Joel and Ethan Coen have long established themselves as film stylists without peer: from Blood Simple to Fargo, their movies have never been less than fascinating, and there has never been any question that their films could not have been made by anyone else. In T-Bone Burnett, the producer of the soundtrack for O Brother, Where Art Thou?, they have finally met their match: ...
Disney has struck platinum with High School Musical, a made-for-cable movie that was mega-popular on the Disney Channel before spawning a mega-popular soundtrack. Echoing Grease, the plot involves two students (Zac Efron and Vanessa Anne Hutchinson) who fall for eath other while on vacation, only to realize they go to the same high school though they belong to different ...
Fans of High School Musical can breathe easy: Based on this soundtrack, the sequel is just as good, and perhaps even better. Though its trailer asked "Are you ready for the start of something new?" HSM2 isn't turning the franchise into The Wire, and really is more of the same--which is, of course, totally fine by us. One of the most energetic tracks is Chad and Ryan's ...
Even those allergic to musicals may be won over by Once, a tender-hearted Irish romance with songs by Czech Republic-born Markéta Irglová and Frames frontman Glen Hansard (the film's director, John Carney, actually used to play bass in the group). The trick here is that Irglová and Hansard also play the leads; because their characters are shown busking, writing music, or rehearsing, the ...
The Thomas Crown Affair is a caper story with a new (well, retread) twist: Pierce Brosnan plays a guy who can afford virtually anything, so he attempts to get something he can't, a Monet. It is a movie fitting of a polished, well-produced soundtrack, which is exactly what this disc delivers. Sting's previously unreleased version of the famous theme song "Windmills of Your Mind" lacks the ...