Bill Wrobel's DVD - Film Score Rundowns

ask? Too bad Columbo wasn’t around to help him out! Third, you have an excellent
screenplay and a suspenseful plot. Fourth, you have a competent score by Jerry
Goldsmith (though not his best or fully orchestral). It is interesting in the Legacy special
feature on the dvd when Polanski talked. He commented how he knew B. Kaper who had
done the score for Chinatown—but nobody felt it was right for the film! The film was
due to be released soon and so they got Jerry Goldsmith to do it in only nine days—and
everybody loved it! I would love to hear the rejected score by Kaper. At any rate, this
genre film became a classic, although nobody had the thought that it would become one.
Even Polanski said it was just a job and was cool about it but still wanted to do a good
job. He had all of these problems in Los Angeles (Sharon Tate murdered earlier) but was
convinced by his friends Evans and Towne to do the picture.
-Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986) *** [music ***]
http://www.amazon.com/Star-Trek-IV-Two-Disc-
Collectors/dp/B000083C49/ref=sr_1_4?s=dvd&ie=UTF8&qid=1293328194&sr=1-4
This is a good but rather routine installment of the Star Trek movie enterprise! It
is definitely better than Star Trek V (the worst of the series) but not as good as Star Trek
VI. The Rosenman music is fine, but I’ve heard better from him.
-Van Helsing (2003) ***1/2 [music **]
http://www.amazon.com/Van-Helsing-Widescreen-Hugh-
Jackman/dp/B0002KVUKM/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1293328290&sr=1-1
I really enjoyed this high-production, special-effected laden film shot in the Czech
Republic. It gets gory, it gets crude, but it’s all within a humorous or light context. So
despite the often-graphic nature of the movie, there are also a lot of pretty scenes to
compensate. I like how the director paid homage to the old Universal horror flicks from
the Thirties and Forties when he had that black & white long sequence prior to the Titles.
There are a lot of atmospheric process shots & sequences. Some picturesque shots
include dvd 00:23:03 and the 00:23:10. The village scene at around 26 minutes into the
movie when the three vampire sisters attacked looked very nice. 1:08:41 (castle scene) is
quite picturesque.
-Harry Potter & the Sorcerer’s Stone (2001) *** 1/2 [music **** 1/2]
http://www.amazon.com/Harry-Potter-Sorcerers-Stone-
Widescreen/dp/B000W74EQC/ref=sr_1_1?s=dvd&ie=UTF8&qid=1293328426&sr=1-1
This is the first and I think best of the Harry Potter series. The music by John
Williams is excellent. I discussed the score online at my site:
http://www.filmscorerundowns.net/williams/harrypotter.pdf
-Out of the Past (1947) **
http://www.amazon.com/Out-Past-Robert-
Mitchum/dp/B000244EYW/ref=sr_1_1?s=dvd&ie=UTF8&qid=1293328527&sr=1-1
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