Andy

This was many Halloweens ago.
 
Here's my daughter and her friend.
 
 
 
And with apologies to @Mr. Hooper, here's me:

 
Hey I don't need this working class hero crap.
 

 
And Here's the family dog, with 3 barrels on 'em:

 
Quint gets revenge:
 

 
Aboard the Orca....
 

 
 

 
 
Thanks for indulging me!
 
 
 

Omega Man is one of my favorite recordings ever.   Rest in Peace. 

My name is Bond,James Bond!

Could it be argued that Waterworld is a pirate film?  I missed that one until recently too, and my review is almost identical to that of Cutthroat Island - that it was an unfairly maligned, fun, if imperfect, charming actioner.  
 
It seemed in the mid 90s that Hollywood columnists had a fetish for building up negative doom hype about overbudget event movies. And it sort of worked to drive audiences away, until Titanic came and put a stop to it. 

Could it be argued that Waterworld is a pirate film?  I missed that one until recently too, and my review is almost identical to that of Cutthroat Island - that it was an unfairly maligned, fun, if imperfect, charming actioner.  
 
It seemed in the mid 90s that Hollywood columnists had a fetish for building up negative doom hype about overbudget event movies. And it sort of worked to drive audiences away, until Titanic came and put a stop to it. 

I haven’t seen the film or heard the score. 
 
All I can say is that I talked to Ke Huy Quan once at a convention about film music and he says CP is his absolute favorite.  

I haven’t seen the film or heard the score. 
 
All I can say is that I talked to Ke Huy Quan once at a convention about film music and he says CP is his absolute favorite.  

If that's a euphemism ... TMI, dude!  

That's because you're not looking at my bank statement and bills for the month.

Yeah, that’s a fun one!
 
Cutthroat Island
First time watch for me.  What didn’t audiences like about this?  This was everything I wanted it to be.  The 90s were very good for action movies.  Before digital stunts and digital hyper camera movements.  The pyrotechnics and stunts are top notch. The performances are just fine.  My wife chuckled at some of the hokey dialogue and romance while Modine removes a bullet from Geena Davis. I told her, “It’s Cutthroat Island. What do you want?”
 
Unpopular opinion: I still haven’t fully warmed to Debney’s score.  It is without relent.  I did have to volume down the remote a few times.  The score is the gold standard for bombastic.  I would’ve liked some nuance and subtlety where the scenes would’ve allowed.  It’s propulsive though, I’ll give him that. 
 
The movie gave me everything I wanted to see in a throwback pirate movie.  Cannons blazing, sword fights, pirate treasure, swashbuckling rope swings, double crossing, and old Hollywood romance.   This movie looked expensive, and was a feast for the eyes.   The production design felt real, the visuals felt earned. 
 
Sure, the characters were a bit thin. 
 
I was too busy enjoying the monkey to care. 

Watched Conan the Barbarian for the very first time on the new Arrow UHD set. Really enjoyed this. Whatever clunkiness there might be, whether that's acting or music performance, it actually works very well for this movie. It makes it feel like something from an very old age. I was amazed just how much attention is given to music, making it feel like a silent film for big stretches of time. There is an isolated score track included but you hardly need it as Poledouris' contributions are at the very forefront almost all the time. It's also refreshing to watch something as cinematic. There's hardly any unnecessary dialogue and most of it is carried by cinematography and music. Really cool.
 
Karol

The Inglorious Bastards - not the Tarantino flick, rather an Italian-made 70s WW2 actioner in which a bunch of US soldiers in France who have been sentenced to death for various misdemeanours escape on the way to the prison camp where the sentence is to be carried out and head for neutral Switzerland, only to wind up becoming part of a plan to destroy a train carrying a prototype of the V2 rocket.

Fun Saturday night watch, with a streak of Dirty Dozen/M*A*S*H cynicism to it. Starring Bo Svenson, Fred Williamson and Ian Bannen.

When you got it, please tell me how you like it!

Something in the air. I’ve been taking a Sarde journey too. The box set is in my cart. 

