The latest release in Varese Sarabande's limited edition We Hear You CD series presents the LP tracks from Cannon Films' 1987 romantic thriller DOWN TWISTED, starring Carey Lowell. The score was composed by Berlin Game, who were actually Eric Allaman (Elvira's Haunted Hills, Latter Days) and Reinhard Scheuregger.
CDS AVAILABLE THIS WEEK
Down Twisted - Berlin Game - Varese Sarabande
The Emoji Movie - Patrick Doyle - Sony (import)
Fargo: Season 3 - Jeff Russo - Sony (import)
Robin Hood - George Bruns - Disney
Roma Violenta - Guido & Maurizio De Angelis - Beat
War for the Planet of the Apes - Michael Giacchino - Sony
IN THEATERS TODAY
Brave New Jersey - Dennis Lambert, Kelly Winrich, Matthew Logan Vasquez
Columbus - Hammock
The Dark Tower - Tom Holkenborg - Score CD due Aug. 25 on Sony
Fun Mom Dinner - Julian Wass
The Girl without Hands - Olivier Mellano - Score CD La jeune fille sans mains on Plaza Mayor (import)
I Dream in Another Language - Andres Sanchez
Icarus - Adam Peters
It's Not Yet Dark - Stephen Rennicks
Kidnap - Federico Jusid
Some Freaks - Walter Sickert
Step - Laura Karpman, Raphael Saadiq
Wind River - Nick Cave, Warren Ellis - Score CD due Sept. 1 on Lakeshore
COMING SOON
August 11
The Glass Castle - Joel P. West - Milan
Good Time - Oneohtrix Point Never - Warp
Miracle Mile - Tangerine Dream - Dragon's Domain
August 18
The Hitman's Bodyguard - Atli Orvarsson - Milan
August 25
The Dark Tower - Tom Holkenborg - Sony
The Handmaid's Tale - Adam Taylor - Lakeshore
September 1
Bushwick - Aesop Rock - Lakeshore
Castlevania - Trevor Morris - Lakeshore
Popeye - Harry Nilsson, Tom Pierson - Varese Sarabande
Wind River - Nick Cave, Warren Ellis - Lakeshore
September 8
Bunyan & Babe - Zoe Poledouris-Roche, Angel Roche Jr. - Notefornote
Twin Peaks: The Event Series - Angelo Badalamenti - Rhino
September 15
Hellraiser - Christopher Young - Lakeshore
Mr. Robot vol. 3 - Mac Quayle - Lakeshore
Woodshock - Peter Raeburn - Milan
Date Unknown
Annabelle: Creation - Benjamin Wallfisch - Silva
Betting on Zero - Pete Anthony - Kritzerland
Il Relitto - Angelo Francesco Lavagnino - Alhambra
The Italian Key - Tuomas Kantelinen - Caldera
Tokyo Ghoul - Don Davis - Shochiku
THIS WEEK IN FILM MUSIC HISTORY
August 4 - Bernardo Segall born (1911)
August 4 - David Raksin born (1912)
August 4 - Egisto Macchi born (1928)
August 4 - Recording sessions begin for The Prisoner of Zenda remake, with Conrad Salinger adapting Alfred Newman's original score (1952)
August 4 - Michael Small begins recording his score for Firstborn (1984)
August 4 - Egisto Macchi died (1992)
August 5 - Christopher Gunning born (1944)
August 5 - Adolph Deutsch begins recording his score for The Matchmaker (1957)
August 5 - Abigail Mead born as Vivian Kubrick (1960)
August 5 - Cyril Morin born (1962)
August 5 - Alexander Courage's music for the Star Trek episode "The Enterprise Incident" is recorded (1968)
August 5 - Robert Prince records his first Mission: Impossible score, for the episode “Homecoming” (1970)
August 5 - Stuart Hancock born (1975)
August 5 - Fred Karger died (1979)
August 5 - Henry Mancini begins recording his score for Mommie Dearest (1981)
August 5 - Henry Mancini begins recording his score for Trail of the Pink Panther (1982)
August 5 - Jerry Goldsmith begins recording his unused score for Gladiator (1991)
August 6 - Oliver Wallace born (1887)
August 6 - Cyril J. Mockridge born (1896)
August 6 - Jack Elliott born (1927)
August 6 - Andre Previn begins recording his score to The Outriders (1949)
August 6 - Alex North begins recording his score to Pony Soldier (1952)
August 6 - Soren Hyldgaard born (1962)
August 6 - Robert Prince records his final Mission: Impossible score, for the episode “Mindbend” (1971)
August 6 - David Newman begins recording his score to The Brave Little Toaster (1986)
August 6 - Larry Adler died (2001)
August 6 - Christopher Dedrick died (2010)
August 6 - Marvin Hamlisch died (2012)
August 7 - Benny Carter born (1907)
August 7 - Alfred Newman begins recording his adaptations of Jerome Kern songs for Centennial Summer (1945)
August 7 - Recording sessions begin for Bronislau Kaper's score for Her Twelve Men (1953)
August 7 - Joseph Kosma died (1969)
