Bill Wrobel's DVD - Film Score Rundowns

Renny Harlin is on the helm again directing an action-horror movie this time—
about hyper-intelligent genetically-engineered sharks. He’s a good action director (I
enjoyed Cliffhanger and Diehard 2) but once again I object to too much blood and
violence. At least in this movie the brutality depicted is sharks-against-humans, not
humans-against-humans (as in the other two movies cited above). I like the stars,
especially Thomas Jane. The music by Trevor Jones is ok in that it does the job
generically with very little distinction. Harlin provides an interesting commentary. At any
rate, to keep this short, I recommend seeing this movie at least once—twice if you want
to hear Harlin’s commentary (suggested). The same applies to Cliffhanger.
-Startup.Com (2001) **
http://www.amazon.com/Startup-Com-Kaleil-Isaza-
Tuzman/dp/B00005N5QV/ref=sr_1_1?s=dvd&ie=UTF8&qid=1292880015&sr=1-1
I have not seen this film about the bursting of the Internet bubble in a very long
time. If I have time I’ll look it over again for this review paper, but since it is a relatively
dated and inconsequential documentary, I rather doubt it! My recollection is that it was
somewhat interesting to watch the first time out of curiosity, but to see it again is not that
interesting an idea!
-Endless Night (1972) *** [music ****]
http://www.amazon.com/Endless-Night-Hayley-
Mills/dp/B000059LGD/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1292880176&sr=1-1
I already did a short 24-page rundown treatment of this score on my site:
http://www.filmscorerundowns.net/herrmann/endless-night.pdf
The movie is definitely no classic but it has atmosphere! Since I am rather
prejudiced in favor towards Herrmann, I’ll give this one a borderline “classic” four-star
rating.
-The Exorcist (1973) *** [music **]
http://www.amazon.com/Exorcist-Version-Youve-Never-
Seen/dp/B0000524CY/ref=sr_1_2?s=dvd&ie=UTF8&qid=1292880264&sr=1-2
This is an interesting early “shock” horror movie. I remember when I saw it with
friends near UCLA when it first came out. I enjoyed it but we also laughed at it several
times! I played a joke just before the lights were turned on at the end of the movie. I put
on my coat and hat backwards and screamed when the lights were turned on that
something happened to my head—and a few ladies were actually startled!
I do not think much of Friedkin—the director who turned down Herrmann’s
services! The best I can say in his defense is that the devil made him do it! By the mid-
Seventies his career pretty much went downhill.
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