MOVIES

“Changeling”/Clint Eastwood (Varese Sarabande) - Eastwood was a huge movie star and is one of Hollywood’s most respected directors, but he keeps ruining his own movies by insisting upon playing composer as well. His melodies are pleasant, but too spare in their orchestrations and too simplistic in their construction to properly evoke the period setting (the 1920s), the disparate genre elements or the characters’ emotions. Better than his previous scores, this music though is still not up to the demands of the material. It’s pleasant if you like piano and guitar, but disappointing if you expect some period flare.

“Madagascar 2”/Hans Zimmer (Dreamworks) - Composer Zimmer’s music is always solid, but the best tracks are his funny reorchestrations of iconic musical themes. He fashions the song New York, New York and the movie theme of The Good, The Bad and the Ugly as polkas. The songs I Like to Move It, Copacabana and Rescue Me get suitably deranged set-ups in the movie. However, this is more for fans of Zimmer’s work than for the movie or music itself.

“Rock ‘N Rolla”/Various Artists (Hip-O Records) - Written and directed by Guy Ritchie (Madonna’s soon-to-be ex), the highly-stylized gangster action flick is the most covertly gay movie of the year, what with hunky star Gerard Butler and always shirtless co-star Toby Kebbell. Ritchie’s films are loud and boisterous and so is this compilation CD featuring cuts from The Clash, War, The Subways, The Sonics, Flash & The Pan, Lou Reed, The Hives, Wanda Jackson and many others.

“Quantum of Solace”/David Arnold (J-Records) - Directed by Marc Fisher, this 22nd installation in the 007 franchise features music by composer David Arnold and the new single Another Way to Die by Jack White (White Stripes) and Alicia Keys, a first ever duet for a James Bond flick. David Arnold is a Grammy-winning English film composer, best known for scoring five James Bond films including the score for Casino Royale and the blockbuster Independence Day. The soundtrack includes mostly new action cues, alongside a sampling of Monty Norman’s ubiquitous Bond theme.

“Twilight”/Soundtrack (Chop Shop/Atlantic) - With songs by Linkin Park, Muse, The Black Ghosts, Mutemath and Paramour, this is a standard anthology album geared to the teen audience that gobbled up Stephanie Meyer’s cool vampire series of books. As a result, the songs feel pretty random, so while composer Carter Burwell’s music is really more distinguished, this CD will be the much bigger seller.

“Twilight: The Score”/Carter Burwell (Atlantic) - Composer Burwell is almost too understated for his own good, trying not to call attention to his music but to the film for which it acts as accompaniment. Unfortunately, that approach means most of his scores usually are little more than aural wallpaper that fade into the woodwork. This is his moodiest, most operatic film music, but it too is likely to go unnoticed for all the attention paid to the teen-friendly tunes on the the competing soundtrack album.