as racism, freedom of speech, sexual equality, and even McCarthyism. Tobey Maguire, Reese Witherspoon, Jeff Daniels, William H. Macy, and especially Joan Allen deliver impeccable performances, and director Gary Ross' unique and creative use of colour is truly breathtaking. Randy Newman's score is similarly well-defined, a series of lush and attractive melodies which seek to capture the retrospectively idyllic nature of 1950s America. One main theme, a leitmotif for Jeff Daniels' exploits with a paintbrush, is especially beautiful and moving, and there are several other moments of great musical power (Joan Allen masturbating in the bath, the rainstorm down Lovers' Lane and the courtroom finale especially spring to mind). You have to see this film. It's the best of 1999 so far. Click here for a full review of Pleasantville.

PATCH ADAMS

MARC SHAIMAN

Or Dead Medics Society. Robin Williams revisits his "unconventional yet inspirational outsider" mentality with Patch Adams, the true story of an medical student who upset hospital authorities in the 1970s by developing an emotional attachment to his patients and who, through the power of laughter, not only prevented but improved the quality of life. It's all total schmaltz, with set pieces culled from any number of soul-stirring movies, but somehow it also comes together quite nicely, despite Williams' forced clownish antics and Bob Gunton's stereotypically tyrannical administrator. Similarly, Marc Shaiman's sugar-coated score is an emotional button-pusher, but they are always the right buttons. His lush, magical themes for flutes and soaring strings are some of the loveliest heard this year to date, and they achieve the almost impossible in making the saccharine content of the movie seem more palatable. The most majestic performance of theme comes during the film's most beautiful and touching moment when Williams, standing above a rocky outcrop near the Gesundheit Hospital, is given new hope for the future by the appearance of a butterfly. I love scores like this. I know it won't, but I hope it wins the Oscar. Click here for a full review of Patch Adams.

BELOVED

RACHEL PORTMAN

Media icon Oprah Winfrey spent almost ten years trying to bring Toni Morrison's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel to the screen. Beloved stars Winfrey as a former slave in turn of the century Ohio who harbours a dark secret. Living in a ramshackle house with her daughter (Kimberly Elise) and a would-be husband (Danny Glover), their existence is shattered by the arrival of a mysterious young woman who may or may not be the reincarnation of Winfrey's daughter, who died in infancy some 20 years before. Beloved is a fascinating, if flawed movie, comprising such diverse themes as slavery, romance, religion and the supernatural. In the pivotal role of Beloved, actress Thandie Newton is simply amazing, able to switch from doe-eyed innocence to furious anger at the flick of a switch, and endowing her character with the most disturbing voice since Mercedes McCambridge from The Exorcist. Jonathan Demme, despite having an almost fetishistic penchant for slow fades to black, handles the action well, and Rachel Portman's score is similarly appropriate to the setting. Unusually for Portman, there are very few melodies in her music: the score is dry and eerie, and uses percussion, flutes and the unnerving voice of Oumou Sangare to good effect. A hopeful Swahili anthem, "Uhuru", forms the core of the music, and is repeated once or twice, but to be honest Portman's music is not the emotional centre of the film. Her score is used more to evoke the sounds and feelings of the time period, leaving the personal punch to the actors - who are exemplary. Click here for a full review of Beloved.

THE THIN RED LINE

HANS ZIMMER

Terrence Malick's The Thin Red Line is an infuriating film. It is a cracking 100-minute movie struggling to emerge from out of an overlong 3-hour rumination on life, love, war and the nature of man. It's undoubtedly beautifully shot, flawlessly edited, contains several edge-of-seat battle sequences, and has a cast to die for (including Sean Penn, Nick Nolte, Elias Koteas, Woody Harrelson, and John Travolta and George Clooney in blink-and-you'll-miss-them cameos.) However, it's also incredibly confusing, sometimes slow almost to the point of tedium, and has constant voiceovers which try to be poetic but just end up being pretentious. Hans Zimmer slaved over the music for a long time, and his efforts have not been in vain. His slow, subtly beautiful score is the only thing that keeps the film going in places, with Malick's seemingly endless fascination with flora and fauna. Several moments of incredible beauty emerge from the languid string themes, all of which are embellished with synths, to paint an idyllic picture of the serene islands being ravaged by World War 2. In addition, a hopeful Melanesian chant is used to add a touch of ethnic colour. A worthy score. Click here for a full review of The Thin Red Line.

LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL

NICOLA PIOVANI

Quite how Italian funnyman Roberto Benigni managed to pull off a movie like this is amazing: a life-affirming romantic comedy drama set in a WWII Nazi concentration camp. If that description sounds just a tad tasteless, nothing could be further from the truth, for in reality Life Is Beautiful (La Vita � Bella) is one of the most amazing films you are ever likely to see. Veteran composer Nicola Piovani's glorious score is, in a way, a musical depiction of Benigni's mind. During the first half of the film, it has a romantic, eccentric, sometimes whimsical approach as it captures both the idyllic Umbrian countryside and the light hearted manner Benigni's character Guido tries to woo beautiful schoolteacher Dora (Nicoletta Braschi, who he calls his "my princess"). However, in the second half of the film, it acts as a fantasy-like counterpoint to the horrors that surround him as he and his young son Giosu� are sent to a concentration camp. Guido, trying to shield his son from reality, tries to convince him that it's all a big game where you win points for being good and not being afraid of the "nasty men who shout a lot", and as such the music has a slightly surreal feel, where tangos and accordions underscore scenes of unimaginable torment and desperation. Scenes of special musical note include the opening montage of Guido and Ferruccio driving; the scene where Guido announces his intentions to make love to Dora outside her house; the finale, where Guido is searching for Dora in the camp; and the sublime end credits. I wouldn't be surprised in the slightest if this walked away with the Oscar. Click here for a full review of Life Is Beautiful.

YOU'VE GOT MAIL

GEORGE FENTON

Not so much of a sequel to Sleepless in Seattle, more of a different remake. You've Got Mail again sees Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan playing the romantic leads in this effective comedy about two business rivals - he the boss of a massive chain of discount book stores, she the owner of a quaint family-run establishment under threat from the impersonal giant - who fall in love over the Internet without realising who the other one is in "real life". It's a charming, beguiling movie with more than its fair share of laughs, quite a few genuinely moving moments, and a lovely score from George Fenton. Although the movie is packed with songs by artists like Harry Nilsson, Sinead O'Connor and The Cranberries, Fenton's charming jazz-tinged work is prominent in quite a few places. The scene which remains in my memory the most is the one where Ryan is leaving her shop, and reminisces about "twirling" with her mother as Fenton's beautiful waltz-like theme rises on strings. In addition, a couple of bouncy scherzos and upbeat montages complement the lively New York setting. Recommended. Click here for a full review of You've Got Mail.

URBAN LEGEND

CHRISTOPHER YOUNG

The new wave of hip horror movies has finally begun to slide. In the wake of Scream, I Know What You Did Last Summer and others, the genre has well and truly been laid to rest by Urban Legend, Jamie Blanks' silly and strangely un-scary slasher movie in which several college students are murdered in the manner of various "urban legends". The problem, really, lies with the villain. I mean, just how frightening can an axe-wielding loon in a parka really be? The killer here isn't a patch on Freddy Krueger, or Michael Myers, or even Ghost Face from Scream. The film's big success, though, is Chris Young's knockout score, which sees him returning to the genre which has served him so well throughout his career. There is nothing subtle about this score: from the beautiful yet menacing female voices of the rain-soaked opening titles, to the orchestral carnage of the slice 'n dice action sequences, the brilliance of the score more than makes up for the shortcomings of the film itself. In fact, it makes it better, especially when Young's string section do their Bernard Herrmann bit and make the cheap shocks more shocking. This is the sign of a truly great score - when the film it is scoring is actually made more entertaining because of its very presence. I admit that I thoroughly enjoyed this awful movie, with its awful dialogue, obvious red-herring cameos (from Robert Englund and Brad Dourif) and twist-in-the-tale ending. I have Chris Young to thank. Click here for a full review of Urban Legend.

