Three movies

This weekend I was able to see three movies with various members of my family.

The first was Knight and Day with Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz. I went in thinking it would be a fun, popcorn film with a score by one of my favorite film composers. And that’s exactly what I got. Despite all the deaths in the movie, it is very lighthearted and fun, and Powell’s score plays this really well. One of the main themes was similar to what he did for the Assassin’s Tango in Mr. & Mrs. Smith. It was a fun movie to see and listen to.

The next film I saw was The Last Airbender, which seems to be mostly rejected by critics… 8% on rottentomatoes.com is really not good.

However, I have a softspot in my heart for Shyamalan, and I definitely liked the story behind the movie. I was very disappointed in the writing though. I didn’t do a ton of research about this film before I saw it, so I didn’t know that Shyamalan wrote it. I only thought he was the director, so I thought this would be his chance to redeem himself. In the writing, he failed. There were quite a few lines that were very unnecessary, following in the direction of The Happening. The redemption for me of anything bad though, is James Newton Howard’s score. It definitely exemplifies and encompasses the world. It is very warm and rich. I love it a lot.

And finally, a film you should see if you loved Predator, Predators!

Holy shit this movie is awesome! It stays right in the vein of Predator in almost every respect. The effects were great, especially since the predators were not CGI but practical.

And the score completely stood up. It was a great homage to Silvestri’s score to Predator, which was awesome. Debney’s score to predator had some great quotes, and some great new features, like some wicked synth. It was like listening to a new recording of the old score, because this style is far removed from the Zimmerish action scores of this era. It was wonderful and quite nostalgic. I loved it and wished that more were like this (but if more were like it, it probably wouldn’t be so special).

The one thing I didn’t like in this score though, was an electronic percussion loop that Debney used for about 15 seconds in the last fight scene.

Overall, however, loved it!