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'Hard to Kill'! Or at least 'Die Hard'. Certainly not fantasy films with princesses in it. Wait, 'Spaceballs'...mmmh..

Alex, in all honesty, when i first saw 'Star Wars', me and all my classmates agreed that all the desert planet stuff was actually fucking boring. We loved 'Bloodsport', though.

I cherish the danish 'Olsen-banden' and west german 'Winnetou' films. Forget 'Jurassic Park' when you have 'Treasure in the Silver Lake' guiding you through childhood.

The Herbie Quadralogy? Or 'Asterix'? Or perhaps a trifle 'Carry on...' flicks?

Care to describe it a bit?

I don't know, Alex. I was 16, too, when i saw 'JP' and still i found it underwhelming and rather harebrained - and i was raised with 'The Goonies' and stark russian war movies as polar opposites of my filmic education and i guess Mr. Cosman, being a european, also had a more diverse filmic background than your usual multiplex mall rat.

But that's my point. The uniting thread is 'Monica's Theme', the sentimental, yearning 'A. I.' theme which pops up here and there but isn't flexible enough to become 'David's Theme' and there never seems to be an interference with any of those 'character themes' you mention. The music isn't designed to guide you through his journey and it's revelations, but more like someone looking at it from the outside and writing some concept music for each segment. Again, no big deal, i found the film too irritating, anyway... As i said, wrong is not the point. You wanted to know why i found it flawed and voila, that was my answer. There isn't a rule (thankfully) how to do these things but my personal instincts tell me that whatever Williams may have found in 'EotS', it wasn't the heart of the movie. Take note that both films deal with a boy's journey to realizations about either himself or the world surrounding him. In both cases Williams eschewed writing a specific character theme for the boy which he could adapt and develop throughout but a collection of pieces illustrating specific events of the movie (and what is referred to as 'David's Theme' hasn't much impact on 'A. I.', either). I don't have any idea why he did it this way, because the central character seems to invite the idea of a central theme for him/his quest. Interesting question i'd like to ask in an interview. No wait, how do you met Steven Spielberg and which of your themes you do like best...seems more pressing!

Ummm, no. This thematic incongruence plagues some of Williams' later drama scores (think of 'A. I.). It's not about repeating or not repeating themes, it's about finding a style, tone or call it what you will that represents the core of the movie. This easily could become one of those hilarious Dan Hobgood debates, but mind you, i'm not saying Williams did anything wrong or another approach would serve the film better, automatically. But in both 'Empire of the Sun' and 'A. I.' Williams develops a lot of ideas which seem virtually unrelated to one another. Think of 'Streets of Shanghai' or 'Abandoned in the Woods', both rich pieces from a musical standpoint but they never seem to mesh with the other parts of those scores (althoug 'A. I.' is an even more extreme case, 'The Moon Rising', anyone?). Both movies have clearly an episodic form and ipersonally think that they would improve if the music would try to bind them together a bit more, but as it stands, the music just kind of goes along with those 'fractures'. This may be totally intentional but i found it a bit too eclectic in both cases.

Care to explain? What are the conceptual problems? Both have identity problems. The score, good as it is, never comes together.There is the heavenly chorus from the 'Close Encounters' days, piano staccato action music that harkens back to the early 70's, the jubilating scherzo, the pheasent hunt etc. and i think it lacks a thematic glue. It's as if Williams just wrote something for the moment and never looked back. This is no serious damage, but it seems as if he never found the right focus for the whole film. As for the film, the posters above have summarized it rather nicely. I should add that i think highly of both (film and music).

At least according to a red-faced, yelling Bernard Herrmann!

If you are not an overly religious type of person, is there any other way to take it?

This one is so mindlessly mean-spirited, rotten and casually inhuman...and it seems not even intentional, for christ's sake. In 100 years, it will be remembered as a signpost for our doomed decadence.

5 for the score, 3,5 for the movie.

Better look for his reflection in the window behind Brody... It's not there. Goof alarm!!

So we can conclude that the art of animatronic model building actually regressed over the years. 1975: 1978: 1983: 1987:

^^^^ That one certainly did..... You certainly can't blame him. Contrary to regular whites he has the disadvantage of being attached to a crane, so cut him some slack.

He sure has earned it; gracing lame potboilers with his apperance, he is becoming the movie star equivalent of Jerry Goldsmith.

But do they look like this?

You mean like this?

Not to forget what followed after that. Caine climbs (completely dry) aboard the boat and when asked how he escaped the shark his answer is the immortal B-movie line for heroes who seem to manage the impossible: 'It wasn't easy.'

After all, kittens are mean-spirited and nasty little buggers. And i gladly provide more of my little 'JTR' promo kit JAWSrevenge

It's the action motif he described above.

Both 4. Both have conceptual problems, but better fail because of high ambitions than succeed with low aspirations.

When i think about it, 'Insurrection', slight as it may be, is the most varied of the later Goldsmith scores, while i find 'First Contact' too directionless. 'Nemesis' is the most focused, but suffers from being a bit too arch (it has some great action cues and the ethereal 'Repairs'). Apart from the 'Khan' score, which sadly sounds like shit, 'Star Trek V' is my secret favourite after the first one. It's brash, cartoony, epic - all in one and has the best credt sequence.

Mark was quite right. The kid's toy was an actual shot of the film. Not that 'Jaws 3-D' is much better...