[Closed] Recent Viewing Part II

PHONE BOOTH

It's amazing how Kiefer Sutherland can hold an entire movie with just his voice. I like him in this dark and twisted role for a change.

Anyone know or seen a film about a man who gets trapped inside a phone booth? I think the film might be Spanish? It's very "Twilight Zone" like with a creepy ending.

Don't think I want to see it

Mmmkay. The score felt out of place? I can honestly NOT understand the slightest bits of such claims against Zimmer's Gladiator. If only more people in our times wrote as such.

No, I'm not. First of all, I haven't even read the "older members' views" regarding the Gladiator score, so I wouldn't know the general consensus on it. It just really felt out-of-place to me, much too Pirates of the Caribbean-esque. My friend and I were actually discussing it a few days ago.

I'd say you're in the perfect position to judge it having just seen the film. That is what it is after all; a film score.

Not at all, if it's a one-time-only listen. Apart from film scores, all good film scores are also MUSIC.

I never said Pirates of the Caribbean came first. But it's what I'm used to, and the Pirates scores actually fit their films quite well, while the score for Gladiator doesn't sound right to me. There were times when I was watching the film that I just shook my head and thought, 'This music doesn't even match up with this particular scene, let alone the film as a whole!' It simply wasn't the sort of sound I was hoping for.

And that's EXACTLY the same thing I thought when watching Pirates. Badelt's score was totally inappropriate (especially that Gladiator inspired theme... ) while the Gladiator score worked surprisingly well. Actually, it worked really, REALLY well.

-Erik-

Well perhaps you're right. I likely would have had a much different opinion of the Gladiator and Pirates scores had I heard them in a different order. Now that you mention it, Badelt's Pirates score is almost an exact copy of Gladiator. But I still think Badelt's score fits its film better than Zimmer's fits its.

I have to say that POTC doesn't make the film any worse, and in a way the jokey swagger works quite well. Of course, it sounds like cheap synth stuff written in someone's bedroom, but then we knew it would. I've come to accept it as being OK. Gladiator on the other hand, while making a fine album, also sounds like cheap synth stuff written in someone's bedroom, and sadly in this case it isn't in such a lighthearted film so it just cheapens it. It has its moments (generally the Lisa Gerrard stuff) where it works fine, but the cheap synthy action music sounds like someone's idea of a joke in the temp track which accidentally got left in.

That's exactly how I feel. And you bring up a good point about Lisa Gerrard; I forgot about her singing but it really fits the film quite well. Beautiful!

The Grudge 3 (2009)
Director: Toby Wilkins

Found it bootlegged online, and I have to say that as a direct-to-video sequel, it's a lot less convoluted and gimmicky than the second film. And without the need to water it down to a PG-13, it's a bit more raw and violent (mainly blood splatters for the most part, with a gruesome Friday the 13th-esque kill near the end). It's a pretty decent follow-up, but the open-ended sequel coda is pretty lame. No Sarah Michelle Gellar this time, but we do get the lovely Emi Ikehata and Johanna Braddy to look at.

I was very disappointed with the score -- a lot of Young's score from the first two films is tracked in, and doesn't give Sean McMahon much wiggle room to do his own thing (mostly sustained ambience). One cue where Shawnee Smith is pursued by Kayako in a psychiatric hospital is impressive, as is two new arrangements of Young's main theme near the end of the film.

Full Metal Jacket

Pretty perfect film-making IMO. What I love most about this film is the way it doesn't preach to the audience. It doesn't preach that war is wrong, that killing is wrong - it just shows how fucked up war is.

I don't think there's a single wasted scene or shot in the entire movie?