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Beyond Rangoon
  • Composed by Hans Zimmer
  • Milan / 1995 / 39m

A tense political thriller directed by John Boorman, Beyond Rangoon sees an American tourist (played by Patricia Arquette) forced to go on the run in Burma after becoming separated from her tour group and then witnessing various acts of violent repression by the government.  (Just in case she wasn’t miserable enough, the reason she’s there in the first place is to try to get away from it all after her husband and son were both murdered back home.)  As with many of Boorman’s films, it attracted great acclaim for its extraordinary visuals but not so much the other aspects of the film.

The House of the Spirits
  • Composed by Hans Zimmer
  • Virgin Movie Music / 1993 / 44m

An epic telling the story of several generations of a Chilean family through the second half of the 20th century, against the backdrop of the revolution, The House of the Spirits attracted good reviews but not much of an audience upon its release in 1993.  There’s a very strong cast – Jeremy Irons, Meryl Streep, Glenn Close, Winona Ryder, Antonio Banderas, Vanessa Redgrave.  It was Danish director Bille August’s first Hollywood movie after a string of successful projects in his homeland and in Sweden.

Man of Steel
  • Composed by Hans Zimmer
  • Sony Classical / 2013 / 118m (regular edition 88m)

The most-hyped film of the year is finally here – after months of publicity, Zack Snyder’s Superman reboot Man of Steel has been released (to fairly lukewarm reviews, it has to be said).  Henry Cavill takes on the most iconic of comic book roles, his jaw appropriately chiselled, and he’ll be hoping it leads to a rather more successful career than that enjoyed by his predecessor in the role, Brandon Routh (who!?) from the little-liked 2006 Superman Returns.  One rather suspects that it will.

Remember Me
  • Composed by Olivier Deriviere
  • Capcom / 2013 / 49m

A video game set in Paris (or more accurately “Neo Paris”) in the near future, Remember Me sees the player take control of a character called Nilin, a “memory hunter”.  These memory hunters can access other people’s memories and alter them.  The only trouble is, someone’s done this to Nilin, who has had her memory wiped entirely and must now fight to gain it all back.  Still with me?  Some readers are no doubt wishing that someone would wipe their memory of this paragraph so far.  Stick with me, though, because Olivier Deriviere’s music is really quite something.

The Challenge
  • Composed by Jerry Goldsmith
  • La-La Land Records / 2013 / 76m (score 61m)

Jerry Goldsmith’s relationship with director John Frankenheimer was particularly sporadic; they worked together on two films in the 1960s, Seven Days in May and Seconds, but their paths would not cross again until 1982′s The Challenge.  It was actually the final completed collaboration – Goldsmith was attached to two of the director’s later movies, Ronin and Reindeer Games, but left both before recording a score.  The Challenge concerns two Japanese brothers in a blood feud after one abandons the traditional ways of the past, much to his brother’s disgust.  Frankenheimer was clearly trying to pay homage to Kurasawa and the like (even casting Toshiro Mifune), drawing upon all the strong traditions of Japanese cinema; but in truth the film really isn’t very good.

Gagarin: First in Space

Composed by George Kallis MovieScore Media / 2013 / 48m Yuri Gagarin was one of those people who could claim to have done something genuinely extraordinary – the Russian Cosmonaut who, on 12 April 1961, became the first human being to go to space.  Gagarin: First in Space is a Russian film biopic.  

Mercury Rising

Composed by John Barry Varese Sarabande / 1998 / 35m A rather daft action thriller, Mercury Rising stars Bruce Willis as a rogue FBI agent who goes on the run with a nine year old autistic boy, who is being hunted down for execution by the NSA, in particular the nasty Alec Baldwin.  The reason [...]

Moonraker

Composed by John Barry Capitol / 2003 / 32m Even by the standards of the Roger Moore years, Moonraker is a very silly, very bad James Bond movie, especially disappointing since it came after easily his best Bond, The Spy Who Loved Me.  After a space shuttle is stolen, Bond doesn’t just trawl round various [...]

The Last Valley

Composed by John Barry Intrada / 2007 / 38m An historical epic set in Germany during the 17th century Thirty Years War, James Clavell’s The Last Valley sees a group of troops led by Michael Caine spending the winter in an isolated valley with Omar Sharif and a band of peasants.  And who wouldn’t want to [...]

After Earth

Composed by James Newton Howard Sony Classical / 2013 / 57m M. Night Shyamalan seems to be one of the most critic-proof directors around, with people flocking to see his films no matter how rubbish everyone says they are.  Even his last one, The Last Airbender, made a comfortable profit around the world despite being savaged [...]

Fatti di Gente Perbene

Composed by Ennio Morricone Quartet Records / 2013 / 56m A 1974 political drama directed by Mauro Bolognini, Fatti di Gente Perbene is set in early 20th century Bologna, delving into attempts by the establishment to rid the city of its socialists.  

Pain and Gain

Composed by Steve Jablonsky Varèse Sarabande / 2013 / 67m Michael Bay brings his typical deft touch to Pain and Gain, an arthouse film delving into the nature of being, the essence of life, the facets of love.  Oh, wait, it’s about bodybuilders on a heist.  

Woman Times Seven

Composed by Riz Ortolani Quartet Records / 2013 / 31m An unusual 1967 sex comedy produced by Joseph E. Levine, Woman Times Seven stars Shirley MacLaine in seven separate vignettes, playing a different woman in each one, with various different co-stars (including Michael Caine and Peter Sellers).  

Star Trek Into Darkness

Composed by Michael Giacchino Varèse Sarabande / 2013 / 45m Star Trek Into Darkness is a bit of a paradox, really.  On the one hand, it’s badly-written: the traditional Abrams/Lindelof reliance on coincidence to drive the plot forward; an ill-advised attempt to recreate one of the most beloved scenes from the original cast’s films; indeed, an [...]

Heidi

Composed by John Williams Quartet Records / 2013 / 80m (score 36m) An expensive adaptation of the classic children’s book by Johanna Spyri made for American television in 1968, Heidi was a return to television by director Delbert Mann.  Mann was a bit of a directorial journeyman, the Oscar-winning Marty sandwiched between episodic television in [...]