The Boy Who Swallowed A Star is the absolute highlight from this album. But even though I adore many tracks on the album I never found this a good album listening experience. Still, together with Mononoke and Hana-Bi my favourite Hisaishi score.
 
Still absolutely in music heaven with this boxset. 

 
6 disks, a hundred tracks and each one at least an 8 out of 10. As mentioned before, just one track per score.
During the week I dipped into some of the OSTs and it seems like they really managed to select my favourite track of each album for this.
And even though the order of the scores is chronological the albums flow surprisingly well.

I want the Blu Ray, but I keep waiting for a release that is cost effective for western territories. 

and one more take on the O. Nelson new release

Death of a Gunfighter
 

 
Skullduggery
 

I believe he did make such a claim at one of his film scoring classes. Hint... he doesn't ;-) but I like his stuff anyway. He also taught James Dean to play the piano, hence him scoring Rebel Without a Cause and East of Eden, both of which are great. There's a recording of suites from both conducted by John Adams (don't think it's that John Adams although happy to be corrected on that) which is well worth checking out.
 
His LOTR score is pretty great, very different from Shore, but also different from innumerable imitation JW fantasy scores - it's only from 1978 and Rosenman was very much the iconoclast, doing his own thing anyway. I rather like his Robocop 2 score, even if the female chorus singing the titular character's name is kinda weird and a bit cheesy, but it's not as terrible as it sounds (and I agree it sounds terrible as a concept). However, the rest of the score has plenty of striking moments. I have to admit that I never enjoy Basil's score for the original as much as I want to (he wrote much better scores in this style, peaking with Starship Troopers) but am always pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoy Rosenman's.

So since I finetuned some of this recently anyway, why not just do a breakdown?
I'm not a huge fan of some of Kamen, but unfortunately based on what I tried so far that "some" isn't "these scores" but "half of every score". But I like the other half of this one too much so I refocused it onto the action and repaced it, using the 3 disc LLL as a base of course, lining up every version of every cue to choose the best ones or combine/microedit them, removing sections I didn't like/I thought were bogging it down etc.
 
 01 - Main Title - 1/08 Approaching the Vault (slightly shortened ending) + sleighbell percussion loop from 3/10 Under the Table (His Bag is Missing (Film Edit) + 1/01 Main Title. Okay so what I actually did here was take Main Title, extend its sleighbell loop opening a lot with the useful long clean version included in Under the Table's film edit, then I wanted to join it to the string piece so that the extended loop starts slowly fading in with the last held note as it also increases in volume, and Main Title starts exactly when the final note ends, with the full volume loop taking over satisfyingly. But the held note didn't have the correct length for that so I shortened it a bit so that just the right amount of loops fit exactly into it. This is still one of my favourite assemblies ever, using this solo low string 9th as kind of an overture.

 02 - Seeing Holly - 3/02 Seeing Holly (Film Mix)

 03 - Terrorist Entrance - 1/03 Terrorist Entrance, with the silly section at 0:54-1:01 removed, the space between the 3rd and 4th brass note at 3:08 cut in half to give it more of a groove, and the silence from 3:10-3:14 removed.

 04 - The Phone Goes Dead / Party Crashers - 1/04 The Phone Goes Dead / Party Crashers

 05 - John's Escape / You Want Money - 1/05 John's Escape / You Want Money with the silence at 0:18-0:20 shortened, and 1:35-1:55, 2:26-3:08, 4:05-end removed since the track dragged a lot.

 06 - Tony Approaches - 3/06 Tony Approaches (Film Mix) 0:00-0:08 + 2/14 Tony Approaches (Alternate) 0:08-1:04 + 1/11 Tony and John Fight

 07 - Al Powell - 1/16 Have a Few Laughs / Al Powell Approaches with 0:00-0:53 removed.

 08 - Under the Table - 3/10 Under the Table (His Bag is Missing) (Film Edit) 0:00-1:17 + 1/17 Under the Table - I love this sleighbell loop, thought this was a tension cue worth extending.

