paleo

And another album prepared by the composer "with maximum listening experience in mind..." Please go back to your roots, Intrada.

I just checked whether there is a soundtrack for "Unsere Erde", as it was called in Germany last year, but couldn't find anything, either. Interestingly, there is a separate soundtrack for the feature film version of "Blue Planet".

Lady in the Water (haven't seen the movie.... I was warned to do it...). The village is pretty good, too.

One Director's Cut I really like is "Kingdom of Heaven"; a totally different and much improved experience. Whereas I was not particularly impressed by the theatrical cut I consider the extended version very well made and entertaining. The characterization is so much better now, particularly concerning Sibylla. An extended Version I didn't like is "Robin Hood: Price of Thieves". Although we get to know more of the Sheriff's background, most of the new scenes are rather goofy, and the new cut introduces a lot of inconsistencies, e.g. the scribe who loses his tongue (it is only implied, but obvious if I recall correctly) and then, in a later scene, can still talk without problem, or the scene showing Robin applying some horse crap to pass the guards of Nottingham without thorough inspection being moved to the end of the movie, so that Marion's earlier reaction to Robin's stench doesn't make sense any more. Furthermore, I really liked the original German dubbing (even though I mostly watch movies in their original language nowadays), but the producers of the EE thought it was a good idea to re-dub the entire movie just because of a couple new scenes, the new voice actors not always being the original ones (I hated the new Sheriff) and all of them being obviously bored to death during the recording, which resulted in the least convincing dubbing job since "The Phantom Menace" (I think those who ever watched it in German will agree ).

Interesting... My copy arrived today from www.moviemusic.com ... ... with a crack in the back of the jewel case. Sigh. No, seriously, I know what you mean. I consider these releases in part collector's items, and I hate it when the original case is broken.

That's easy: 5 stars! My all-time favorite, and the score that started my interest in soundtracks. JP has everything you could possibly want from a (blockbuster) score: furious, complex action, suspense, quiet melancholic moments, and, most important, a real sense of awe .... okay, okay, you get the point - I love it

This was the first Horner score I listened to that left me largely unimpressed (but was followed by quite a number of others later on...). It's a good score, it serves its purpose in the movie, but there seemed to be none of the magic I appreciated in his 80's works. Gave it 3 stars.

Gave it a B-, which is probably a bit unfair given its quality compared to scores out there like "300", but whereas I listen to the first three scores all the time, I very rarely go back to "Crystal Skull"; it simply doesn't have many highlights for me...

I so agree; was so disappointed when I bought the original Dante's Peak CD - there were quite a number of good cues that didn't make it (no surprise given the pathetic length). I was particularly fond of the music for the helicopter flight to the crater (before the eruption)...

will look good next to my Batman:TAS CD

A-Team, MacGyver, Hart to Hart, Remington Steele, Alf, Starman, Quantum Leap (technically more early 90's), Robin of Sherwood (have all three seasons on DVD ), etc. ... Ahhh, nostalgia...

I finally received the soundtracks from the three 'Librarian' TV movies. LoDuca's scores are mediocre but enjoyable, and LaLaLand offered a good deal - the score for 'Judas Chalice' has LoDuca's autograph, the double CD for the first 2 movies was only $9.95, and the package was sent without shipping costs

I just listened to the HP:OotP game soundtrack for the first time (I had no idea that you can download all of them at Amazon), and I must say, I really liked it. Sure, I certainly missed the JW themes (wonder what they sound like; never played the games), but it is a nice score with its own identity and recurring themes. It was maybe a bit obvious that Aunt Marge's Waltz was sort of a temp track for Courtyard Frolics, but on the whole, quite original and enjoyable. I did like Cooper's score, too, however. I know, it's certainly not in the same league as any of the JW scores, but I found it to be a big improvement over Doyles imo loud, uninteresting, and extremely schmaltzy GoF score (yes, I do prefer Cooper's sensitive approach to the love theme )

I am not really a big fan, but I do occasionally listen to Wagner overtures and similar romantic music, and I do like certain baroque music, Bach in particular.

One of my favorite scores; I can't understand how some people can consider it "overrated" (yeah, taste, I know, but...). I would say, unless you even consider "Munich" annoyingly exuberant and happy this should be a must-buy. Oh, and it is really one of the more complex scores I know (well, for example in comparison to many Hans Zimmer & Co. soundtracks ). The 2 CD version, though I love it, can be a bit tiresome after some time... but LOTR and many other good long scores are too.

I did enjoy some of Kamen's work, like Robin Hood, but mostly I found his music a bit unimaginative. He certainly was a good composer though, and I would have liked to hear more of him. I ordered Dinotopia by Jones recently, but the order has apparently been lost. Should have been here weeks ago.

