Reviews

CD Review: STAR TREK IV: THE VOYAGE HOME: Ultimate Edition soundtrack

STAR TREK IV: THE VOYAGE HOME soundtrack | ©2011 Intrada Records

Hardcore fans might be loathe to admit that the most popular entry in the STAR TREK film series (at least until J.J. Abrams re-booted it) was the “save the whales” picture STAR TREK IV: THE VOYAGE HOME that had the least to do with Gene Roddenberry’s mythology – let alone the movies’ majestically adventurous musical character that had been established by Jerry Goldsmith and James Horner. But dismissive purists aside, there’s no denying the one-off pleasures that abound in the lightweight, character-driven VOYAGE HOME especially in director Leonard Nimoy’s decision to bring a seriously avant-garde composer like Leonard Rosenman aboard […]Read On »


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Exclusive Interview: THE WALKING DEAD wants the brains of Robert Kirkman and David Alpert

Andrew Lincoln, Sarah Wayne Callies and Jon Bernthal in THE WALKING DEAD - Season 2 | ©2012 AMC

Robert Kirkman created the Eisner Award-winning THE WALKING DEAD comic book series, first published in 2003 and still running today. The comics chronicle the travails of a small group of people trying to survive after the world is overrun with the title element. When AMC commissioned THE WALKING DEAD as a series which began its run in October 2010 – Season Two is currently running Sundays at 9 PM – Kirkman came aboard as one of the executive producers and staff writers. Kirkman and David Alpert, another of WALKING DEAD’s executive producers, are available for a quick private chat about […]Read On »


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CD Review: Van Halen – A DIFFERENT KIND OF TRUTH

Van Halen - A DIFFERENT KIND OF TRUTH | ©2012 Interscope Records

Suggested Retail Price: $15.88 (deluxe edition), $12.33 (standard edition) Label: Interscope Records You won’t be partying like it’s 1984 when you start listening to the new Van Halen album A DIFFERENT KIND OF TRUTH – the first featuring David Lee Roth on vocals in 28 years. In fact, you’d be hard-pressed to party like it’s 1975, 1976 or 1977 – the years in which the scraps and seeds of many of the songs included here were originally conceived by guitarist Eddie Van Halen and Roth. Instead, A DIFFERENT KIND OF TRUTH is a messy, frustrating and ultimately soulless album. It’s […]Read On »


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CD Review: BATMAN FOREVER: LIMITED EDITION soundtrack (3,500 limited edition)

BATMAN FOREVER soundtrack | ©2012 La La Land Records

Where it seemed that the first two scores in the BATMAN franchise were as crazy as you could get with the Wagnerian approach to superhero scoring, then Elliot Goldenthal’s next two entries made Danny Elfman’s brilliant, demon circus takes seem positively somnambulant in comparison. If anything, Goldenthal’s BATMAN FOREVER and BATMAN AND ROBIN scores are like two alarm clocks, screaming through your senses as they mash together the 60’s jazz kitsch that Neil Hefti gave to the television show, along with the brash, brassy experimentalism of John Corigliano’s concert hall works in the 80’s- modernism that changed the face of […]Read On »


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CD Review: THE BEYOND / MANHATTAN BABY soundtrack

THE BEYOND soundtrack | ©2011 Beat Records

When it comes to the blood-soaked explosion of Italian horror, or the combos of orchestral suspense and progressive rock that accompanied these films’ stylish vivisections, two of the names that come to fans’ minds (or the gaping holes through their heads) are Roman gore auteur Lucio Fulci and his frequent composer Fabio Frizzi. For if Fulci’s makeup effects weren’t enough to unsettle even the most stomach-hardened genre addicts, it was Frizzi’s moaning, borderline-psychedelic soundtracks that made them far more disturbing and eerie- as if the images were being telegraphed from a truly unhinged mind in the underworld. Both men ventured […]Read On »


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CD Review: CONAN THE DESTROYER

