CD Review: STARHAWK soundtrack

By DANIEL SCHWEIGER 06/23/2012
STARHAWK soundtrack | ©2012 La La Land Records

Though Christopher Lennertz is prolifically onscreen with the comedy-centric likes of HORRIBLE BOSSES and HOP, it’s the videogame arena that truly lets this composer strut his creative stuff beyond giving humorous oomph to male bad behavior and talking animals. You can tell the first-person blast he has at the controls, often when bringing new energy to musical styles set long ago in the traditional movie realm, whether it’s the military action of MEDAL OF HONOR‘s European and Pacific assaults, the grooves of classic and current 007 music for FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE and QUANTUM OF SOLACE, or being far more […]Read On »


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CD Review: SHAOLIN soundtrack

By DANIEL SCHWEIGER 01/29/2012
SHAOLIN soundtrack | ©2011 Movie Score Media

Composer Nicholas Errera (SLEEPLESS NIGHT) might hail from modern Paris as opposed to feudal China, but you’d think he was musically trained by Master Po himself, given the gentle sweep of SHAOLIN. Where many Hong Kong period action films rely on fancy percussive footwork, Errara delivers both the requisite drum hits and an unexpectedly gentle Zen spirit that’s got more than fancy rhythmic footwork on its mind. Credit that to a story centered on personal transformation instead of gaining mad fighting skills, as SHAOLIN’s warlord undergoes a spiritual conversion in the company of the famed martial arts monks, As he […]Read On »


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CD Review: GREMLINS soundtrack

By DANIEL SCHWEIGER 12/25/2011
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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CD Review: OUR IDIOT BROTHER soundtrack

By DANIEL SCHWEIGER 10/23/2011
OUR IDIOT BROTHER soundtrack | ©2011 ABKCO

A pleasant LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE vibe fills the soundtrack of a movie that’s far more human comedy than the stoner one its ads would lead you to believe. IDIOT’s band of loveable losers gets a similarly ironic, if more low-key vibe on their path to self-actualization, especially with this pleasantly eclectic soundtrack. BROTHER certainly starts on the right foot with Eric D. Johnson’s whimsical interpretation of the Tony Orlando and Dawn hit “Tie A Yellow Ribbon Round the Ole Oak Tree,” with plenty of pointed strumming to follow with Johnson’s “2 Roadrunners” and “The Fruit Bat’s “Lightning Bug.” But is […]Read On »


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CD Review: SUPER 8 original soundtrack

By DANIEL SCHWEIGER 08/14/2011
SUPER 8 soundtrack | ©2011 Varese Sarabande Records

Lots of monstrous bellowing accompanies SUPER 8, a film that sports what’s likely the most eagerly awaited Giacchino soundtrack to hit this month, especially for score fans who share the obvious movie geek love that J.J. Abrams’ put into his scary valentine to all 1970’s / 80’s things Spielberg and Amblin. Accompanying all of that director’s own production’s was the lushly adventurous music of John Williams, classic scores that could at once conjure a child’s wide-eyed wonderment towards the fantastic, then freak the bejesus out of them in the next. It’s a similar balancing act that Giacchino does here for […]Read On »


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CD Review: OLDBOY soundtrack (1,000 edition)

By DANIEL SCHWEIGER 03/06/2011
OLDBOY soundtrack | © 2011 Milan Records

Korean cinema, and scoring got hammered into the map with Chanwook Park’s twisted tale of a revenge years in the offing, but what also distinguished OLDBOY was how composer Cho Young-Wuk took a truly offbeat road to musical revenge by using tangos and waltzes for the film’s dance of psychosexual destruction. While a score of this type literally couldn’t get classier with its sonorous violins and piano, Wuk also employed near-mournful suspense, electronica and stormy combos of strings and synths to deliver the genre goods without letting its characters off the hook for their depravity. With its impressively strong use […]Read On »


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CD Review: AMALIA soundtrack

By DANIEL SCHWEIGER 02/12/2011
AMALA soundtrack | © 2011 Movie Score Media

In Portuguese, the musical form of “Fado” is translated as “fate.” And while soundtrack fans might not be familiar with its mournful tunes, or the acclaimed performer who evolved them for the 20th century, they’ll likely feel for Amalia Rodriguez’s artistically turbulent life upon listening to this lush orchestral score by her countryman Nuno Malo. With his passionate approach for AMALIA and JULGAMENTO (also released by Movie Score Media), Malo is rapidly bringing the technical polish of Portugal’s film scoring scene to the international ear. Perhaps it’s because Amalia herself broadened Fado with an orchestral that Malo concentrates more on […]Read On »


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CD Review: THE 5,000 FINGERS OF DR. T soundtrack

By DANIEL SCHWEIGER 02/06/2011
The 5,000 Fingers of Dr T. Soundtrack | ©2010 Film Score Monthly

There were some pretty bizarre kids’ movies back in the day like SANTA CLAUS CONQUERS THE MARTIANS. But no now grown-up cult item still has the tuneful catchiness of 1953’s 5,000 FINGERS OF DR. T, which stands as the only insane collaboration between uber-serious producer Stanley Kramer, phantasmagorical children’s author Dr. Seuss, and Friedrich Hollaender, a German cabaret composer whose political whimsy would see him sent packing from Nazi land to a Hollywood career. This colorful fantasy about a piano-hating kid’s ultimate bad dream would see Hollaender put Seuss’ wonderful gibberish to melody, resulting in a number of tongue-twisting delights […]Read On »


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CD Review: PATTON soundtrack

By DANIEL SCHWEIGER 12/21/2010
© 2010 Intrada Records | Patton Soundtrack

Jerry Goldsmith may have been an armchair general when it came to WW2, but it’s doubtful few composers gave as much glory to our fighting men, and their leaders with the likes of MACARTHUR and INCHON. Yet few of these outstanding Goldsmith scores have the immediately recognizable stripes of his 1970 Oscar-nominated PATTON, a soundtrack that defined the imperious can-do attitude of America’s most gloriously infamous officer. Right from his unscored opening speech to his belief in reincarnation, George S. Patton wasn’t so much a military leader as he was a force of nature. And while PATTON’s music is most […]Read On »


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CD Review: MEGAMIND original soundtrack

By DANIEL SCHWEIGER
© 2010 Lakeshore Records | MEGAMIND Soundtrack

Though his one-time minion Heitor Pereria beat him to the supervillain scoring punch with DESPICABLE ME, Hans Zimmer gets the last laugh by actually seeing his similarly-themed, and equally fun MEGAMIND score (done in cahoots with Lorne Balfe) get an actual release on Lakeshore Records. Sure, both flicks might have arches trumpeting their dastardly doings. Yet both DESPICABLE ME and MEGAMIND also show their uber-evil characters as big musical softies. In fact, MEGAMIND is downright sweet for the most part as its titular fiend’s baby bells mix it up with ersatz superhero bombast, music that plays Megamind as the good […]Read On »


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