Reviews

CD Review: REAL STEEL soundtrack

By DANIEL SCHWEIGER 12/29/2011
REAL STEEL soundtrack | ©2011 Varese Sarabande Records

If there was one film whose high concept promised a TKO, then it was having the director of the disastrous PINK PANTHER redo make the movie version of the old Hasbro toy Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Robots- as channeled through the father-son corniness of THE CHAMP. But like its junkyard automaton, REAL STEEL shouldn’t have been counted out, as this Hugh Jackman effects vehicle has not only proven to be one of this year’s most entertaining box office winners, but has also delivered a truly unique Danny Elfman genre score that’s all about the musical rope-a-dope as opposed to a […]Read On »


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Exclusive Interview: THE VAMPIRE DIARIES star Paul Wesley has a bite

By ABBIE BERNSTEIN
Paul Wesley at the Bing presents THE CW PREMIERE PARTY | ©2011 Sue Schneider

For the first two seasons of CW’s big hit THE VAMPIRE DIARIES (Thursdays at 8 PM), it was easy to tell the two vampire Salvatore brothers apart. Stefan, played by Paul Wesley, was the good one who never wanted to kill humans, and Damon, played by Ian Somerhalder, was the bad one, who killed whoever and whenever he wanted. In Season Three, the tables are turned. Stefan has let his inner Ripper emerge, and Damon, along with Stefan’s human girlfriend Elena (Nina Dobrev) are desperately trying to restore Stefan to his old self. Wesley is having a blast with the […]Read On »


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CD Review: TRADING PLACES soundtrack (2,000 edition)

By DANIEL SCHWEIGER 12/28/2011
TRADING PLACES soundtrack | ©2011 La La Land Records

An old fogey named Elmer Bernstein became the new (and perhaps unwitting) king of youth comedy scores when filmmaker John Landis had the idea that the composer’s straight-laced, old Hollywood approach would be ideal to play the classically pompous academia who did their best to make sure Faber College had no fun of any kind. The keg smash of 1978’s ANIMAL HOUSE made Bernstein into The Man in more ways than one, tuning his often brassy approach to the height of wealth-spoofing irony- an approach that would pay huge dividends for both men ten years later with TRADING PLACES. Of […]Read On »


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Exclusive Interview: Kirk Acevedo discusses the different worlds of PRIME SUSPECT and FRINGE

By ABBIE BERNSTEIN
Kirk Acevedo and Maria Bello in PRIME SUSPECT - Season 1 | ©2011 NBC/Gavin Bond

Bronx-born actor Kirk Acevedo has spent a good portion of his performing career playing people on one side or the other of the law. After costarring as a soldier in HBO’s landmark WWII miniseries BAND OF BROTHERS, Acevedo was a series regular in 46 episodes of HBO’s prison drama OZ as inmate Miguel Alvarez. He has guest-starred on the original LAW & ORDER, LAW & ORDER: SVU and LAW & ORDER: TRIAL BY JURY. Even when he’s in genre fare, Acevedo seems to wind up in law-enforcement – he’s Fringe Division’s Charlie Francis in both universes on FRINGE. He’s also […]Read On »


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CD Review: JOHNNY ENGLISH REBORN soundtrack

By DANIEL SCHWEIGER 12/27/2011
JOHNNY ENGLISH REBORN soundtrack | ©2011Varese Sarabande Records

If  Christophe Beck does his musical all to pump up the frequently inept robbers of TOWER HEIST  into master criminals, then Ilan Eshkeri has the even mightier job of turning Rowan Atkinson’s catastrophically inept 007 wannabe into a super agent who’ll out-Bond Connery for JOHNNY ENGLISH REBORN. Eshkeri outfits himself with the comedy secret agent score checklist of a swaggering main theme, trademarked fuzz guitar, rocking exotica for the luxurious locations he’ll fight through, and lush, John Barry-esque strings, for the sinister villains and lovemaking he’ll have to endure. It’s a jacket that’s been to the cleaners many times by […]Read On »


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CD Review: THE RUM DIARY soundtrack

By DANIEL SCHWEIGER 12/26/2011
THE RUM DIARY soundtrack | ©2011 Lakeshore Records