Since they apparently used the original digital masters, sound quality should be pretty good. This at least is something to look forward to.

I tried to order it from Intrada, but whenever I submitted the order, I got an error message telling me that they just changed the shipping prices and the order wasn't placed for that reason ?!? Well, I then ordered from MovieMusic instead (and will probably get 5 CDs from Intrada, one for each failed attempt... ) Looking forward to the CD, but will never understand what these people are thinking when they release -without reason- incomplete scores. I would suggest to not include composers in the process in the future (except for maybe an interview). I sometimes think many composers have the opinion that we don't deserve all the music, or that it is not artful enough to release it in the order it appears in the movie. I understand decisions such at these when there are time or money constraints or pressure by the studio, but here? Please.

In case of AOTC I agree that more model work would have helped... And even though I normally like ILM's water simulation, it really looked very fake to me (particularly in the opening shot). I did not refer to the Kamino interiors, which indeed were quite good. ROTS is really much better in many ways (I prefer its effects over those of both earlier prequels by far). As for the CGI grass in TPM, to my knowledge it's been shot in England (no CGI). And it's not the landscape that bothers me, it's the gungans (it would have helped if they'd been portrayed like an actual army, not a bunch of kids having fun with glowing marbles).

I meant King Kong, the creature, the CGI ape. The rest is bassically good to mediocre to bullsh+t CGI. The Brontosaur stampede is a pain to watch. I second that. The ape is quite good, but much of the rest isn't really. I remember for example that the background and the foreground are completely misaligned in a couple of shots, most obviously when the small boat first approaches Skull Island.

I hope it's not as disappointing as "Next". I still regret the loss of my ticket money (and poor Julianne Moore ;-))

I really do like CGI; so many things that would not be possible without it (I need some good escapism once in awhile...). I loved some classical matte paintings, too (e.g. the landing platform on Endor or Jabba's Palace in ROTJ), but the possibility to have actual camera movement through these non-existing environments is something I wouldn't want to miss. That's said, there are indeed a lot of not very convincing CGI effects in many movies of the last 15 years, and in some cases I wish the filmmakers would have concentrated on fewer effect shots and would have made them look better instead of delivering hundreds of fake-looking shots. I particularly don't like inconsistency, like, one effect shot is great, the next one mediocre, then one that looks unfinished... I have no problem when all effects are at the same level of mediocre quality in cases such as "Children of Dune", when I know they did what they could with their small budget to still deliver exotic worlds and vehicles, but when I know a studio invested $ 150 Mio. in their movie and half the stuff looks unfinished, that's disappointing. Even really great effect movies like LOTR have at least some bad effects (such as the horrible wargs in TTT), but as long as it's the exception, no complaints there (I guess they more than compensated that... I do think Gollum looks terrific, e.g.). Too bad that in particular the first two SW Prequels had unconvincing CGI in many cases (they will not age well), like the environment of the Jedi Temple, the gungans, the whole Naboo Plains battle (looks like a computer game to me, very hard to feel with the characters) in TPM, and most of Kamino and "Anakin riding beasts" in AOTC (the most convincing effects in AOTC are the instances when actors were shot in front of bluescreen and then inserted into separately filmed sets). ROTS has much superior effects IMO. I don't know why, but the dinosaurs in the original Jurassic Park are still among the most convincing CGI shots for me (even in comparison to some of the effects in the JP sequels). The same is true for most of the stuff in Abyss, T2, Young Sherlock Holmes. Maybe the people involved payed more attention to details?

James Newton Howard (!) Danny Elfman Jerry Goldsmith John Debney David Arnold Elliot Goldenthal Howard Shore J.S. Bach Richard Wagner Hans Zimmer and many more

It's actually one of my fav movies. What are the ugly things in your avatar btw? Well, while I enjoyed the movie to some extent, I was waiting for all these great castles, monasteries, chapels, underground caverns, the fortified mill, medieval towns, ... that never made it. In comparison with the book it just is somewhat disappointing. And the subplot with the translator... awful (graduate students in European history and archeology that have no clue of Latin and don't even marginally understand French? Please!). The book has an interesting approach to the language problem (and doesn't just out of convenience pretend that English and French sounded exactly like today in 1337...). Anyway, you get the picture. These "ugly" things are armadillos, which I personally find quite cute...

Got "An American Tail" the other day... Really like it (one of Horner's more original works with a beautiful main theme); particularly after skipping most of the songs. I also found a cheap copy on "Dinotopia" by Trevor Jones... waiting in anticipation...