Martin Brest's been one of the most consistently good directors of the last 20 years or so, which made the incredible reaction to Gigli very surprising.  I've not seen it yet so I don't know what it's like, but it attracted almost universally-bad notices.  Having found Midnight Run to be one of the funniest films ever made and been very impressed with Scent of a Woman on repeated viewings, I always look forward to his movies (which are few and far between).  He always seems to get the best out of his composers too (Thomas Newman's Meet Joe Black is regularly mentioned as his most popular effort); this time he didn't meet up with Newman for a third successive movie together but turned instead to John Powell.

It may seem very unlikely, but George Fenton's music for You've Got Mail seems to have become one of the most influential scores of recent times, with virtually all romantic comedies now being scored in the same light and breezy way with a small pop ensemble and an orchestra or strings.  Such is Powell's approach (which isn't much of a surprise, since it's exactly the same approach he took to Two Weeks Notice).  It's like instrumental pop music more than a traditional orchestral score, which means it essentially sits under the film to make the viewer thing "aaahhh" rather than trying to make much of a dramatic statement.  It's the sort of score that the chicks just dig.

There's really not much to say about a score like Gigli.  The back of the album contains the amusing line "This album does not contain the Jennifer Lopez single Baby I Love U!" - odd, since I have 2,000 other albums, none of which contain the Jennifer Lopez single Baby I Love U!, but none of which feel the need to point this out to me - and the packaging has no notes, but various pictures of Ms Lopez looking as lovely as ever, and Ben Affleck with a rather dodgy Elvis-style barnet.

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