Intrada, Varese Sarabande CD Club and La-La Land have all announced brand new releases. 

THE GOONIES was one of the first Steven Spielberg productions following the record shattering success of E.T., a juvenile adventure written by Chris Columbus and directed by Richard Donner. Though many of us who saw the film as adults when it was released found it nearly unwatchable, for the generation that grew up with it it is a beloved classic still cherished decades later. One thing even Goonies haters can agree on is the quality of Dave Grusin's energetic orchestral score, one of his most requested and popular works, which has never been released before. The Varese disc contains his complete score and is limited to 5000 units.

Next week La-La Land will release two limited edition CDs featuring scores never before released, representing the genre most poorly represented in soundtracks: comedy. DIRTY ROTTEN SCOUNDRELS features the score composed by the late Miles Goodman for the 1988 hit pairing Michael Caine and Steve Martin as competing con men on the French Riviera, one of the composer’s most popular and acclaimed works. SPEECHLESS was the 1994 Tracy-Hepburn-style romantic comedy teaming Geena Davis and Michael Keaton as speechwriters for competing political candidates, and composer Marc Shaimain reunited with his City Slickers director Ron Underwood for the project. Both discs are limited to 1200 units.

CDS AVAILABLE THIS WEEK

Alice in Wonderland - Danny Elfman - Score CD on Disney
Brooklyn's Finest - Marcelo Zarvos - Score CD due Mar. 23 on Varese Sarabande

THIS WEEK IN FILM MUSIC HISTORY

DID THEY MENTION THE MUSIC?

COP OUT - Harold Faltermeyer

"Only 'Beverly Hills Cop' composer Harold Faltermeyer's uber-'80s synthesizer score brings back the old ... well, not 'magic,' exactly, but the old style."

Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune

"'Cop Out' is a straight-faced parody of 1980s cop-buddy pictures, complete with a cheesy synth score by 'Beverly Hills Cop's Harold Faltermeyer. But making fun of such a tired genre is as redundant as a stand-up comic's doing an Andrew Dice Clay impersonation. The funny simply is not there."

Rene Rodriguez, Miami Herald

"While his latest effort has its moments, it's also regrettably ordinary. As he takes pains to note, 'Cop Out' is an homage to '80s action flicks like 'Lethal Weapon.' But a sharp sendup requires more than a score by Harold Faltermeyer. Then again, if you know Faltermeyer wrote the theme for 'Beverly Hills Cop,' you'll probably appreciate the other in-jokes, the biggest of which is the casting of former action icon Bruce Willis."

Elizabeth Weitzman, New York Daily News

"The movie is enlivened considerably by a faux-'Beverly Hills Cop' synthesizer score, some well-used songs (who knew Eric B. and Rakim made excellent chase music?), and its minor players." 

"'Cop Out' piles on the references to action-comedies past: the Harold Faltermeyer score, the perpetually ticked-off captain behind the desk, Seann William Scott doing his best Joe Pesci in the back of a police car, Willis giving himself a nod by claiming never to have seen 'Die Hard.'"

"Like Hodges exclaims during a blitz of movie impressions, 'Cop Out' is an homage. Harold Faltermeyer's synthesizer-heavy score recalls his soundtrack from 'Beverly Hills Cop,' the buddy cop classic that 'Cop Out' falls well short of."

Jake Coyle, Associated Press

"Director Kevin Smith has said that one of the things that appealed to him about making 'Cop Out,' his action comedy starring Bruce Willis and Tracy Morgan, is that it's the kind of movie the filmmaker's late father would have liked. It's a shame the old man isn't around to enjoy it. Much of the movie feels about 25 years too late. Let's start with the music, by Harold Faltermeyer. It isn't clear whether Smith chose the composer, notable for scoring all three [sic] 'Beverly Hills Cop' movies, to evoke the cheesy synth sound of a bygone era -- the golden age of the cop buddy flick -- or merely to replicate it. As it is, the music sounds less like homage than hoary cliche. It's not the only thing that hasn't aged well."

"And so 'Cop Out' announces itself as both loving 'homage' to 'everything on cable' -- particularly '80s action comedies, referenced most directly by Harold Faltermeyer's cheap synth score and an honest-to-goodness plot song (called 'Soul Brothers' and sung by Patti LaBelle) -- and a sly subversion of genre."

Karina Longworth, L.A. Weekly

"An homage to the '80s buddy-cop comedy, right down to the Harold Faltermeyer synth score, the extensively ad-libbed 'Cop Out' doesn't cop out on talking the talk, but it falls down on the job whenever it comes to walking the walk. But though it fails to nail that winning comedy/action balance of a 'Beverly Hills Cop' or '48 HRS.' (or even a 'Running Scared'), it's still sort of cool having composer Faltermeyer dust off the old synthesizer as Patti LaBelle conjures up some of that old 'New Attitude' wailing the totally '80s-sounding 'Soul Brother.'"

Michael Rechtshaffen, Hollywood Reporter

THE CRAZIES - Mark Isham

"Meanwhile, it's up to Dave, Judy and Joe to defend themselves from zombies, and survive after the town is isolated and quarantined and the cure seems worse than the disease. That requires many scenes involving people and objects that jump out from the sides of the screen with loud noises and alarming musical chords. I'm thinking, so what? The last thing I need is another Jump Out/Loud Noise/Alarming Chord Movie. Even a well-made one -- like this one, directed by Breck Eisner. It was inspired by George Romero's 1973 movie of the same name, although I can't tell you if the zombies match, because that would be a spoiler."

Roger Ebert, Chicago-Sun Times

"But the zombie-like first-stage crazy eventually switches to suddenly-maniacal crazy, which is less fun. Worse, it devolves to simple run-and-hide cliches, usually accompanied by jarring musical jolts."

Joe Neumaier, New York Daily News