CONAN THE DESTROYER soundtrack | ©2011 Prometheus Records

If you’re a composer going into battle with one of the worst sequels of all time to protect the sanctity of your original masterwork, then you might as well hold your sword high, scream “Crom!” and produce such symphonic blood and thunder that the one thing to come out of the destruction will be your music. Such was the power of Basil Poledouris as he swung his mighty CONAN into DESTROYER‘s woeful death pit. The fact that Nic Raine and The City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra and Chorus are back nearly thirty years later to re-perform Poledouris’ gloriously manly score […]Read On »


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Movie Review: THIS MEANS WAR

THIS MEANS WAR movie poster | ©2012 20th Century Fox

Rating: PG-13 Stars: Reese Witherspoon, Chris Pine, Tom Hardy, Til Schweiger, Chelsea Handler Writers: Timothy Dowling and Simon Kinberg, story by Timothy Dowling and Marcus Gautesen Director: McG Distributor: Twentieth Century Fox Release Date: February 17, 2012 In THIS MEANS WAR, two top-level CIA agents, partners at work and best friends in life, find that they have fallen for the same woman. This turns into a rivalry in which the two men deploy all sorts of surveillance (our tax dollars at work!) in the hopes of getting information that will put them in the lead when it comes to said […]Read On »


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TV Review: FRINGE – Season 4 – “A Better Human Being”

Blair Brown, Seth Gabel and John Noble in FRINGE - Season 4 - "A Better Human Being" | ©2012 Fox/Liane Hentscher

Cast: Joshua Jackson, John Noble, Anna Torv, Seth Gabel, Lance Reddick, Jasika Nicole Writer: Alison Schapker & Monica Owusu- Breen based on a story by Glen Whitman & Robert Chiappetta Director: Joe Chappelle Network: Fox, airs Friday nights Original Telecast: February 17, 2012 The FRINGE episode “A Better Human Being” is a good premise, that isn’t as fully fleshed out or as creepy as it should be. Yet, the creepy A-story, is truthfully the B-story to the episode’s stronger mythology storyline about what’s going on with Olivia (Anna Torv) and why she’s having memories of her life with Peter (Joshua […]Read On »


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TV Review: THE RIVER – Season 1 – “Los Ciegos”

Eloise Mumford and Joe Anderson in THE RIVER - Season 1 - "Los Ciegos" | ©2012 ABC/Mario Perez

Stars: Bruce Greenwood, Joe Anderson, Leslie Hope, Eloise Mumford, Paul Blackthorne, Thomas Kretschmann, Daniel Zacapa, Shaun Parkes, Paulina Gaitan Writer: Glen Morgan, series created by Michael R. Perry & Oren Peli Director: Michael Katleman Network: ABC, Tuesdays @ 9 PM Original Broadcast: February 14, 2012 Too much character development is normally not a complaint for an episode of a TV series – the problem is usually the reverse. “Complaint” and “problem” are perhaps words too strong for what happens in THE RIVER’s third episode “Los Ciegos,” but it starts feeling like a bit of overkill when both of the show’s […]Read On »


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TV Review: REVENGE – Season 1 – “Chaos”

Emily VanCamp and Josh Bowman in REVENGE - Season 1 - "Chaos" | ©2012 ABC/Colleen Hayes

Stars: Emily VanCamp, Madeleine Stowe, Henry Czerny, Josh Bowman, Nick Wechsler, Gabriel Mann, Ashley Madekwe, Christa B. Allen, Connor Paolo Writer: Mark Fish & Joe Fazzio Director: Sanford Bookstaver Network: ABC, Wednesday nights, 10 p.m. Original Telecast: February 15, 2012 The episode “Chaos” is perhaps the most aptly titled episode of REVENGE yet – there is so much going on, and it all ties into what we all came here to see, namely the shooting at the beginning of the season, which also starts the episode. And, oh, yes, there is one humdinger of a surprise twist at the end. More cynical minds might suggest we could have seen this coming. I totally […]Read On »


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