[Closed] Now Playing XXXIII

Not even that infamous shot ?

No! Not even that.

Hans Zimmer and Heitor Pereira - It's Complicated

A nice, relaxing and soothing listen. For fans of The Holiday, it's basically an expansion of that one.

A great way to go!

JP: AVATAR - James Horner
Just finished my first listen, so the awfully commercial love ballad is still ringing in my ears. The score itself faired better of course.

It's always fun to listen to a score that makes you feel is THE experience of the moment (no matter how shallow and shortlived these feelings may be), and AVATAR, I'm sure, lives up to a lot of the hype. For me, it just does what I expected it to do: summarize Horners greatest recent hits and throw some new ideas in to create an eclectic mix that gives you the illusion it's a heavily inspired work yet in reality is only halfway so. In other words, typically Horner.

That's not to say I didn't like the compromise of intellectual orchestral writing and easy listening epic battle music, exactly where I bought the disc for. The whole thing ultimately feels like a quality score for the masses (no doubt soon a big hit on iTunes) even though the themes aren't as easy to pick out on first listen like the Zimmer ones. That's also due to the fact that this is at heart a Horner score, only fooling you into believing we're in RC territory with the orchestrations.

Nonetheless, although captivating, the score didn't grab me yet on an emotional level and only rarely wowed me. Tomorrow I'll see the film in IMAX 3D after which I hope this has changed. Untill then, it's just a fun event.

I understand you, dude. the same happened to me....and how i'm one of the only people in the world who didn't like very much the movie, not the score is nothing more than a couple of decent moments.

Gearing up for Christmas...have not long ago finished up wrapping presents and now just winding down with a selection of Vince Guaraldi tracks from a variety of Charlie Brown CDs: A Charlie Brown Christmas, Oh, Good Grief, tracks from "The Charlie Brown Suite" and "The Lost Cues From The Charlie Brown TV Specials".

The track "Linus and Lucy" just shouts "CHRISTMAS!!"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0G8XH4WDxP4

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=beaver

I kinda like it; it's just the main theme turned into song, which is what Horner always does anyway. Yeah it's cheesy but it's a good pop song (Horner writes perfect love ballads anyway) and it's the main theme actually, it's not like he wrote new cheesy material specifically for the ballad I don't get why people are so against it.

Well, my problem with it is the fact that it's completely devoid of the atmosphere the score breaths, even if it's the main theme. It tries to, a bit, with electronic simulation, but the added ballad-beat and characterless voice lacking of a personality that sounds like exactly any American Idol finalist just kills it for me. After I heard the song, I was completely out of the score, while I prefer to stay in its mood afterwards.

For example, I think Listen to the Wind from The New World is an excellent song, even if its still cheesy and ballad-ey like and typical Horner. But it uses an orchestra, has the vocalist from the score and doesn't have those awful beats. So it's an organic conclusion to the score .

But, of course, that song didn't need a videoclip nor had to be heard on the radio, whereas this one does, so you can just hear its made for radio and other commercial purposes (otherwise I'm sure they would've used the orchestra)

It's one of my favourites from the man.

Well, it's basically nothing than a cheesy teen-wetting-panties' aiming ballad a la Pop Idol (as you correctly wrote) and as such it should be observed, Horner's a top man at those Of course the inclusion of the orchestra would elevate the song so much higher, but it's funny how the orchestra's sound came to be considered SO commercial-unfriendly in our days!

Hell yeah

It's indeed a very delightful and colorful score, but it doesn't help that whilst Bruno Coulais is generally overlooked (something i could never understand, as the man's writing is very unique), on the down side of this too, the film is one of those projects that are bound to pass under the radar for most people. I too loved the cartoon back in my childhood and am looking forward to the movie!

n.p. JAMES HORNER - Avatar

The main theme and its renditions are beautiful.