Bill Wrobel's DVD - Film Score Rundowns

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-Nobody’s Fool (1994) **** [music ****]
http://www.amazon.com/Nobodys-Fool-Paul-
Newman/dp/B0000A2ZNO/ref=sr_1_2?s=dvd&ie=UTF8&qid=1292892972&sr=1-2
This is a pretty decent Paul Newman movie, quite cozy to watch and delightful.
This is one of my wife’s favorite movies: Newman is perfect in this role as Sullivan
(Sully), an out-of-a-regular-job construction worker with a bum knee in a snowy little
town in New York; his simple-minded friend, Rub; Carl, a local businessman (Bruce
Willis) who owes him money; Melanie Griffith as Carl’s wife; Jessica Tandy (in her last
role) as Sully’s landlady, and so on. I really liked Philip Seymour Hoffman as Officer
Raymer. It’s a really terrific cast! It’s more comedy than drama but the drama is there.
The light approach and the occasional heavy material are mixed in expertly. The Verdict
is Newman’s masterpiece role and is a real heavy drama, but Nobody’s Fool is
Newman’s light classic (he was nominated for an Oscar here). The music by Howard
Shore is quite fitting for this heart-felt movie.
-Fellowship of the Ring (2001) *** 1/2
http://www.amazon.com/Lord-Rings-Fellowship-Platinum-
Extended/dp/B000067DNF/ref=sr_1_3?s=dvd&ie=UTF8&qid=1292893098&sr=1-3
Many consider this movie a classic. Perhaps it is but I think it’s too early to say.
Personally I like much of it, especially the moody interior mountain scene, and I like the
cast, etc. But it gets a bit too gratuitously violent, especially in later installments of the
Ring trilogy! I’d admit this first installment is the best of the lot.
-The Core (2003) ***
http://www.amazon.com/Core-Widescreen-Aaron-
Eckhart/dp/B0000AKCKM/ref=sr_1_1?s=dvd&ie=UTF8&qid=1292899179&sr=1-1
I rather enjoyed this action sci-fi movie, so I am recommending it. I am definitely
not feeling cool towards it! The movie is a little bit of Journey to the Center of the Earth,
a little bit of Fantastic Voyage, and perhaps, unfortunately, a bit of that noisy excuse of a
disaster movie, Armageddon. I almost gave it a four-star rating halfway into the movie
but decided against it since (1) I cannot classify it technically as a “excellent” movie—
more a close very good movie (like a 3 & 1/2 if I had half increments), and (2) it was
only very good up to, say, the huge geode sequence but then went downhill somewhat.
The movie seemed to moderately drag after an hour and ten minutes, and went too long.
Certain contrived episodic sequences were written into (forced into) the screenplay after
that point, and I began not to be so involved with the film. It started to become more than
a little bit of Armageddon (a movie I really disliked despite a few stars I like a lot).
Nevertheless I like the direction, the actors, the preposterous but visually interesting
story (up to halftime, at any rate!) and special effects, and I liked Christopher Young’s
music. I looked at his Species score but never had the opportunity to study The Core.
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