August 7 - Jerry Fielding begins recording his score to The Mechanic (1972)
August 7 - Roy Budd died (1993)
August 7 - Jerry Goldsmith begins recording his score for Deep Rising (1997)
August 8 - Victor Young born (1901)
August 8 - Arthur Morton born (1908)
August 8 - Axel Stordahl born (1913)
August 8 - Basil Kirchin born (1927)
August 8 - Nathan Wang born (1956)
August 8 - Stefano Mainetti born (1957)
August 8 - Louis Levy died (1957)
August 8 - Fred Steiner records his score for the Lost in Space episode "The Space Primevals" (1967)
August 8 - Jerry Goldsmith begins recording his score to Capricorn One (1977)
August 9 - Alexander Courage records his score for the Lost in Space episode "Wild Adventure" (1966)
August 9 - Leith Stevens records his score for the Lost in Space episode "Blast Off into Space" (1966)
August 9 - George Duning's score for the Star Trek episode "And the Children Shall Lead" is recorded (1968)
August 9 - Dmitri Shostakovich died (1975)
August 9 - Andre Hossein died (1983)
August 9 - Peter Matz died (2002)
August 9 - David Raksin died (2004)
August 9 - Tony Mottola died (2004)
August 10 - Brian Easdale born (1909)
August 10 - Mischa Bakaleinikoff died (1960)
August 10 - Isaac Hayes died (2008)
DID THEY MENTION THE MUSIC?
"Another day, another evil doll, another nanny in trouble. It’s a wonder people even buy life-size human effigies anymore (apart from those Japanese RealDolls for intimate, home use). And yet 'The Boy' manages to creepy-crawl into your head and stick around considerably longer than expected, thanks to some evocative art direction, production design, and Bear McCreary’s string-laden spook-show score. This is one of those increasingly rare horror films that can get by on foggy old Victorian atmospherics alone. At least, that is, up to its ridiculous third act, wherein director Bell ('The Devil Inside') and screenwriter Stacey Menear attempt an elaborate 'gotcha' reveal that immediately and annoyingly squanders all the suspense generated to that point. It’s superior to the low-grade scares of Annabelle from 2013’s 'The Conjuring' but it never manages to get anywhere near the eerie-manikin gold standard of 1945’s 'The Dead of Night' or Richard Attenborough’s 1978 brain-melter 'Magic.'"
Marc Savlov, The Austin Chronicle
"Director William Brent Bell ('The Devil Inside,' 'Stay Alive') keeps the jump scares to a minimum, mining instead the creepiness of the mundane, like the slow slither of Greta’s gold-chain necklace off a sink, pulled by an unseen presence. It’s just as effective as punching through our eardrums with loud crashes, and Bear McCreary’s strings-heavy soundtrack offers great variations on the spooky lullaby."
Ingkoo Kang, The Wrap
CABIN FEVER - Kevin Riepl
"Using the same script Roth co-wrote with Randy Pearlstein in 2002, Z's noteworthy touches feel to be more aesthetic and in collaboration, like Kevin Riepl's explosive and appropriately screeching score, or Gavin Kelly's wide shots of a calmly menacing lake. The otherwise stubborn nature of the movie blankets many other elements, like its decent performances that alternate between chillin', screaming and weeping. There isn't much character for them to individually fulfill, but their game nature distracts from that often with no problem. With and without them, the film adds up to a lot of bad ideas and very few good ones, wandering around Roth's footsteps in search of purpose."
Nick Allen, RogerEbert.com
CROSSING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON: SWORD OF DESTINY - Shigeru Umebayashi
"Two lifelines to the original 'Crouching Tiger' remain. Yeoh has always been an actress of uncommon elegance and poise, and her innate dignity inspires a flickering confidence in the material that it doesn’t really deserve -- and also, inevitably, to offset your irritation that she agreed to do the film in the first place. And then there is the music, which is credited to the composer Shigeru Umebayashi, but is memorable only for those passages it retains from Tan Dun’s magnificent, Oscar-winning original score. The viewer’s spirit briefly soars with recognition, even when the movie comes crashing back to earth."
