 |
 |
View Mode |
Regular | Headlines |
 |
All times are
PT (Pacific Time), U.S.A.
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
 |
CD Reviews: Team America and Polar Express |
Posted By: Nick Joy on February 27, 2005 - 10:00 PM |
CD Reviews: Team America and Polar Express
Team America: World Police ****
TREY PARKER, HARRY GREGSON WILLIAMS, ET AL
Atlantic
16 tracks - 67:09
After the profanity-laced extremes of former big-screen adventure South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut,
it can hardly be a surprise that Trey Parker and Matt Stone's puppet
comedy features offensive, politically incorrect and hilarious songs.
But more than that, it features an incidental pastiche score by Harry
Gregson-Williams which is so good that it's better than most earnest
scores produced in Hollywood at the moment.
Kicking off with faux Broadway show song "Everyone Has AIDS," the tempo
slows down for "Freedom isn't Free," a cliché-ridden composition
set to a Country and Western accompaniment. "America, F**k yeah!" is
the testosterone-fueled standard that accompanies the puppet heroes as
they blast their craft out from their Mount Rushmore secret base. A
rally for all that's great about America, the lyrics praise everything
from Disneyworld and sushi to Band Aids and waxed lips, with each
successive protestation more banal than the previous. The "Bummer
Remix" of this song is hilariously angst-ridden, with every last
syllable snarled out (think Frank Stallone's Rambo songs!).
The ballad "Only a Woman" boasts huge production values, straying from
Bohemian Rhapsody's guitar jamming to Aerosmith's "I Don't Want To Miss
A Thing." Like the other songs on the album, this song is so damn
catchy, and so close to the material that it is lampooning, that it
stops being a mere comedic impression, and can sit proudly alongside
the original composition it so mercilessly ridicules. "The End Of The
Act" gets top marks for its hilarious lyrics ("I miss you more than
Michael Bay missed the mark when he made Pearl Harbor," followed by the
savaging of other elements of that box office flop) all to the strains
of cheesy '80s rock. But for this reviewer, it's "Montage" that sneaks
ahead as the best song. For everyone who has grown up with Rocky, The Karate Kid, or even Mulan (!), this track deconstructs
the montage cliché by splitting the technique up into obvious
components and then reducing them to bizarre observations. Hilarious.
The final six tracks of the disc represent Harry Gregson-Williams'
score. Blasting off with "Team America March," the composer immediately
informs us that while this is a fun movie, this is no time for
pratfalling or easy musical jibes. Replete with horns and synths, this
is alternately The Rock and Crimson Tide, to Armageddon and Dynasty. And while it might be a
magpie track, lifting phrases and expressions from a rich Hollywood
legacy, the track has a cohesive brassy anthem that wouldn't sit out of
place in a Bond movie. "Lisa and Gary" is a sincere love theme, with
swelling strings and delicate woodwind refrains against the gentle
plucking of a guitar, before swelling into Trevor Rabin's Armageddon. As good (or bad,
depending on your outlook) as any Media Ventures score,
Gregson-Williams' soundtrack is a perfect accompaniment to a movie that
exists purely to show that it's not enough to laugh at your victim when
you can exaggerate it and take it to the next level.
With utmost respect to Barry Gray, no puppet movie has had a better
underscore than Team America.
And while Thunderbirds fans
might be taking offense at the inappropriate use of marionettes, film
score fans can rejoice at the bombastic fun soundtrack that exceeds
expectations on multiple levels. A must-have? F**k
yeah! -- Nick Joy
Polar Express ** 1/2
ALAN SILVESTRI, GLEN BALLARD
Warner Sunset/Reprise 9362-48897-2
14 tracks - 46:14
Diabetics beware, there's sugar a plenty in Robert Zemeckis' animated
take on Chris Van Allsburg's popular Christmas fable. Inevitably using
long-term musical collaborator Alan Silvestri, the director has teased
a sentimental old-fashioned score from his composer of choice, while
also relying on some old Christmas favorites.
As a big fan of Silvestri's music for the Tomb Raider sequel and The Mummy Returns, The Polar Express ultimately
disappointed this reviewer in its single-minded determination to be too
cute and appealing. While Silvestri might only be able to claim sole
credit for under 10 minutes of score on this disc, he is co-composer on
six other tracks, co-written by Glen Ballard, who worked as music
producer on movies like The Mummy
Returns and Bridget Jones's
Diary.
The two score cues are "Seeing is Believing" (3:43) and "Suite for The
Polar Express" (6:02). The former is laden with festive essentials like
sleigh bells and chimes, sweet chorals and a segue into "Jingle Bells,"
whereas the suite is more of the same, a medley of songs and score, and
only serves to highlight the Danny Elfman/Edward Scissorhands sound that
permeates this light confection. Elsewhere, Tom Hanks' gruff vocals on
"The Polar Express," a jaunty little intro to the titular locomotive,
is tiring on repeated listens, as is the cutesy yet annoying "Hot
Chocolate." "Stop bitching," I hear you cry. "It's a kids' Christmas
album -- were you expecting industrial thrash metal?" Actually, I'm a
sucker for all things Christmas, with many holiday albums in my
collection, but this one plays it too safe and too predictable.
For example, six cuts on the album are the sort of tracks you find
bundled onto any one of countless Christmas compilations, including
Frank Sinatra's "Santa Claus is Coming to Town," Bing Crosby's "White
Christmas," and "Winter Wonderland" by The Andrew Sisters. Every one is
a classic, but it's doubtful that these Christmas standards don't
already appear elsewhere in most people's record collections. Perhaps
one or two of these Christmas songs could have been substituted with
underscore. In fact, while we're jettisoning material, let's lose
Steven Tyler's sappy "Rockin' on top of the World" and Josh Groban's
"Believe."
Best approached with an open-mind, festive spirit and extreme tolerance
of all things Christmassy, it makes John William's Home Alone songs look edgy and
Horner's Grinch songs
decidedly mean-spirited. Christmas? Bah, humbug!
-- Nick Joy
MailBag@filmscoremonthly.com
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Today in Film Score History: February 16 |
 |
Alec Wilder born (1907) |
 |
Dennis McCarthy and Kevin Kiner begin recording their score for the Star Trek: Enterprise episode “Observer Effect” (2004) |
 |
Dennis Wilson born (1920) |
 |
John Corigliano born (1938) |
 |
Kunio Miyauchi born (1932) |
 |
Miklos Rozsa begins recording his score for King of Kings (1961) |
 |
 |
|
|
 |
|