If Christopher Young isn’t going on an orchestrally raging bender in the pits of hell, then it’s hitting jazz dives with an equally hot ensemble. Over the decades, his brilliant sets have ranged from funk gnarliness for ROUNDER’s well-liquored card games, a sales convention-cum-Esquivel fiesta in THE BIG KAHUNA, and the Mancini swing for the cult spy spoof THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO LITTLE, Young now gets to slam back some tunes with the notorious bar fiend Hunter S. Thompson, just the kind of guy the composer’s more outré licks were created for THE RUM DIARY. What makes this far […]Read On »


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TV Review: DOCTOR WHO – Series 6 – “The Doctor, The Widow and The Wardrobe” – Christmas Special

By ARNOLD T. BLUMBERG 12/25/2011
Matt Smith and Holly Earl in DOCTOR WHO - Series 6 - Christmas Special | ©2011 BBC

Stars: Matt Smith, Claire Skinner, Bill Bailey, Arabella Weir, Alexander Armstrong, Maurice Cole, Holly Earl, Paul Bazely, Karen Gillan, Arthur Darvill Writer: Steven Moffat Director:  Farren Blackburn Network: BBC America, airs Sunday night  Original Telecast: December 25, 2011 In the 2011 DOCTOR WHO Christmas special adventure, “The Doctor, The Widow and the Wardrobe,” our favorite Time Lord (Matt Smith) has a debt to repay to a grieving war widow (Claire Skinner) and her children (Holly Earl, Maurice Cole). Posing as the caretaker of a substantially retrofitted mansion, the Doctor has to rescue the family from a sentient forest in another time […]Read On »


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CD Review: GREMLINS soundtrack

By DANIEL SCHWEIGER
GREMLINS soundtrack | ©2011 Film Score Monthly

If you were among the generation that saw one great genre film after the other in the early ’80’s, perhaps no signature theme signaled these pictures’ often seditious spin on kid-friendly formulas than the sweet whistling of Gizmo and the cackling, rambunctious jazz rag of what would pop out of that furry little fella if you fed him after midnight. It’s taken nearly three decades for those little devils’ music to fully metamorphose, but at long last, Jerry Goldsmith’s full score to GREMLINS is finally here to create hilariously menacing havoc. While Goldsmith was famed for scoring the far more […]Read On »


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Movie Review: WAR HORSE

By ABBIE BERNSTEIN
WAR HORSE movie poster | ©2011 Touchstone/DreamWorks

Rating: PG-13 Stars: Jeremy Irvine, Emily Watson, Peter Mullan, Niels Arestrup, Tom Hiddleston, Benedict Cumberbatch, David Thewlis, Celine Buckens, Eddie Marsan Writers: Lee Hall and Richard Curtis, based on the novel by Micharl Morpurgo Director: Steven Spielberg Distributor: Touchstone Pictures/DreamWorks Release Date: December 25, 2011 Thematically, temporally and emotionally, if BLACK BEAUTY and SAVING PRIVATE RYAN had a cinematic offspring, it probably would be WAR HORSE. Using the Michael Morpurgo novel that also inspired the current Broadway hit of the same name, WAR HORSE is the story of Joey, a horse with a lot of heart and ability, and Albert […]Read On »


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TV Review: CHUCK – Season 5 – “Vs. the Santa Suit”

By ANNE LOUISE BANNON 12/24/2011
Zachary Levi and Bonita Friedericy in CHUCK - Season 5 - "Vs. The Santa Suit" | ©2011 NBC/Mike Ansell

Stars: Zachary Levi, Yvonne Strahovski, Joshua Gomez, Adam Baldwin, Vik Sahay, Scott Krinsky, Mark Christopher Lawrence, Ryan McPartlin Writer: Amanda Kate Shuman Director: Peter Lauer Network: NBC, Friday nights, 8 p.m. Original Telecast: December 23, 2011 On the roller coaster ride that is CHUCK this season, this week’s episode, Chuck vs. The Santa Suit, you almost have to wonder if we’re headed back into that corner it sometimes feels like the writers have written themselves into. You also have to wonder how many of the old bad guys they’re going to rustle up in the next few episodes. Tonight, we have Daniel Shaw (Brandon Routh) back from […]Read On »


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