DON'T GO BREAKING MY HEART

ROLFE KENT

Don't Go Breaking My Heart is one of those movies the British do well. It's a completely undemanding, sentimental, oh-so-predictable romantic comedy with a couple of American stars (Anthony Edwards, Jane Leeves) and a bevy of British stalwarts (Jenny Seagrove, Charles Dance, Linda Bellingham) all having lots of jolly japes in a perfect Britain where the phone boxes and buses are bright red, the sun always shines, the schools are all public and everything stops for tea and cakes. There's even a cameo by Linford Christie and a finale straight from the Chariots of Fire book of sporting clich�s. Despite containing several classic songs (including the eponymous Elton John song, Gerry and the Pacemakers' "I Like It" and Leo Sayer's "You Make Me Feel Like Dancing"), Rolfe Kent's original score gets a good airing on the CD, and for good reason: it's great! A fully orchestral romance, it features a number of cracking cues, especially a couple of superb love themes for Tony and Suzanne, and a marvellously heroic and upbeat finale at the Hanover School sports day. It's all shamelessly manipulative, but it sounds great. With this one and the equally well-received The Theory of Flight, young Mr. Kent is making a definite name for himself...

THIS YEAR'S LOVE

SIMON BOSWELL

Supposedly "Friends" transferred to Camden Town, London, This Year's Love has been touted as being a wry look at relationships in the 90s, and the funniest British romantic comedy since Four Weddings and a Funeral. Well, as the saying goes, with friends like these who needs enemies? Basically, there are six of them - Kathy Burke, Jennifer Ehle, Ian Hart Douglas Henshall, Catherine McCormack and Dougray Scott - and over the course of the film they drink a lot, smoke a lot, swear a lot and shag each other. And that's about it really. There are a couple of genuinely funny moments, a few telling observations about life in general, and Jennifer Ehle's hair is brilliant, but on the whole this is a rather dispiriting movie, and one which will more than likely put you off having relationships for the rest of your life. The soundtrack is packed with Britpop tunes from groups like The Stereophonics, Ocean Colour Scene, Finlay Quaye and Morcheeba, and the thankless task of scoring the movie went to Simon Boswell, who is far too good a composer to be wasting his talents on rubbish like this. It seems as though Boswell felt the same, and was content to simply work a few simple electric guitar tunes in around the songs. Chalk this one up to needing to pay the electric bill, or something like that.

HILARY AND JACKIE

BARRINGTON PHELOUNG

If the Academy have any sense at all, they'll give the Best Actress Oscar to Emily Watson and have done with it. Watson stars as Jacqueline Du Pr�, the unconventional but brilliant cellist whose life and career were cut tragically short by multiple sclerosis. She gives a performance of great depth and bravery, capturing the arrogance that came with her celebrity, the misguided jealously directed at her sister, and the bitter frustration as all that she has is taken away by a crippling disease. The scene in which she breaks down while listening to her own performance of Elgar's Concerto for Violoncello and Orchestra in E Minor, is one of the most gut-wrenching, realistic and moving pieces of acting I have ever seen. Elgar's Cello Concerto forms the backbone of the score, and is given several sumptuous renditions on-screen. As a result, Barrington Pheloung's original music is somewhat overshadowed, but is nevertheless a beautiful work in its own right. Unsurprisingly, it features a number of cello solos, but also incorporates some delicate flute work (inspired by Jackie's sister Hilary, played brilliantly by Rachel Griffiths) and a lovely, classical-sounding main theme which is given a rapturous rendition over the end credits. In a film which celebrates the love of music, it is only fitting that it should feature a beautiful score, and neither Elgar, Bach or Pheloung disappoint. Click here for a full review of Hilary and Jackie.

