A review by JAMES SOUTHALL

Jackie Chan continues his tradition of appearing in only the most execrable of films with Around the World in 80 Days, the unfortunate retelling of Jules Verne's classic tale.  When it was last made into a movie, it won five Oscars (including for Victor Young's music) but something tells me the awards panels may not be quite so concerned with this latest version.  Alongside Chan as (nominally at least) Passepartout is Steve Coogan as Fogg and a whole host of celebrity cameos - though the likes of Macy Gray and Arnold Schwarzenegger aren't exactly a match for the original's David Niven and John Gielgud.  Still, the movie did inevitably provide an opportunity for some good old-fashioned music, which is exactly what was provided by Trevor Jones.

The album kicks off with three rather unfortunate songs, with only the middle one ("River of Dreams" sung by Tina Sugandh) having any particularly redeeming features (Baha Men's mutilation of the Shermans' "It's a Small World" turns an infuriatingly catchy song into an infuriatingly putrid one).  Thankfully, after ten minutes they're out of the way and the real business of the day can begin.  Jones's score begins with a rip-roaring action-orientated overture which promises much - that the score doesn't quite live up to that early promise is perhaps due more to its somewhat schizophrenic nature than any other particular shortcoming.  

"The Wager" opens with a delightfully English-sounding section and leads into the first of the score's location-specific cues, "Rendezvous in Paris", including all the bits we have all come to expect from a Hollywood generalisation of France.  "The Balloon Chase" is a barnstorming action track which highlights everything that is good and bad about the score as a whole, featuring some truly terrific material, frequently very exciting, but also flitting about all over the place and seeming to resemble a mixed bag of temp-track, with the main action theme seeming to come straight out of Michael Kamen's 101 Dalmatians.  After the brief but lovely "1st Class Waltz" comes the standout action track, "Prince Hapi Escapes", which (despite being almost as all over the place as the rest), sees Jones at his thrilling best.  The lengthy "Agra to China", with its Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon pastiche, is also impressive and contains some great action music in between all the bright and chirpy, if ultimately slightly flat, stuff.

And so it goes on.  No doubt because of the nature of the movie, there is really very little that binds the score together - it seems far more a collection of disparate elements than any kind of fluid whole.  Impressive though some of those elements are, one longs for them to be more developed, as of course they would have been in a more intelligent film.  About the only thing Jones actually did wrong was to follow the temp-track so closely (though no doubt it was at the behest of the director), with "Lost in America" being the worst example, barely bothering to alter Randy Newman's Maverick at all.  This is the sort of score you have to be in the right kind of mood to enjoy, but at its best it is bright, breezy and cheerful enough to be thoroughly charming, and so it does come recommended - just don't go expecting too much and you're liable to be pleasantly surprised.

Tracks

1. Everybody All Over the World (Join the Celebration) David A Stewart and the Sylvia Young Theatre School Choir (3:13)
2. River of Dreams Tina Sugandh (3:30)
3. It's a Small World Baha Men (2:44)
4. Around the World Overture (5:18)
5. Jetpack Journey (2:17)
6. The Wager (5:01)
7. Rendezvous in Paris (3:49)
8. The Balloon Chase (4:47)
9. 1st Class Waltz (2:06)
10. Prince Hapi Escape (3:08)
11. Agra to China (6:41)
12. Return of the Jade Buddha (3:38)
13. Lost in America (5:09)
14. Dismantling Carmen (1:44)
15. Exactly Like My Dream (4:45)