Filmtracks Modern Soundtrack Reviews

MOBILE SITE

REVIEWS

SCOREBOARD

RATINGS

COMPOSERS

AWARDS

ARCHIVES

OTHER RECENT REVIEWS:


•	Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire
•	Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire
•	Damsel
•	Kung Fu Panda 4
•	Dune: Part Two
•	Madame Web
•	Argylle
•	The Boys in the Boat
•	Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom
•	Migration
•	Rebel Moon - Part One: A Child of Fire
•	Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget
•	Wonka
•	Leave the World Behind
•	Wish
•	Napoleon
•	The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes
•	The Marvels
•	Five Nights at Freddy's
•	Killers of the Flower Moon
•	The Creator
•	Expend4bles
•	A Haunting in Venice
•	The Equalizer 3
•	Heart of Stone
•	Blue Beetle
•	Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem
•	Barbie
•	Oppenheimer
•	Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One
•	Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny
•	Extraction 2
•	The Flash

Covering the best and worst of original film and television music from America's Big Sky Country since 1996, Filmtracks is your spirited home for comprehensive, humorous, and controversial soundtrack reviews. Join our community to support this niche music genre!

	*ON CUE*	*VIEW ALL*

5/23/24	Pleasantville (Randy Newman) Updated Review, With Additional Album
*Buy it...*	if you appreciate Randy Newman's more serious, dramatic efforts of the 1990's, even if they're spiked with a few of his trademark jazz and comedy cues.
*Avoid it...*	on the original 1998 album if you value the careful narrative Newman developed for the score, the 2023 expansion loyally conveying that musical awakening.

5/17/24	Planet of the Apes (Jerry Goldsmith) All New Review
*Buy it...*	if you must intellectually appreciate one of the most awkwardly inappropriate parody scores in the history of cinema, Jerry Goldsmith's acclaimed avant-garde music an intrusive misfire of planetary proportions.
*Avoid it...*	if you have no interest in hearing dissonant orchestral shock effects and unintentionally humorous ape noises while watching gorillas on horseback herd primitive humans, though such music can be useful if you are seeking a divorce.

5/13/24	Scream VI (Brian Tyler/Sven Faulconer) Updated Review, With Additional Album
*Buy it...*	if you are satisfied that this music could be worse, Brian Tyler's base style providing competent orchestral consistency with a handful of tonal highlights.
*Avoid it...*	if you are annoyed that this music could be better, the new main theme derivative of another Tyler score, Marco Beltrami's ideas banished, and the album brutally long.

5/8/24	Steamboy (Steve Jablonsky) All New Review
*Buy it...*	if you desire one of Steve Jablonsky's best and earliest career achievements, proof that he can write compelling orchestral children's music with heartfelt themes.
*Avoid it...*	if you easily tire of hearing a composer emulate the work of another, this score's melodic passages borrowing much from James Horner classics.

5/3/24	Avatar: The Way of Water (Simon Franglen) Updated Review, With Additional Album
*Buy it...*	without hesitation if you have any love for James Horner's music, Simon Franglen surpassing all expectations in composing an astonishingly brilliant love letter to Horner that is arguably superior to its predecessor.
*Avoid it...*	on the shorter soundtrack album unless you demand the end credits song, for several vital cues from the outstanding score are missing from this presentation.

4/28/24	Dawn of the Dead (2004) (Tyler Bates) All New Review
*Buy it...*	if you require brutally nasty and cacophonous dissonance to disturb your family, friends, and therapist.
*Avoid it...*	if you value experimentation and distinctive character in your horror scores, Tyler Bates applying rather conservative industrial techniques as he tested the waters in this genre.

4/24/24	Battle Beyond the Stars (James Horner) Updated Review, With Additional Album
*Buy it...*	if you want to know where it all essentially started for James Horner, not to mention that Battle Beyond the Stars is an impressively engaging science-fiction score by any standard.
*Avoid it...*	if enduring the inspiration for Horner's eventual self-regurgitation is as disturbing to you as hearing the composer blatantly pull material from Jerry Goldsmith's Star Trek: The Motion Picture for this score.

4/19/24	October Sky (Mark Isham) All New Review
*Buy it...*	if you take solace in Mark Isham's softer, understated dramatic writing for smaller orchestras, this score achieving a sensitive country demeanor without any unnecessary dramatic extroversion.
*Avoid it...*	if sparsely rendered, slowly enunciated themes cannot sustain the emotional punch you demand for a story of this interpersonal gravity and stargazing whimsy.

4/15/24	Cliffhanger (Trevor Jones) Updated Review, With Additional Album
*Buy it...*	if you, like most film score fans, are mesmerized by Trevor Jones' most majestic title themes of noble brass and high strings and seek a robust action score to go with that identity.
*Avoid it...*	if you found nothing attractive in Jones' dominant title theme for Last of the Mohicans, a very close cousin to that of Cliffhanger, and be careful to steer clear of the 2011 Intrada album's awkward re-mixing of the score.

4/10/24	Mad Max 2 (The Road Warrior) (Brian May) All New Review
*Buy it...*	if you could never embrace the raw, brazen attitude of Brian May's music Mad Max and seek a more linear and dramatic take in a toned-back variation on the same thriller atmosphere.
*Avoid it...*	if you desire thematic continuity as strong as the quadriceps of Lord Humungus, May pushing his identities in divergent, less impactful directions in the sequel.

