JAMES "JIMMY" HORNER:
Horner gets his share of apathy on nearly every film score forum (apart from his own IMDb page, where his mom and aunt post lots of nice things about him), and we're no different here; especially me. But to be honest, there are a few Horner scores that I do like. Of course, you have the halcyon days when Horner always hit the target, and you get some masterpieces like Star Trek: The Wrath of Kahn; Aliens and The Rocketeer are also some might fine scores from Jimmy's pen. Maybe a year or so ago, Sean turned me onto Horner's score for the Ron Howard snoozer The Missing, and I'd gladly put it up there with some of Horner's finest. Thanks for the (limited) memories Jim; sorry it didn't work out with Carrie Goldsmith.

GRAEME "SHIM-SHAM" REVELL:
Revell is probably one of my most despised composers; I plain don't like the guy and won't buy anything else he scores unless I know it's solid gold, and even then I'll be cautious. But damn, Red Planet is such an underrated gem that I often find myself never mentioning in fear that someone else might discover my little fortune. A very rare musical experience is found in this one, and it still gets repeat plays on my 8-track. Oh, and The Crow is still a very good listen and has some of his best themes.

GUSTAVO "ACADEMY AWARD WINNER" SANTAOLALLA:
Don't we all wish we could give good ol' Gustavo a hurtful spankin' for all the wrong he done us? I certainly do. But his breakout score, for 21 Grams is some very good material (which gets reused a lot). And "Igazu" is still a very good piece of music (which gets reused a lot, ad infinitum).

Apollo 13
Braveheart
Aliens
Titanic
Commando
Apocalypto
The Land Before Time
Krull
All The King's Men
Willow
Legends of the Fall
Glory
yes...I like Deep Impact, I just love that main motif right at the beginning of Crucial Rendezvous.

Now with Graeme Revell, I agree with you simply because it seems like he always chooses to do dark or horror scores. He can do scary sound effects for sure! But for film score fans, it's not enough. I really do like the music from:

Pitch Black
Red Planet
The Crow
Sin City

quote:

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Originally posted by BackToTheFutureFan:
Well, I have always certainly liked James Horner and am always defending him, so he is definitely not neglected here. Some of my favorites of his are:

Apollo 13
Braveheart
Aliens
Titanic
Commando
Apocalypto
The Land Before Time
Krull
All The King's Men
Willow
Legends of the Fall
Glory
yes...I like Deep Impact, I just love that main motif right at the beginning of Crucial Rendezvous.

Now with Graeme Revell, I agree with you simply because it seems like he always chooses to do dark or horror scores. He can do scary sound effects for sure! But for film score fans, it's not enough. I really do like the music from:

Pitch Black
Red Planet
The Crow
Sin City

Now with Gustavo, I hate him. His music is so overrated. Stop bashing Horner, bash this guy. Horner never got Oscars for bad scores, this guy did. The only score that has someone decent music is Brokeback Mountain, and I am being generous. This guy still has a lot to prove to me.

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I agree with pretty much everything you just said. But I have to add The Saint to Revell...

And to add to the list of not liked very much composers...

Trevor Rabin
I believe the last score he wrote that I actually enjoyed was Bad Boys II, and that wasn't even THAT enjoyable. It was just cool action music... though I am assuming most of it was by Steve Jablonsky. But before that, Trevor Rabin was writing some pretty awesome thematic action music. But I haven't heard anything good by him for 4 years now. The Guardian had an alright emotional theme, but the rest was crap.

Tyler Bates
After hearing his score for Slither that was a direct rip off of HGW's Spy Game and his direct rip off of Titus, it makes me wonder what he's going to steal next.

John Williams ... JUST KIDDING!!! Don't shoot me! Though I am not a fan of his action stuff... But who could argue saying that he hasn't written basically the most memerable themes from the history of cinema?

Mark Isham
Aside from Crash and Miracle, I don't think there's a single score I like by him. He seems to have trouble developing themes for some reason.

quote:

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Originally posted by scoreguy16:
Mark Isham
Aside from Crash and Miracle, I don't think there's a single score I like by him. He seems to have trouble developing themes for some reason.

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BLACK DAHLIA. Go in peace.

I'm thinking of adding some more:

TYLER "NEVER HEARD OF GOLDENTHAL. HE'S JEWISH, YOU SAY?" BATES:
Nothing really for this guy. but his score for the '03 remake of Dawn of the Dead certainly isn't unlistenable. Hopefully this rumor that Robbie Zombie is eyeing the new Conan film doesn't mean we get hear Bates tackle Poledouris and call it original.

MICHAEL "P.T. BARNUM" GIACCHINO:
The guy is the king of fooling you all, I'm sure of it. He rips generously from others' styles, and it's getting kind of blase with all the love he gets around the boards. That said, Medal of Honor: Frontline was the first Giacchino score that I bought, and I still listen to it here and there. The thing is a big sloppy love letter to John Williams, but it's got some rousing material on there. His score for Lost's second season is a good listen, too; and probably the only place where I've found him to find an original style.

TREVOR "YES" RABIN:
Can't believe that I forgot old Trevor in my initial list. Con Air is a lot of fun, as is Armageddon and Deep Blue Sea; but they certainly aren't worth writing home about.

quote:

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Originally posted by Stargate:
People rag on Badelt a lot. Same with Jablonsky. And Serra doesn't get much love either.

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KLAUS "MOTORBIKE" BADELT:
Rescue Dawn is very good, but desperately wants to be Zimmer's The Thin Red Line; The Time Machine certainly has its moments.

STEVE "WOULD YA BELIEVE" JABLONSKY:
I'll certainly listen to The Island, and I do so often. Steamboy is pretty great, too.

ERIC "FRENCHIE" SERRA:
Definitely not GoldenEye (good joke John Barry!), but I'll agree that The Fifth Element works very well. I've never heard The Professional by itself nor have I seen/heard The Messenger.

He just lands a project and lazily follows the temp track, because that's what sadly a lot of filmmakers want. If anyone wants James Horner to write originally, write through his representation that would really love to hear what he could do by writing in a free form environment, or perhaps for classical structures, the way that Goldenthal does when he's not writing for film.

Until a filmmaker comes along and says "James, we have a temp track, but I don't want you to hear it Just watch the film for its own rhythms and I'll tell you the emotions I'd like to see expanded. If nothing else, I'd like this experience to be free of the standard rules. I'll give you three months to bring something to me no one has ever heard from you, nothing heard in another film, eben the ones you've written for in the whole of your career. Give this film its own identity with your music.", we will never have originality from Horner. Don't ask your favorite composer to do this; they're hands are tied. The only way you'll ever see composers rise above the temptrack is if they A.) Have the desire and ability to work with the situation they;ve been given, or B.) Fight for that opportunity like the writers fought for a better contract.

I may not have said ill this in my previous post, but then, I guess I just didn't get to the edit button in time. What's a brother gonna do, I'm only a wookie, and I haven't got time for that kind of white man's hell.