I’ve made no bones about my love of Thomas Newman‘s work. And THE GOOD GERMAN is one of my favorites. The film is director Steven Soderbergh’s interesting, yet ultimately misguided, attempt to film a 1940′s film 60 years too late. Based on Joseph Kanon’s 2001 bestseller, George Clooney stars as a journalist who returns to Berlin [...]

Sometimes the historical success of a film rests solely on its music, at least with us film score fans. Such is the case with BORN FREE. Based on naturalist Joy Adamson’s bestselling book, the film chronicles the African adventures of Joy (Virginia McKenna) and her husband George (Bill Travers), including bringing up a lioness cub. [...]

In 1965, studio execs at 20th Century Fox probably thought that audiences were, shall we say, art-impaired. And if today’s audiences are anything like those 45 years ago, they were right. So after filming on THE AGONY AND THE ECSTASY—Irving Stone’s story of Michelangelo, Pope Julius II and the creation of the murals of the [...]

Can anyone make watching chess exciting? If you’re writer/director Steven Zaillian you can. In SEARCHING FOR BOBBY FISCHER, chess is the backdrop for this moving story of a young chess wiz (Max Pomeranc) who is caught between the rigidity of rules from his renowned coach (Ben Kingsley), the sheer joy of the game from a [...]

Remember when Marc Shaiman scored films? Sure, he’s got a new film opening in August, teaming once again with frequent collaborator director Rob Reiner on FLIPPED. But I miss Shaiman’s pre-HAIRSPRAY glory days in the mid- to late-’90s when he scored more high profile (if occasionally awful) films. One of Shaiman’s better films was 1995′s THE [...]

I was talking with my buddy Doug Adams this past weekend and somehow the discussion got around to Howard Shore. Shocking, eh? Doug and Howard… It’s like chocolate and peanut butter or margaritas and Mexican food. Two great names that go great together. But I digress. We started to discuss the score that was our [...]

There are few more disturbing sounds than children’s voices lifted in song. Now wait. I can hear the furious cry of all you parents out there even as I type this. Before you brandish the torches and pitchforks, let me explain. Take child stars, especially those with natural voices–everyone from Shirley Temple and Bobby Breen [...]

Based on John Updike’s bestseller, THE WITCHES OF EASTWICK (1987) stars Cher, Michelle Pfeiffer, and Susan Sarandon as three man-hungry women with special powers in the quiet, little New England hamlet of Eastwick. When a mysterious stranger (Jack Nicholson) moves into the town, he seduces the three until they find out he is literally THE horny little [...]

Based on the first three books of the popular children’s series, LEMONY SNICKET’S A SERIES OF UNFORTUNATE EVENTS follows the Baudelaire orphans–Violet (Emily Browning), Klaus (Liam Aiken) and Sunny–as they are shunted from one odd relative (Billy Connelly) to the next (Meryl Streep), while the cunning Count Olaf (Jim Carrey) nips at their heels, in the [...]

My buddy Tim got married a couple of weeks ago. I wasn’t at the wedding and I’ve never even met Tim in person. Yet we’ve connected through Twitter, this blog, and our love of film music. You really can connect with people online, even when you haven’t physically met. I was as happy for Tim [...]