CD Review: The Ten Best Scores of 2013

By DANIEL SCHWEIGER 12/27/2013
Anthony Gonzalez, Joseph Trapanese / OBLIVION soundtrack | ©2013 +180 Records

THE BOOK THIEF (John Williams / Sony Classical) The kind of unabashedly thematic, and mostly melodic music that’s made John Williams into the most popular film composer of all time is often the sound of innocence itself, an unabated musical youthfulness that he’s also played to ironic effect when dealing with children confronting the unimaginable. Here it’s a genocide that’s heard, but rarely witnessed within a young German girl’s sheltered life during World War 2. Such is the devastating, gentle power that speaks volumes for THE BOOK THIEF‘s score as it encapsulates the innocence, first loves and ultimate shock of […]Read On »


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Movie Review: THE INVISIBLE WOMAN

By ABBIE BERNSTEIN 12/26/2013
THE INVISIBLE WOMAN movie poster | ©2013 Sony Pictures Classics

Rating: R Stars: Ralph Fiennes, Felicity Jones, Kristin Scott Thomas, Tom Hollander, Michelle Fairley, Joanna Scanlan, Tom Burke, Perdita Weeks, Amanda Hale Writer: Abi Morgan, based on the book by Claire Tomalin Director: Ralph Fiennes Distributor: Sony Pictures Classics Release Date: December 25, 2013 Victorian-era writer Charles Dickens was such a champion of fairness and kindness in his work that it’s easy to suppose he routinely exhibited these traits in his real life. The truth, according to many biographers, was much more complicated. In THE INVISIBLE WOMAN, based on Claire Tomalin’s nonfiction book of the same name about Dickens and […]Read On »


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Movie Review: 47 RONIN

By ABBIE BERNSTEIN
47 RONIN movie poster | ©2013 Universal Pictures

Rating: PG-13 Stars: Keanu Reeves, Hiroyuki Sanada, Ko Shibasaki, Tadanobu Asano, Min Tanaka, Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, Rin Kikuchi Writers: Chris Morgan and Hossein Amini, screen story by Chris Morgan & Walter Hamada Director: Carl Rinsch Distributor: Universal Pictures Release Date: December 25, 2013 In Japan, the real-life story behind 47 RONIN has roughly the same cultural impact that the Alamo has in the U.S. Indeed, there’s a name – Chushingwa – for the genre of books, plays, films, TV shows and artwork about the 47 masterless samurai, or ronin, who banded together to avenge the death of their lord, even though […]Read On »


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Movie Review: LONE SURVIVOR

By ABBIE BERNSTEIN
LONE SURVIVOR movie poster | ©2013 Universal Pictures

Rating: R Stars: Mark Wahlberg, Taylor Kitsch, Emile Hirsch, Ben Foster, Eric Bana, Yousuf Azami, Ali Suliman Writer: Peter Berg, based on the book by Marcus Luttrell and Patrick Robinson Director: Peter Berg Distributor: Universal Pictures Release Date: December 25, 2013 Based on the events of the 2005 Navy SEAL mission Operation Red Wings, LONE SURVIVOR depicts a relatively short but devastating clash between U.S. and Taliban forces in the mountains of Afghanistan. Director/writer Peter Berg has adapted the book by Marcus Luttrell and Patrick Robinson in apolitical fashion. We’re following the Navy, so we’re on their side, but the […]Read On »


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Movie Review: ANCHORMAN 2: THE LEGEND CONTINUES

By CARL CORTEZ 12/22/2013
ANCHORMAN 2 - THE LEGEND CONTINUES movie poster | ©2013 Paramount Pictures

Stars: Will Ferrell, Steve Carell, Paul Rudd, David Koechner, Christina Applegate, Meagan Good, James Marsden, Kristen Wiig Writers: Will Ferrell, Adam McKay Director: Adam McKay Release Date: December 18, 2013 Distributor: Paramount Pictures It’s a given that it’s getting harder to create funny mainstream comedies with the bar so heavily skewed in the direction of lowest common denominator crass, potty humor. That kind of humor is the easy way, but something like ANCHORMAN 2: THE LEGEND CONTINUES does things the hard way, trying to create a world filled with word play, crazy situational comedy and some actual satirical moments thrown […]Read On »


