As I stated in our anniversary post (check it out here, it’s a really good read), 2015 has been a fantastic time to be a film fan. While the year didn’t quite hold as many game-changing blockbuster films as studios boasted (and fans or critics expected), most audiences were still plenty thrilled in theaters across the country. Mad Max: Fury Road and plenty more will be remembered for decades, but it just didn’t result in the “greatest Summer of all time” many wanted it to be. Regardless, in the entertainment world, if you end on a high note, people tend to forgive the missteps and mediocrity that came before. So…
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FourScore Match-Up #20: “The Colossus of Clout”
This year, on the 60th anniversary of Ishiro Honda’s landmark film, we’ll get to see Gareth Edwards’ reinvention of the world-famous Toho monster. In the subsequent decades since Godzilla first lumbered out of the water we’ve see other mightily impressive creatures (with some equally impressive firepower) blaze across the screen yet of the biggest and baddest Gojira reigns supreme. Over the years he’s retained the title of “King of the Monsters” but he didn’t earn his moniker easily – there are some memorable, and equally gargantuan, baddies who can and have gone toe-to-toe with Toho’s big screen icon. Today we look up, way up, like into the clouds up to see…
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FourScore Match-Up #19: “It Don’t Mean A Thing If It Ain’t Got Them Strings”
This week Kenneth Branagh’s Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit hits theaters and marks the 11th time he and that smiling Scottsman composer Patrick Doyle have worked together in the last 25 years. The film features an amazing arrangement of strings with such diversity and complexity it’s easily some of the best pensive spy music since David Arnold’s work scoring the Bond series. And seriously, no matter what country you’re from the stellar track “Ryan, Mr. President” may be the most swellingly patriotic theme you’ll ever hear. Doyle’s works have such dense richness that they give each film an almost mythical atmosphere. One thing is for sure, he just knows how to…
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FourScore Match-Up #18: “What An Incredible Sound You’ve Discovered!”
Quirky, off-beat, unique, visionary – these are the terms that best describe this foursome of talented film composers. Offering an eclectic tapestry of sounds to whatever film they’re attached you can bet that you might never have heard anything like their music before and, like attending on obscure film festival, may never hear work like it again. With sounds that are unexpected, out of the norm and layered/remixed in such a way to become something so removed from that typical Hollywood sound the batch of musical craftsmen assembled here today take real pride in their signature compositions. They play by their own rules and utilize found sounds, makeshift instruments and…
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FourScore Match-Up #17: “Capes?? We Don’t Need No Stinking Capes”
Superman gets its highly anticipated reboot this week in Zack Snyder’s Man of Steel and it’s likely to be the biggest movie of 2013. While the Big Blue Boy Scout is perhaps the most famous superhero to don a cape, the truth is there are plenty other heroes out there who are “super” without a yard a half of fabric. Despite popular belief, capes don’t make the man and to prove it is this collection of heroes, and their accompanying film scores, who save the day just fine minus any snag-prone underoos. The great Edna Mode once said that superhero outfits should be “bold, dramatic, heroic” and the one thing she insists so emphatically, “No…
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FourScore Match-Up #16: “You’re Very Animated”
Blue Sky Studios and 20th Century Fox are bringing Chris Wedge’s EPIC to theaters this weekend. It’s a visual wonderland that is perfectly complimented by Danny Elfman’s beautiful score. So it was with that in mind we decided to look at a variety of beloved films that feature equally gorgeous animation and take us to worlds too incredible to believe. Yet while the four titles above are vastly different at first glance they do share one common element; a standout musical score that is as vibrant as any hand-painted or computer generated cells in each of these fantastic stories. So who will walk away with the crown in today’s FourScore…
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FourScore Match-Up #15: “The Great Space Race”
At warp speed, J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek Into Darkness is set to scream into theaters this week. So with that in mind it seemed like the perfect opportunity to dust off our FourScore series to help kick off new and upcoming entries to our running feature (which has been long overdue for another installment). Today, we look to the future and also to the past to champion some of the best soundtracks to some influential and seminal space-themed films that boldly go where no one has gone before… With that said, today we’ll examine one of the funnest space operas of all time, a suffering franchise’s adrenaline fueled reboot that brought together (probably for the first time) fans…
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FourScore Match-Up #14: “No Sword, No Sandals, No Service”
The FourScore battle today will focus on the ambitious and landmark period piece films pictured above. They sit atop a heap of sword and sandal imitators and show us that an epic is ever grander than a mere four letter word used to describe it. Summer’s just begun and it already feels like it’s in full swing (read: IT’S HOT). Even though it’s sweltering outside, we film fans can always retreat to the cool comforts of a theater (or home theater). That said there’s something majestic and enjoyable about seeing our on-screen heroes do battle in the harsh sun-cooked sands that really makes for some truly memorable and iconic cinema. So which humble…
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FourScore Match-Up #13: “The Spy Who Loved Me”
Different scores for different spies. The film world is chock full of secret and double agents both great and small. From covert operative to fire-and-forget sleuths of the incendiary kind, these masters of disguise are really only as good as their orchestra. Sometimes a spy film calls for things to be slow and low yet other times a preponderance of bass is needed to aid in their bombastic exploits. Yet, like the old saying goes, you really do need to the right tool for the job. The following composers are equally skilled and succeed in making their respective spies seem larger than life. While they’re all great, today’s FourScore looks to find the…
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FourScore Match-Up #12: “Oh, I Love the Holidays”
So many days of the year are devoted to holidays and each of us undoubtedly has our favorites. But what happens when Hollywood sets out to make a statement about a particular day of the year? Well if you’re like me then you won’t mind Hollywood doing a movie about Arbor Day (or an equally overlooked holiday) as long as the music is good and fits the story. Today’s FourScore hops around the calendar a bit and looks at the films that take good use of the most popular holidays and the scores behind them that help make these films so memorable and iconic. So which of these holiday themed themes is tops in today’s match up? Is it…
