Alien Resurrection Giveaway Results

Compiled by Lukas Kendall

Imagine my joy Thanksgiving morning to check my E-mail and find two hundred reader guesses as to how much money Alien 4 would make over the 5-day weekend. For those who didn't check the site on that wonderful holiday, we had a contest to guess that number, with the five closest guessers receiving free copies of the Lone Eagle Film Composers Guide, a terrific directory of composers and their credits.

Actual figure as per Monday's trade papers is: $27.2 million.

The winners:

Matt Olsen: Guessed $27.4 (+0.2 million)

Alan Andres: Guessed $26.8 (-0.4 million)

Charles Paik: Guessed $26.7 (-0.5 million)

Jonathan Foster: Guessed $26.7 (-0.5 million)

Robert Borowski: Also guessed $26.7 (-0.5 million)

Gentlemen, your books are in the mail. Thanks to the hundreds of people who sent in their estimates, and I apologize for the server error that told people something wacky: I did get your transmissions, sorry you had to send them five times in some cases.

We will try to do more giveaways in the future. Record label folks: write me to promote your stuff in a savvy manner like Lone Eagle! (If you're interested in ordering the Film Composers Guide, a terrific book, call 1-800-FILM-BKS.)

Finally, let me just ask this of a few people: what were you smoking? I got some responses in the hundreds of millions, and some less than five million. Maybe I didn't phrase the question properly, or maybe people will claim to be experts in anything to get a free item. In any case, we salute your enthusiasm and belief in the American way: guessing wildly for free stuff.

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I got the Titanic CD and to my surprise do not hate it as much as I thought I would. I can actually understand what Cameron and Horner were going for, as explained in Cameron's notes: to show the optimism of the passengers without being a gushy "period" score, or something anachronistic. In a very real way, however, it is both too gushing, and completely anachronistic: synthesized Enya vocals? But Horner has at least written three new themes, which is three more than he usually does per movie. I guess my only question is, did it have to be this cheesy?

Buzz on Titanic has been extraordinary to say the least, but I fear we could be in for a let down: this thing is a full-on love story and Cameron's romantic storytelling has been strident and cornball in the past (cf. The Abyss). That's pretty much the Titanic score in a nutshell. I'm glad Horner's music is reasonably creative in finding a new approach to a period film, but Chariots of Fire meets Enya meets Hollywood suspense is so cheesy, it's hard to imagine someone making a $200 million movie, with all that entails, and being so sincerely awed by it. See the South Park episode where Kyle's grand-dad (or is it Stan's?) wants him to kill him to put him out of his misery, and to demonstrate what old age is like, locks Kyle in a closet and blasts Enya.

"Ugh! This is awful! It's so cheesy and tacky but somehow soothing! Let me out! Kill me!"

"Aha! So now you know what it is like!"

Finally, at the extreme risk of being a cruel male, I direct you all to the fact that Kate Winslet is being photographed almost entirely from the waist/chest up in all Titantic print material. Check out the CD booklet for starters. (Kate rhymes with "weight.")

Anyway, Horner will probably have his Oscar. My guesses for the five best-score nominees: Titanic, Oscar and Lucinda, Air Force One (although Goldsmith could split his vote, what with L.A. Confidential and The Edge), Amistad, and Seven Years in Tibet (though Williams could split his vote). There's always some dark horse that comes along and wins: I hope so much that it's The Ice Storm by Mychael Danna, which actually is one of the best, if not the best, film score this year.

Hey, send your own idle speculation:

Lukas@filmscoremonthly.com