Justin Chang, Variety
DIRTY GRANDPA - Michael Andrews
"But because this is a mainstream comedy in 2016, some dumb a*****e also thought they had to include a serious romantic subplot and dramatic philosophical beats between grandfather and grandson. The such twinkly interludes are, to put it mildly, a weird fit; when you have to pause your score for a few bars in the middle so the star of 'Taxi Driver' and 'Raging Bull' can insists, 'I wanna get my d*** s****d by that f****** college girl,' well, it’s kinda hard to come back from that."
Jason Bailey, Flavorwire
"Far worse, 'Dirty Grandpa' doesn't even have the courage of its anarchic convictions, frequently abandoning its tasteless humor to indulge in sentimental scenes in which the characters pour out their hearts to the accompaniment of a treacly music score."
Frank Scheck, Hollywood Reporter
KUNG FU PANDA 3 - Hans Zimmer
"There’s enough humor to entertain the kids, and older animation aficionados will be entranced by the inventive, high-quality visuals, some inspired by graphic novels and classic Chinese paintings. Hans Zimmer’s Asian-influenced score for 'Kung Fu Panda 3' is also first-rate."
Lou Lumenick, New York Post
"Co-directed by Yuh and fellow DreamWorks veteran Alessandro Carloni, and designed in a palette heavy on eye-popping shades of green, 'Kung Fu Panda 3' is often inspired as animation, and tired as everything else. It’s hampered by an excess of characters, which grow and grow on later DreamWorks sequels like tree gall; Po’s buddies in the Furious Five are effectively useless, but damn if they’re ever going away, and the addition of a dozen interchangeable roly-poly pandas doesn’t help things. Even the blaring score sounds overworked. (John Powell sat out this film, leaving co-composer Hans Zimmer to do what Hans Zimmer does: re-orchestrate the same themes with his army of assistants.) For a movie that pays lip service to values of balance and harmony, Kung Fu Panda 3 could use some of its own."
Ignatiy Vishnevetsky, The Onion AV Club
"There’s essentially one joke in the 'Kung Fu Panda' movies. A ridiculous, adorable creature executes some extravagant action-flick flourish -- vaulting over roofs, dropping a bad guy, striking a poster-perfect superhero pose. Then the battle music fades and that adorable creature breaks badass character to remind us it’s totally relatable, even human: It wheezes to catch its breath, it shouts 'Awesome!' in disbelief at its own stunt choreography, it asks with gentle awkwardness whether all this kung-foolery is maybe a little much. That’s a sturdy gag, endearing and adaptable: Adorable Creature Oscar Isaac works a variation on it some ten minutes into 'The Force Awakens,' tipping us off to the welcome fact that even for Star Wars people it’s presumptuous to don a cape and death-mask. But 'Kung Fu Panda 3,' while generous in cuteness and sunset-backdrop beauty, stands as an unnecessary reminder that even the best gag probably shouldn’t power three full films, even afternoon-killers for the kiddos. Almost every moment of martial-arts action is undercut by some spin on that single joke, and then every joke or moment of feeling is quickly dashed aside for another keep-us-dazzled moment of martial-arts action. The movie undercuts its own undercutting."
Alan Scherstuhl, Village Voice
SNOWTIME! - Eloi Painchaud, Jorane
"The wall-to-wall adult contemporary montage music -- composed and arranged by Eloi Painchaud and Jorane, and performed by artists such as Walk Off the Earth, Simple Plan and Celine Dion -- is both a crutch and an anchor."
Scott Tobias, Variety
TOUCHED WITH FIRE - Paul Dalio
"Writer/director/co-editor Dalio also wrote the score, which chimes and tinkles insistently, sometimes even intruding on the film’s reality: Early on, it plays in Kirby’s character’s junk-shop of an apartment; later, it’s the jingle of a cellphone. In the early scenes of mania, as Dalio cants his camera and projects Starry Night over the room in which Kirby and Holmes rave, the music seems both to emanate from these characters and to be the element in which they are suspended. It’s as if the fruit chunks in a Jell-O salad could excrete the Jell-O itself. You might feel you’re in it yourself if you can go along with the film and forgive its iffy poetry and undergrad sensibilities. (To the latter: The van Gogh talk gets thick, and in the hospital Holmes’s character, the Berkeley-educated author of a respected book of verse, gives herself the name 'Emily Lowell.')"
Alan Scherstuhl, Village Voice
THE NEXT TEN DAYS IN L.A.
Screenings of older films, at the following L.A. movie theaters: AMPAS, American Cinematheque: Aero, American Cinematheque: Egyptian, Arclight, LACMA, New Beverly, Nuart, Silent Movie Theater and UCLA.
