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Saturday 25 April 2009

Merlin [Series 1] (Soundtrack)


I only discovered Rob Lane's music late last year when watching Merlin on BBC1. I found the music on the show very fun, comical and exciting. Since watching Merlin I then tried to find out more about who Rob Lane was. After finding out that he also did the music for the 2008 BBC1 mini-series Tess Of The D'Urbervilles, I decided to watch this as well. I was so glad that I did as Rob's score was just beautiful. I also found out later that he did the music for the 2007 BBC4 mini-series Fanny Hill, which after watching I also felt had a great score.

I was pretty convinced by now that anything this man could write, I would like and whilst I really wanted a soundtrack release for both Merlin and Tess Of The D'Urbervilles, Merlin was the only one to actually get one. Nevertheless, this was still good news as television soundtracks rarely get released.

However, overall I found the soundtrack performs quite averagely. There are a few stand out cues of which my favourite has to be "Meeting Arthur / Helen Possessed" simply because of the waltz. But unfortunately I found that the music doesn't hold up as well off screen as it does on screen. I think there are too many suspense building/tension cues, or suspense building/tension moments within cues, and it seems that every track has one of these moments, which doesn't make for a great listening experience. I feel that the soundtrack would have benefited much better having had the music arranged for the soundtrack into suites and not simply the exact cues written for the screen. In my opinion a soundtrack release for Tess Of The D'Urbervilles would have been much more enjoyable.

Rob Lane currently only has one other soundtrack release and that is for the mini-series John Adams, which also features music by composer Joseph Vitarelli. He recently score the BBC television movie The 39 Steps starring Rupert Penry-Jones which aired last Christmas. His most recent score is for British film The Damned United, which was released on 27 March 2009. It is currently unknown whether The Damned United will get a soundtrack release.

Saturday 18 April 2009

Rest Stop: Don't Look Back (Soundtrack)

I must admit I was slightly disappointed when I saw the track listing for this soundtrack as it included six tracks that were on Rest Stop: Dead Ahead (Soundtrack). However, the reason for this was because Bear McCreary wasn't very happy with the label that released the soundtrack for Rest Stop: Dead Ahead, so decided to include his favourites on this soundtrack released by LaLaLand Records. For the purpose of this review I am only going to review the tracks from Rest Stop: Don't Look Back (tracks 1-14).

Rest Stop: Don't Look Back (Soundtrack) is definitely an improvement on Rest Stop: Dead Ahead (Soundtrack). Bear McCreary has taken the same style he created for Rest Stop: Dead Ahead and improved it for the sequel. I found that with the first soundtrack Nicole's theme cropped up a few too many times for my liking and so I quickly grew tired of her theme. However, that definitely doesn't happen here and there are a number of different themes throughout this soundtrack.

Overall the soundtrack has a much more rock like feel to it then the first soundtrack. The first half of the soundtrack is really good and makes for quite an enjoyable listen. My favourite cues have to be, "Cleansing The Sinner", "Jesus, He Forgives You Too" and "On The Bus". I could listen to these again and again. The second half of the soundtrack, whilst still very good, I didn't find quite as enjoyable.

Nevertheless, this is still a great soundtrack and a must have for any fan of Rest Stop: Dead Ahead (Soundtrack), Bear McCreary or horror scores in general.

Saturday 11 April 2009

Serenity: Better Days


Just as fun and exciting as Firefly, Serenity: Better Days is like an extra episode. It doesn't bridge any of the gaps between Firefly and Serenity, but it still is a must read for any fan of either.

Saturday 4 April 2009

Knowing


This film is by no means perfect. Nicolas Cage's acting is quite inconsistent in terms of the standard of his acting. Sometimes it is really good, sometimes it is really bad, but most of the time it hangs around in the middle and is pretty average. The Visual Effects were also very dodgy. Whilst they did the job, you could tell they were visual effects.

Although saying all that, I actually quite liked the film. There were moments when I thought, "I should probably be bored now," but some how I wasn't. Perhaps it was because the story was excellent and the way it was told was as well.

If you're expecting pure sci-fi though be warned. I found that whilst this film appears to be being advertised as a sci-fi film, I thought it was more of a horror with some sci-fi elements. This horror really comes across with the music. I still have mixed feelings about the music. I couldn't quite work out if the music worked or not. Part of me was saying yes it does, and part of me was saying no it doesn't. But I'm not sure if I just felt this because as a fan of film music I didn't really find it that enjoyable to listen to. Then again, this could have just been adding to the horror.

I could definitely feel the i, Robot and Dark City in the film, which were also directed by Alex Proyas, and which are both better than Knowing. But Knowing isn't exactly a bad film and if you don't mind a bit of horror/sci-fi then I'd say it's worth watching.