 09 - Yippie Ki-Yay - 1/19 Yippie Ki-Yay

 10 - Assault on the Tower - 1/21 Assault on the Tower with 1:49-2:08 removed with a seamless transition, the silence at 4:53-4:54 and the silence at 6:11-6:12 shortened since the track was a bit choppy.

 11 - Attention Police - 2/17 Attention Police (Pick-up Opening)

 12 - John is Found Out - 3/11 John is Found Out (Film Mix) 0:00-2:50

 13 - Shoot the Glass - 1/25 Shoot the Glass with 1:56-2:14 removed.

 14 - I Had an Accident - 1/26 I Had an Accident (Extended version)

 15 - Packing Up - 2/18 The Vault (Alternate) 1:45-end. I moved it here to space out the two downer tracks with a "cutaway" and because I felt it was a little too much at the end of The Vault after we already had an extended fadeout with the same ostinato.

 16 - John's Despair - 2/21 Message for Holly (Revised Version) - I thought this version was more bleak and fit here better as the low point.

 17 - The Vault - 2/01 The Vault (Film Edit) 0:00-1:15 + 2/18 The Vault (Alternate) 0:48-1:18 + 2/01 The Vault (Film Edit) 1:41-2:09.  This was tricky, I like the first part of the film version but I don't like the inconsistent tempo and synth choir in the second part so I grabbed that section from the alternate which I like a lot, but for the ending the alternate sucks so I had to go back to the film version. Phrases had to be carefully crossfaded to make the transitions smooth, since the alternate doesn't have the synth twinkle that's still fading out when the section starts in the film version, and the endings have different instrumentation including a loud cymbal crash fading out for a time in the alternate.

 18 - Message for Holly - 3/15 Message for Holly (Original Version) (Orchestra Only) - This version has more of a determined "fuck it let's go" ending so it fit better here before the Battle. Also to hell with that synth guitar.

 19 - The Battle / Freeing the Hostages - 2/04 The Battle / Freeing the Hostages with 0:58-1:14 seamlessly removed, the cues seamlessly joined from 3:02 to 3:07 to remove the long silence between them, and 4:18-4:25 removed.

 20 - The Showdown - 2/06 The Helicopter Explosion And Showdown 0:38-end

 21 - Happy Trails, Hans - 2/07 Happy Trails, Hans 0:00-1:00 + one cycle of the sleighbell percussion loop from 3/10 Under the Table (His Bag is Missing (Film Edit) + 2/22 Happy Trails, Hans (Tracked Film Edit) 0:00-0:54, with the gap at 0:45-0:46 also shortened a little bit to fit the rhythm better + 2/07 Happy Trails, Hans 1:00-end. So uh, I like the Kamen cue, but I think the film edit is too iconic and has much more tension and a great release. So I just combined the two, the sleighbell is only there to start the loop earlier and help bridge that transition.

 22 - We've Got Each Other - 2/23 We've Got Each Other - Hey, listen, I think the tracked cues work perfectly to achieve the finale that the score proper is lacking, a fakeout happy ending, a sudden action and triumphant finale, and then a real happy ending. The only problem is they should've fucking told Kamen they wanted this.

 23 - Powell's Comeback - 2/24 Resolution and Hyperspace (Excerpt) 0:00-0:58 + 2:08 Powell's Comeback 1:26-end

 24 - Let It Snow - 2:09 Let It Snow

 25 - Roy Rogers Meets Beethoven's 9th - 2:26 Roy Rogers Meets Beethoven's 9th - The film/main program uses an awful sounding 9th recording so this is a really fun replacement and playoff.

Raiders Of The Lost Ark
 

 
Mostly uses the DCC, with a few exceptions.
 
The sustained string ending of The Cave is extended to match the film.
 
The Map Room At Dawn uses the Polydor OST version (Speed-corrected, of course!) for the album's better mixing of the choirs.  The Polydor is used instead of the Concord for the dynamic rage that matches the DCC better.
 
While I tried to avoid using the Concord as much as possible if I could help it, The German Sub-The Miracle Of The Ark needed to be kept as the Concord, as the DCC had between-track cue overlaps all over the place for those cues.
 