August 4
AKIRA (Shoji Yamashiro) [Nuart]
DJANGO UNCHAINED [New Beverly]
LE DEUXIEME SOUFFLE (Bernard Gerard) [Cinematheque: Egyptian]
MARTIN (Donald Rubenstein) [Silent Movie Theater]
PRIME CUT (Lalo Schifrin) [UCLA]
RYAN'S DAUGHTER (Maurice Jarre) [Cinematheque: Aero]
STAR TREK II: THE WRATH OF KHAN (James Horner), STAR TREK IV: THE VOYAGE HOME (Leonard Rosenman) [New Beverly]
THE TENANT (Philippe Sarde) [Silent Movie Theater]
August 5
BATMAN: MASK OF THE PHANTASM (Shirley Walker) [Silent Movie Theater]
BRING ME THE HEAD OF ALFREDO GARCIA (Jerry Fielding) [UCLA]
GOLD OF THE SEVEN SAINTS (Howard Jackson) [New Beverly]
LE SAMOURAI (Francois de Roubaix) [Cinematheque: Egyptian]
LE SILENCE DE LA MER (Edgar Bischoff) [Cinematheque: Egyptian]
THE NIGHT OF THE HUNTER (Walter Schumann), CROSSFIRE (Roy Webb) [Cinematheque: Aero]
STAR TREK II: THE WRATH OF KHAN (James Horner), STAR TREK IV: THE VOYAGE HOME (Leonard Rosenman) [New Beverly]
XTRO (Harry Bromley Davenport) [New Beverly]
August 6
BABE: PIG IN THE CITY (Nigel Westlake) [New Beverly]
BARTON FINK (Carter Burwell) [Silent Movie Theater]
THE FRIENDS OF EDDIE COYLE (Dave Grusin), THE YAKUZA (Dave Grusin) [Cinematheque: Aero]
GOLD OF THE SEVEN SAINTS (Howard Jackson) [New Beverly]
LE CIRCLE ROUGE (Eric Demarsan) [Cinematheque: Egyptian]
TOMORROW (Irwin Stahl) [UCLA]
August 7
BABE: PIG IN THE CITY (Nigel Westlake) [New Beverly]
BATMAN: MASK OF THE PHANTASM (Shirley Walker) [Silent Movie Theater]
August 8
BATMAN: MASK OF THE PHANTASM (Shirley Walker) [Silent Movie Theater]
PRESENTING LILY MARS (George Stoll) [LACMA]
RAZORBACK (Iva Davies) [New Beverly]
August 9
FREE WILLY (Basil Poledouris) [New Beverly]
HOLLYWOOD CAVALCADE [UCLA]
TARGETS [SIlent Movie Theater]
August 10
FREE WILLY (Basil Poledouris) [New Beverly]
LEON MORIN, PRIEST (Martial Solal) [Cinematheque: Egyptian]
LIFEFORCE (Henry Mancini) [Cinematheque: Aero]
REEFER MADNESS [Silent Movie Theater]
August 11
ARMY OF SHADOWS (Eric Demarsan) [Cinematheque: Egyptian]
CONAN THE BARBARIAN (Basil Poledouris) [Nuart]
DJANGO UNCHAINED [New Beverly]
THE EVIL DEAD (Joseph LoDuca) [Silent Movie Theater]
KING KONG (Max Steiner) [New Beverly]
THE LOST MAN (Quincy Jones), EDGE OF THE CITY (Leonard Rosenman) [UCLA]
THE THING (Ennio Morricone) [Cinematheque: Aero]
August 12
THE BLOB (Michael Hoenig) [New Beverly]
CURSE OF THE PINK PANTHER (Henry Mancini) [New Beverly]
THE DARK CRYSTAL (Trevor Jones) [Cinematheque: Aero]
HAROLD & MAUDE (Cat Stevens) [Silent Movie Theater]
LE DOULOS (Paul Misraki) [Cinematheque: Egyptian]
TWO-LANE BLACKTOP, VANISHING POINT [UCLA]
UN FLIC (Michel Colombier) [Cinemathque: Egyptian]
VARIETE [Silent Movie Theater]
August 13
BOB LE FLAMBEUR (Eddie Barclay, Jo Boyer) [Cinematheque: Egyptian]
CURSE OF THE PINK PANTHER (Henry Mancini) [New Beverly]
LAST ACTION HERO (Michael Kamen), STREETS OF FIRE (Ry Cooder) [Cinematheque: Aero]
LE SAMOURAI (Francois de Roubaix) [Cinematheque: Egyptian]
THE MAN WHO WOULD BE KING (Maurice Jarre), SINFUL DAVEY (Ken Thorne) [UCLA]
WILD SEED (Richard Markowitz), THE IDOL (John Dankworth) [New Beverly]
| 
