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When people complain about modern film music, this is exactly the sort of score I think of. It's rubbish!

That's a good point.

Now that is GOOD!
Cheers for pointing it out!

Doyle, Silvestri, JNH (some cases), Fernando Velasquez, Banos too in some instances, Federico Jusid, Lucas Vidal, Eyquem, etc, when trying to sound RC it's mostly inferior to actual RC, imo, and all sad cases to me.

JERRY GOLDSMITH - Air force one

Stunning and adrenaline-fueled.

Great composer. I'd give him the next Bond film.

Absolutely. Result would be guaranteed fresh

MICHAEL GIACCHINO - Jupiter Ascending

Fantastic score. Every note of it has so much energy in it!

That is a very good score. The choir work in it is my favorite thing about it. There is so much achingly beautiful music on that album. Great stuff.

While I think that the album is too long, I think that Thor and Rise of the Planet of the Apes (which does transcend the style at times!) show how to write a score that uses certain RCP techniques and still remain a worthy proposition in their particular genres.

Jack Ryan on the other hand takes it too far. While I approach a very modern approach for that story and that character, Ryan deserves something quite else. I could go on about this, but that would demand a reference to the novels and to the origins of what Zimmer did back in the mid-90s.

While I don't think I ever expressed it on this board, I think that when considering the MV/RCP approach in film music we should be taking into account the moment and films where the style was created. If we consider the major action films Zimmer scored through Backdraft and generally his career back then, you would notice that action, actually, wasn't his main line of work at the time. On the other hand you do have Backdraft and Black Rain, which are almost tentpole action films. But who, today, remembers films such as Point of No Return (never seen it, from what I heard it's a very, very bad remake of Besson's Nikita) and Drop Zone? K-2 is something else, because while some of the material is the typical Hans Zimmer action sound on a bigger scale (and in a James Horner move that early in his career, one of the action themes would turn up as a main theme in Drop Zone). He was mostly scoring small-scale dramas, expanding on the electronic approach in Rain Man and Driving Miss Daisy, still one of his most recognizable work (to the point that when the film was parodied in a Leslie Nielsen, the composer, I think Bill Conti, actually parodied the score itself as well). s

The string of action films Hans scored 1995 to 1997 shows quite well what they are through the films' storylines. Mark Mancina's scores from the same era (though him even in 1994) also show that particular element, even if not to that point. Let's give a quick outline. Submarines (Crimson Tide), nuclear weapon theft (Broken Arrow, The Peacemaker), chemical warfare theft and special forces incursion (The Rock). These are technothrillers. The genre of technothriller as created by Michael Crichton and, particularly relevant here, Tom Clancy, who put the technology element big time into his espionage/political thrillers also follows suit: A Soviet submarine captain defects to America (Hunt for the Red October, obviously), satellite surveillance used to attack terrorists (Patriot Games), Americans try to recover a spy while the Soviets try to infiltrate the "star wars" (SDI?) program (Cardinal of the Kremlin). Murder of the President's good friend leads to a massive (and illegal) black ops operation (with full use of surveillance techniques old-school and modern) against Colombian cartels (Clear and Present Danger) and, eventually, terrorists blow a nuclear weapon on Superbowl which leads to a Soviet/US stand-off near the end of the Cold War (Sum of All Fears).

What's my point? While Hans never got a shot in these projects (James Horner, as we all know, did most of them, but all that all the Ryan scores have in common - from Poledouris to Goldsmith - is, in fact, a large role for electronics!), that's the kind of stories he developed his action style for. That was also his general style, but then he'd go off to do an animated and live action historical epic (Prince of Egypt and Gladiator), a harrowing war film (which was totally something different for him), a heavy metal action score, a horror film, shisme animation and stuff. Knowing all that we go into the new, more ambient, post-Nolan sound. For Hans that is his style. But the problem is in the fact that it sells. It's popular with the fanbase, the films are successful (Nolan in particular) and the producers took the wrong note. Same with the popularity of Junkie XL - now he's basically hired due to the success of Mad Max. Because if the film sells, the whole crew does.

Back to Jack Ryan, having it scored the way it was would be finally making use of what the style originally stood for. Sadly, except one or two themes, they referred to the wrong sound. The newer, post-Bourne one.

Sorry for this a bit convoluted rant, but I think the historical aspect in terms of the dominating style should be pointed out and, even, used as part of the uniformity criticism of modern film scores.

I'm thinking of doing the same, simply because more than 25.000 tracks takes up a lot of space on my hard drive, and I'm running out of space...

I've kept some scores for the faint possibility I might like them down the road, but I should really make some hard decisions like you.

Yes, some good stuff. Those that have managed to be imported into my iTunes (which is the ultimate seal of approval) include MIRACLES FROM HEAVEN (Carlo Siliotto), PEE-WEE'S BIG HOLIDAY (Mark Mothersbaugh), BATMAN VS. SUPERMAN (my 38-minute playlist of the best tracks), BIRKEBEINERNE (Gaute Storaas), DEADPOOL (JXL), JOURNEY TO MECCA (Michael Brook), EDDIE THE EAGLE (Matthew Margeson), THE YOUNG MESSIAH (John Debney), TALE OF A LAKE (Panu Aaltio), LAMB (Daniel Berardinelli), TORDENSKJOLD & KOLD (Henrik Skram).

MICHAEL NYMAN - Wonderland

Not a fan of everything he's done, especially the tough, minimalistic dissonant and deadly-repetitive scores he's done, but stuff like this is simply irresistible for my tastes. Like Gattaca. Sweet, melancholic.

CHRISTOPHER YOUNG - Creation

His most beautiful and solemn score to date, imo. That cue, "Humility and Love" always brings me to tears. Very strong movie, extremely well-acted too. A great match.

GEORGES DELERUE - To kill a priest

Contains one of my all-time favorite Delerue compositions: "Suicide Or State Of War"