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Posted: |
Jun 3, 2009 - 2:51 PM
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By: |
Thor
(Member)
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John Hughes made some quintessential 80's teen dramas and comedies that defined the whole era, but this 1985 outing was more of an "experiment" that went a little wrong, IMO.
Yes, it's enjoyable and entertaining and all (and the performances are quite good all around), but seems like Hughes isn't totally comfortable whenever you introduce a bunch of "super-natural" elements into the mix. I mean, seriously, it includes everything from a nuclear missile in the living room to a talking pile of feces!
But the music was great.
I've always thought of Newborn as a jazz/blues guy, and he was able to display some of that here as well, but I LOVED the thumping synth bit he did for the computer programming scene...a Carlos/TRON tribute, perhaps, with hints of Faltermeyer?
There's a bunch of 80's standards here, of course, and even some film-related themes (Conti's ROCKY theme for the final scene where "Lisa" appears as gym coach and Oldfield's "Tubular Bells" played for a waking-up-from-a-dream scene, hinting towards TD's dream music from RISKY BUSINESS, perhaps?).
Oingo Boingo's title song is used as a kind of leitmotif for the wild experiments. It's played at least three times - the opening, the second experiment and the end titles. All of them in slightly different versions to underscore the onscreen proceedings. Of all the Boingo songs to appear in 80's movies, this may very well be the one with the MOST presence.
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I would love to see Ira Newborn's music from John Landis' INNOCENT BLOOD released...
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I really love this score -- and the pop graffiti soundscape. The film is, at times, quite wonderful -- and, of course, at times just lamely flat. But I get sort of nostalgic for those times when adolescent angst was fueled by "Playboy" fantasies instead of "Grand Theft Auto" violence.
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