THE OPPOSITE OF SEX

MASON DARING

Whoo-hoo! Don't mess with Christina Ricci! In The Opposite of Sex, Wednesday Addams turns even nastier, playing sultry sex-bomb DeeDee Truitt, a scheming, conniving, totally despicable young woman making the lives, love lives and sexual orientations of everyone around her much more confusing as she sleeps, lies and wisecracks her way into the bank account of Martin Donovan, the bed of Ivan Sergei, and the worst nightmares of Lisa Kudrow. In a twist not too dissimilar to The Truman Show, Mason Daring's underscore is both a plot device and an accompaniment which manipulates the audience in many different ways. Daring, who is finally branching out and scoring movies for directors other than John Sayles, scores the movie with a combination of winning country tunes, bouncy swing material and some small-scale orchestral stuff which is attractive enough, but neither here nor there in soundtrack terms. My favourite musical moment: the scene in which Martin Donovan is moping round the house, when the music swells into some lovely romantic stringwork - only for the spell to be broken by Ricci's barbed narration, saying "Oh, come on, you don't have to feel sorry for him. It's only music!" Clever - a pretty good score which fits the movie well.

VERY BAD THINGS

STEWART COPELAND

You know, film music can be funny. Writing this, just over an hour after walking out of the cinema, I'm struggling to recall a single note of Stewart Copeland's score for Very Bad Things. Directed by Peter Berg (the patsy from The Last Seduction), the movie stars Christian Slater as the brains behind the antics of five guys on a Las Vegas bachelor party who accidentally kill a hooker in their hotel room. As black comedies go, Very Bad Things is pretty much the colour of coal, and has a nasty streak running through it as well, as the increasingly frantic (and violent) repercussions of their actions begin to affect their lives, as well as the imminent wedding of Jon Favreau and Cameron Diaz. You would expect music to play a prominent role in such a film, generating tension and underscoring the shocks, but this is not the case here. I remember some of the songs, by people like Morcheeba, The Chemical Brothers and Willie Bobo (which accompany the scenes of sex, drugs and alcohol in the hotel), but Copeland's efforts completely passed me by. I have some vague recollection of a few violin and percussion "reaction" cues, but anything more than that was either mixed incredibly low, or indistinguishable from the song intros. If I actually heard the thing, it might get more than one star...

A BUG'S LIFE

RANDY NEWMAN

The Pixar/Disney co-production A Bug's Life has done what I thought was impossible by actually being a better picture than Antz. Although sharing similar plot structures (seemingly worthless member of the colony ends up saving the anthill by being both a free-thinking individual and a team player), A Bug's Life is cleverer, funnier and better-animated. I love the circus bugs (especially the German mama's boy caterpillar Heimlich, and two Hungarian pillbugs, Tuck and Roll, who constantly jabber away in some unintelligible language), and the hilarious end credits sequence, which has "out-takes" of the bugs fluffing their lines, falling off things and bursting into laughter. Randy Newman, continuing in the musical vein he started on Toy Story and James and the Giant Peach, has composed a suitably heroic, bold and generally enjoyable score, boasting one extremely catchy main theme and a couple of knockout action cues (for the chase across the riverbed and the concluding ants vs. grasshoppers fight). Newman also performs the end credits song, "The Time of Your Life", which sounds remarkably like "You Got A Friend In Me" in places, but is appropriate for the picture despite Randy's rather 'unique' vocal style. I sense Oscar nominations... Click here for a full review of A Bug's Life.

SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE

STEPHEN WARBECK

A sumptuous, witty, romantic comedy drama, flawlessly directed by John Madden and impeccably performed by a cast including Gwyneth Paltrow, Joseph Fiennes, Geoffrey Rush, Judi Dench and Ben Affleck, Shakespeare In Love is undoubtedly one of the films of the year, and will certainly feature prominently at the Oscars in March. Composer Stephen Warbeck, whose other major credit was Mrs. Brown, has imbued the film with a perfect mix of both contemporary and classical styles, using music from the 15th Century Elizabethan setting and 1990s sweeping themes to represent the recurring elements of love and loss. Although the music is never prominent enough to "blow you away", it nevertheless works it magic magnificently, especially in a series of tasteful love scenes between Fiennes and Paltrow; a hilarious balcony scene which precludes the more famous one in Romeo and Juliet; and several theatrical montages as the thespians of the era rehearse for Shakespeare's classic comedy, 'Romeo and Ethel the Pirate's Daughter'. I don't think that Warbeck will receive the accolades his colleagues have, but it is nevertheless a charming and attractive score. Click here for a full review of Shakespeare In Love.

STEPMOM

JOHN WILLIAMS

John Williams came in at the eleventh hour to replace Patrick Doyle on Stepmom, a cloyingly sentimental but well-meaning family drama in which Susan Sarandon (ex-wife and perfect mother) and Julia Roberts (new girlfriend and not so perfect mother) vie for the attentions and affections of Ed Harris and his children. Directed with gushing un-subtlety by Chris Columbus, Williams work brings a welcome touch of restraint and beauty to a film which otherwise hits you over the head and screams "laugh now!" and "cry now!" at you every few minutes - there's even a cringe-making "singing into a hairbrush" rendition of Ain't No Mountain High Enough. Although not one of his more memorable efforts, Williams nevertheless adds a considerable amount of charm and grace to the proceedings, but it is not until the second half of the film, where the emotion is really turned up to the maximum, that Williams' work begins to play a major part. Long and lush string melodies with accompaniment from Christopher Parkening's lovely acoustic guitar give the teary-eyed heart to heart conversations a tender quality they really don't deserve, showing beyond a shadow of a doubt that good film music can make a bad movie seem so much better. Also worth listening out for are a couple of exciting moments (when Julia Roberts is frantically searching for little Ben, and a soccer game) and a haughty march that accompanies an Elizabethan pony-and-trap photo shoot. Click here for a full review of Stepmom.

54

MARCO BELTRAMI

The third instalment of the currently in vogue 1980s nostalgia movie series, 54 is set in and around the legendary New York discotheque of the same name, where anyone who was anyone went to be seen. Mark Christopher's movie, while enjoyable, is unfortunately rather uninspired, and only Mike Myers' terrific performance as the spaced-out club owner Steve Rubell saves it from being just another Saturday Night Fever clone with delusions of grandeur. The soundtrack, on Tommy Boy Records, is a fantastic trip down amnesia lane, and boasts a veritable plethora of classic disco tunes including Thelma Houston's "Don't Leave Me This Way", Blondie's "Heart of Glass", Chic's "Dance Dance Dance" and Diana Ross' "The Boss" among others. As was the case with The Last Days of Disco last year, original underscore is not a prominent feature, but horror-meister Marco Beltrami's decidedly low-key efforts feature some groovy guitar solos courtesy of Buck Sanders, and a decent but extremely brief main theme for a small combo featuring guitars and poppy percussion. None of Beltrami's work is included on the CD, which has been released as a 2-CD set in the UK.

BULWORTH

ENNIO MORRICONE

Inside of Bulworth, there's a great score fighting to get out. As usual, director/producer/writer/star Warren Beatty chose the eminent Italian to score his latest movie: a political satire in which an incumbent U.S senator breaks all the political taboos and begins actually telling the truth to the voters - but through rap music. Surprisingly, Morricone's score was pretty much dumped from the final cut of the movie and was replaced by a multitude of rap and hip-hop songs and endless performances of various John Paul Sousa marches. Where Morricone's music is left untouched, it comes across as another graceful, emotional-sounding score gilded with high strings and some nervous plucked harps. In one scene especially - where Beatty falls contentedly asleep in the basement of Halle Berry's South Central house - the elegiac strains of Morricone's music provide a wonderful contrast to the rather menacing tunes that have preceded it. The end credits are something of a peculiarity, though, because the score has actually been overlaid and mixed in with the rap, resulting in a rather unusual but quite intriguing amalgam of styles. Fortunately, RCA saw fit to release a score album as an accompaniment to the rap-song commercial release, and would be well worth seeking out in order to ge a proper feel for what the score is all about. Click here for a full review of Bulworth.