Four versions of the Raiders March are present in my fanedit: End Credits [full, uncut cue], The Raiders March [The OST edit without the coda], The Raiders March Overture [The DCC Edit with the Coda], and The Raiders March (Concert Version) [with Marion's Theme, sans coda].  All using the DCC, though the longer versions cut to the speed-corrected Polydor track to remove the tracked portion from later in the cue.
 
Escaping The Pit (Fix Insert) is placed at the beginning of the Alternates section, to better segue into The Rolling Ball (Original).  In a way, it kinda represents The Cave when programmed like this.
 
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Hayden Jonas' mockup of 2m1 - Belloq is incorporated into the fanedit.  Unlike with TWOK's unrecorded 2m1, Raiders' unrecorded 2m1 slots perfectly into the main score presentation, so I put it there instead of the Alternates section.
 
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The alternate ending for 6m1 - Don't Touch That was teased in the Raiders Live-To-Projection thread, but since an actual mockup from the sheets never happened, I made a substitute for my own personal listening.  I based this on the context clues from the thread, that it was a "dark, militaristic take on the Ark theme" that lasts roughly "four bars" and "ends on an F#":
 
6m1 - Don't Touch That (Guessed Ending).mp3
 
It sounds terrible, but it'll do for now.
 
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And finally, Indy In Pursuit/Truck Chase/Indy's Feats (Album Take)!  [Or, Desert Chase (Extended Album Version), if you will]  I went ahead and checked the entire track for anything that sounded legitimately different from the DCC version.  That turns out to be a few alternate take portions at the very beginning of Indy In Pursuit, a bigger orchestra hit at the end of Indy In Pursuit that transitions into Truck Chase, and the entirety of Indy's Feats.
 
This track uses the DCC Album as a base, cutting to the Polydor OST version for each of the above mentioned changes and cutting back before it got to any of the dreaded album edits.  There was a bit in Indy's Feats (5:57-6:01) that needed to cut away to a tempo-adjusted version of the DCC take, but 6:13-6:18 was actually looped using only the existing bits of the album take.
 
 
The first time I listened to this edit outside of Audacity, I was actually surprised when the bits that had originally been edited out played through without interruption.  It was like my subconscious was so used to hearing the edits whenever it heard this version of Desert Chase that it was surprised that time when it didn't happen.  This is just so perfect!

Funny, I was just listening to this this week. I have THREE configurations of this score in my library. One is the Intrada and one is a straight reconstruction of "as heard in the film". I think the third is a mish mash.
 
This is a hard score for me to pick the "best" way to listen to. I'm not especially tied to much in the way of "But that's the way I'm used to hearing it in the film!" There aren't many of the creepier or more action oriented pieces that I know that well in the film. (And I've seen the film a LOT.) I don't need any of the Freud cues. It's kind of like Blade Runner for me. There are five or six really melodic pieces and the rest is just serving the film and I don't listen to them separately.
 
I'm 50/50 on "original opening" or "film opening". They're both great? But (and this is a tad sacrilegious and I'm sure it breaks Jerry's heart) I need to end this score with Howard Hanson. That's just the way it is.
 
Maybe I should take some time and really dig into what's in the film and what's not. Or even figure out what versions I actually like to listen to the most.

Something like 5000 live tarantulas used in the filming. Kudos to the cast ... there wouldn't be a fee high enough for me *shudders*. 

Great fun, that one. Love the scene of Shatner picking live tarantulas off the car seat before getting in his truck. 

Listened to Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome again after finishing the (criminally forgotten) 2015 game. And I still love it, lots of interesting sounds, love the didgeridoo for the desert or the rock semi-source for the Bartertown underbelly or the choir+exotic percussion for the kids, or the distressed piano clanging in the final setpiece, some good theme variations, a nice arc overall. Pity it's OOP!

Given the mention of the Shat in this thread, here's an enjoyable 'creature feature' with him that fits right in to it - 



Think Arachnophobia, but without the gags.