4/6/24	The Beautician and the Beast (Cliff Eidelman) Updated Review, With Additional Album
*Buy it...*	on the longer album if you typically appreciate Cliff Eidelman's affably soothing character scores of the 1990's.
*Avoid it...*	if you have no patience for predictable orchestral romance scores despite this one's attempt to infuse some unique Eastern European character into its constructs.

4/1/24	Mad Max (Brian May) All New Review
*Buy it...*	if you love the edgy personality of the film itself, Brian May's music and nicely developed thematic narrative contributing immensely to the face-slapping flamboyance of the story.
*Avoid it...*	if you can't fathom hearing Bernard Herrmann's style of orchestral suspense and horror applied with cartoonish malevolence.

3/27/24	The Rock (Nick Glennie-Smith/Hans Zimmer/Harry Gregson-Williams) Updated Review, With Additional Album
*Buy it...*	if you seek the official origin of the collaborative Media Ventures/Remote Control sound made famous by the many masculine and synthetic-sounding imitation scores that have accompanied blockbusters ever since.
*Avoid it...*	if you prefer hearing Hans Zimmer's solo writing talents and loathe the abrasively simplistic and bombastic staccato style of action music to emerge from his numerous pupils and assistants since this score.

3/22/24	Apocalypse Now (Carmine Coppola/David Shire/Various) All New Review
*Buy it...*	on the earliest, longest album presentations if your interest in the film's music is casual, as they represent the closest match to what you hear in context.
*Avoid it...*	on either of the dedicated albums for Carmine Coppola and David Shire's distinctly unpleasant but intellectually fascinating scores if you expect any semblance of narrative development or readily accessible synthetic applications.

3/17/24	Humanoids From the Deep (James Horner) Updated Review, With Additional Album
*Buy it...*	on the 2001 album that pairs this score with Battle Beyond the Stars, for its sparse, mundane, and derivative suspense really doesn't merit its own album.
*Avoid it...*	if you have no need to hear James Horner shamelessly emulate Jerry Goldsmith in yet another of his early scores for B-rate films, though the similarities here are not quite as obnoxious.

3/11/24

Filmtracks announces its 2023 Awards

Filmtracks celebrates the best film music of 2023 with its annual nominees and winners in the categories of "Top Film Scores," "Top Composers," and "Top Film Cues." The nominees for "Top Film Scores" in 2023 are:

• Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (John Williams)
• In Love and Deep Water (Takatsugu Muramatsu)
• The Little Mermaid (Alan Menken)
• Migration (John Powell)
• Supercell (Corey Wallace)

Visit the 2023 Awards section to view the winners (and other categories). Also available is an official page for the 2023 Filmtracks Community Awards. For more information about these awards or to view the results from previous years, browse the Filmtracks Awards index.

3/6/24	Supercell (Corey Wallace) All New Review
*Buy it...*	if you still yearn for the sound of John Williams' dramatic adventure music of the 1980's and 1990's, Corey Wallace perfectly executing a nostalgic score of considerable intelligence for a most unlikely film.
*Avoid it...*	if there is no place in your heart for shameless emulation, because the structural and instrumental mannerisms of Williams absolutely permeate this work.

View On Cue Archives

2001 FILMTRACKS NOMINEE:

The Affair of the Necklace

	*SCOREBOARD*	*VIEW ALL*

Movie Music UK reviews THE RED DANUBE by Miklós Rózsa - GSotTC!
Jonathan Broxton - May 27, 2024, at 9:12 a.m.

1 message (21 views)

Best Scores of the 80s and 90s - #50 - #41 Expand
Riley KZ - May 26, 2024, at 11:21 a.m.

9 messages (219 views) - Newest: May 26, 2024, at 3:54 p.m. by Riley KZ

Richard M. Sherman, 1928-2024 Expand
Jonathan Broxton - May 25, 2024, at 9:23 p.m.

2 messages (158 views) - Newest: May 25, 2024, at 9:35 p.m. by L.A

Jerry Goldsmith describes the problem with Tom Holkenborg in 1989! Expand
Orange Thrush - May 25, 2024, at 6:33 p.m.

5 messages (410 views) - Newest: May 27, 2024, at 9:25 a.m. by Jabber

Soundtrack-Universe reviews Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga (Holkenborg) Expand
Soundtracker94 - May 24, 2024, at 5:29 p.m.

6 messages (254 views) - Newest: May 26, 2024, at 1:43 p.m. by Mephariel

	*SITE UPDATES*	*VIEW ALL*

New reviews suspended while editor battles increasing blindness
Christian Clemmensen - April 14, 2024, at 2:36 p.m.

1 update (3049 views)

Learn about supporting Filmtracks

Copyright © 1996-2024, Filmtracks Publications. All rights reserved.
The reviews and other textual content contained on the filmtracks.com site may not be published, broadcast,
rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of Christian Clemmensen at Filmtracks Publications. Page created 9/24/96 and last updated 5/23/15.
This site has never recognized George W. Bush or Donald J. Trump as the legitimate president of the United States of America.

This is approximately the 42,373,132nd load of this page since 1996. One visitor said, "If assholes had wings, this place would be an airport." Validity of this still in question.

Reviews by Title / Year | Scoreboard Forum | Viewer Ratings | Composers