PSYCHO

BERNARD HERRMANN, DANNY ELFMAN and STEVE BARTEK

If you could guarantee one thing about the new Psycho movie, it was that Bernard Herrmann's landmark score would sound incredible - resplendent in super Dolby surround sound stereo. Every note, every inflection has been meticulously re-created by Danny Elfman and Steve Bartek, from the choppy, impressionistic main title to the legendary screeching cellos of the shower scene. For those who have never heard this amazing score in a cinema setting, I would recommend seeing Psycho for this fact alone. However, I question Gus Van Sant and Brian Grazer's motives for making the movie in the first place. Although it was never going t be a BAD movie, with Joseph Stefano's screenplay kept almost word-for-word, the fact that it is a shot-for-shot remake rather than an updated reinterpretation leaves the movie wide open for unfair comparisons with the original. Anne Heche is no Janet Leigh, Viggo Mortensen is no John Gavin, and Vince Vaughn is certainly no Anthony Perkins - in fact the only cast member who leaves with their dignity intact is William H. Macy as the clever private detective Arbogast. If the thinking behind remaking such a classic film was to introduce the story to a generation of cinema-goers who would not normally touch a black and white film with someone else's barge pole, then Psycho '98 is a well-intentioned but ultimately doomed venture, which only the most blinkered would not see as a pale imitation. Similarly, Herrmann's score only reminds you of how well it fitted the other movie. The album, which only features two score cuts, is an inexplicable compilation of songs inspired by the movie - inexplicable, because only Slim Whitman's "Indian Love Call" and a techno version of Herrmann's theme (given Elfman's favourite cue title, "Weepy Donuts") over the end credits actually feature.

MEET JOE BLACK

THOMAS NEWMAN

Thomas Newman has made some unusual choices in scoring his movies in the past, but Meet Joe Black could well be his best work to date. Martin Brest's moving, intriguing , sumptuous movie stars Anthony Hopkins as a New York multi-millionaire businessman who is visited at his mansion by Death himself - in the guise of Brad Pitt, a young man recently killed by a bus. In exchange for an extension to his life, Hopkins agrees to be Pitt's guide on Earth - but the unexpected happens when Death, newly-named Joe Black, falls madly in love with Hopkins' daughter, played by Clair Forlani. Newman's music for this lovely film is sweeping romanticism all the way. It's a score well set in Newman's familiar style but, whereas normally his scores are a combination of quirkiness and lyricism, here he leaves out the quirkiness and has goes for broke in the unadulterated, sweeping romanticism stakes. Several moments of extreme musical beauty stick in the mind: the tastefully filmed love scene between Pitt and Forlani, and the incredible firework-laden finale at Hopkins' birthday party are especially of note, but many of the key scenes boast extremely attractive cues filled with his familiar layered strings and soft, pastoral woodwind melodies. Click here for a full review of Meet Joe Black.

LITTLE VOICE

JOHN ALTMAN

Little Voice, as a film, is both highly enjoyable and extremely annoying. Whereas the majority of the cast perform impeccably, Brenda Blethyn - as English white trash housewife Mari Hoff - is excruciatingly grating and puts in one of the most one-dimensional performances of her life. Michael Caine, on the other hand, is excellent as the talent agent with delusions of grandeur, and has a moment of triumph when he delivers a rendition of Roy Orbison's "It's Over" as a bitter epitaph to his career. But the star of the show is Jane Horrocks, LV herself, whose vocal impersonations of Judy Garland, Shirley Bassey and Marilyn Monroe are uncanny. This is where composer John Altman also comes into his own - arranging these cabaret hits for the film's central showpiece in Mr. Boo's Club, an absolute knockout sequence where Horrocks belts out such classics as "Big Spender" and "Get Happy". Altman's original underscore is less inspired, but suitably reflects the seaside resort of Scarborough with pretty little piano themes and an occasional lively melody to complement the town's downmarket razzmatazz.