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CD Review: THE FIFTH ESTATE

By DANIEL SCHWEIGER 12/19/2013
THE FIFTH ESTATE soundtrack | ©2013 Lakeshore Records

Where you could have synth keyboards or an orchestra playing computer espionage in the dial-up modem days of WAR GAMES or THE NET, hacking has now grown to become an international enterprise of the hip and politically savvy. And along with these very good looking nerds, the techno thriller genre’s music has evolved into lightning-fast connection combos of trance-industrial rhythms, as often practiced by DJ’s getting their feet wet as film composers. So it’s nice to hear a composer who helped rep a new wave of film music back in the 80s with the oddball likes of BLOOD SIMPLE and […]Read On »


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CD Review: WE ARE WHAT WE ARE soundtrack

By DANIEL SCHWEIGER 12/18/2013
WE ARE WHAT WE ARE soundtrack | ©2013 Milan Records

Those expecting the kind of orchestrally ferocious, percussion-gnashing cannibal family score that usually comes with the rural, inbred territory aren’t going to get the expected soundtrack serving, in spite of one clan’s gruesome steadfastness that WE ARE WHAT WE ARE. The credit for this unusually intelligent, and delicate approach to a genre that splatters both flesh and instruments with equal helter-skelter abandon goes to the collaboration between composer Jeff Grace and director Jim Mickle, who previously collaborated on the apocalyptic vampire fable “Stake Land,” and now has relocated a Mexican meat-eater film for upstate New York with the same brand […]Read On »


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TV Review: ARROW – Season 2 – “Three Ghosts”

By EGAN BRUMLEY 12/17/2013
Danny Dworkis in ARROW - Season 2 - "Three Ghosts" | ©2013 The CW/Cate Cameron

Stars:  Stephen Amell, Katie Cassidy, Paul Blackthorne, Susanna Thompson, Willa Holland, David Ramsey, Emily Bett Rickards, Manu Bennett, Colton Haynes, Celina Jade, Summer Glau, Caity Lotz, Kevin Alejandro, John Barrowman Teleplay by:  Geoff Johns & Ben Sokolowski Story by:  Greg Berlanti & Andrew Kreisberg Director:   John Behring Network: The CW, airs Wednesday Nights Original Telecast: December 11, 2013 I’m impressed with “Three Ghosts,” the mid-season finale of ARROW’s second season, both for putting a Dickens reference into the show’s de facto Christmas episode, and for greatly exceeding the expectations I had coming in, based on last week’s underwhelming set-up episode.  […]Read On »


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CD Review: CAPTAIN PHILLIPS soundtrack

By DANIEL SCHWEIGER
CAPTAIN PHILLIPS soundtrack | ©2013 Varese Sarabande Records

Where most Hollywood films do their best to instill some sense of reality into true-life movies, director Paul Greengrass has the ability to make his re-enactments real, which makes it no easy task for the composer to musically capture that sense of cinema verite. Where John Powell did an admirable job of creating an inevitable sense of dread with the ticking time-bomb percussion, Arabic suspense and tragic heroism that would send Greengrass’ UNITED 93 to its awful fate, the director’s new, equally gripping, but far “happier” ending for the true story of CAPTAIN PHILLIPS demands a way more visceral approach, and […]Read On »


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CD Review: BOUNTY KILLER soundtrack

By DANIEL SCHWEIGER 12/16/2013
BOUNTY KILLER soundtrack | ©2013 Lakeshore Records

Greg Edmondson certainly knows something about a trashed-out future after his twangy sci-fi score for the cult TV show FIREFLY. And when it comes to high adventure, his videogame music for the blockbuster “Uncharted” series stands as the genre’s answer to RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK. Though made for decidedly less than that film, his new score for this post-apocalyptic mash-up of MAD MAX and TANK GIRL is a big bunch of balls-out fun. With a rousing orchestral performance that just might make Nashville a new symphonic scoring destination, Edmondson pours on a sound of bright, galloping nobility that would […]Read On »


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