THE SIEGE

GRAEME REVELL

Edward Zwick's terrorist pot-boiler, starring Denzel Washington, Annette Bening, Bruce Willis and the excellent Tony Shalhoub, slowly turns up the tension as an unknown Middle Eastern faction takes huge chunks out of the great city of New York with bombs until the whole of Brooklyn is turned into a demilitarised zone. Surprisingly, Zwick chose Graeme Revell, rather than James Horner, to score his movie, but I question his decision. Revell's music is appropriate but oh-so-predictable, using a vast array of synthesisers and sampled sounds to underscore the numerous chase and action scenes. There is a fairly attractive string theme which is especially prominent when Washington is delivering his stirring speeches to his minions, and the sound of a wailing Islamic muezzin occasionally adds a touch of ethnic colour, but on the whole the score is rather uninspired, and it wouldn't surprise me if Mr. Zwick is wishing he had continued his partnership with Mr. Horner, who would have undoubtedly contributed a much more memorable score.

STAR TREK: INSURRECTION

JERRY GOLDSMITH

I'm going to confound everybody here and now by saying that, in the grand scheme of things, I think that Insurrection is the second-best Trek movie in the entire nine-film franchise, with only Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan ahead of it. The excellent action sequences, the wonderful interplay between the cast (especially Jonathan Frakes as Will Riker and Marina Sirtis as Deanna Troi), the light and unselfconscious humour, and the relevant Holocaustian messages are all things that I would immediately pick out as being of note, and they are all major factors in my enjoyment of the movie. Ignoring the proliferation of apostrophes in the screenplay (Ba'ku, Son'a, Ru'afo), Jerry Goldsmith's score treads a fine line in capturing the massive scale of the space battles between the Enterprise and the Son'a warship, and the peace and tranquillity of the Ba'ku planet. To give the score a sense of itself, Goldsmith wisely re-uses Alexander Courage's legendary fanfare, his marvellous theme from The Next Generation and the harsh Klingon motif for Worf. The new element in the score is the incredibly delicate theme for the Ba'ku village, performed on harps and flutes, which brings an uncommon gentleness to what are normally quite rousing scores. The score works well in the movie, especially in the quieter "courtship" scenes between Picard and Anij, and is sure to be one of the big sellers of 99. Click here for a full review of Star Trek: Insurrection.

THE MIGHTY

TREVOR JONES

There's a definite touch of Riverdance to Trevor Jones' score for The Mighty, a sweet and wholesome movie starring Kieran Culkin and Elden Hansen as two "freak" children - one disabled, one a slow learner - who form an unlikely bond through their respective adversity and their unlikely affinity for the tales of King Arthur and the ancient code of the Knights of the Round Table. Sharon Stone puts in a good performance as Culkin's doting mom, and Gillian Anderson leaves an unlikely but lasting impression as a white trash woman with a heart of gold. Yet again, Jones enters the realms of Arthurian legend (after Excalibur and Merlin), but this time his score is a combination of emotional Irish-flavoured passages with prominent Uileann pipes, snappy synthesiser melodies to represent the movie's setting in modern-day Cincinnati, and a bold, soaring theme for the two boys' dreams of Camelot. Especially of note are the Opening Titles, with it's catchy harmonica; the uplifting finale, which has a full and lush orchestral theme; and the End Title that segues into the terrific song "The Mighty", written and performed by Sting to Jones' Irish jig. Splendid stuff. Click here for a full review of The Mighty.

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Movie Music U.K is designed and maintained by Jonathan Broxton (c) 1999. All opinions and views expressed on these pages are my own and are in no way intended to reflect those the University of Sheffield. All photos and album artwork used on Movie Music U.K. are only for the non-profit making promotional purposes and no copyright infringement is intended.