Although not as bad as the press made sound when it came out, still it’s true that the problem with such projects is usually concentrated on quality: if you’re young and up-coming in flashy Hollywood (and more dangerously: inexperienced) and you have your connections, you have great possibilities of being lucky enough as to come up with the money needed to book actors like AL PACINO and ROBERT DeNIRO (!) – not that they actually are expensive to book these days either. Then you’re easily carried away into the usual trap, i.e. missing much more important virtues than what money can buy or what such a stellar cast can offer to you. So, despite the fact that such a cast would make international big news 20 years ago, nowadays we are sadly coming along what most modern flicks suffer from: quick, fast-food, one and a half hour entertainment for big fat couches and cozy nights. ‘Cause there’s nothing to take with you once the “stop” button your dvd / blu-ray player is pressed, unless you were unlucky enough to have visited the cinema for this, probably ending up with an empty mini pop-corn cup in this latter case. Other than the extra calories, you’ll find nothing there to collect; DeNiro and Pacino merely deliver cold and passion-less auto-pilot performances, but truth to be told, there’s not that much they can do with the careless directing and the overly familiar “good cop – bad cop” cliché.
In this ungraceful scenery, a composer is being called up to fill the musical gap but admittedly there’s not much he can do either. A project that screamed “BRIAN TYLER” from miles away, was different enough to get Edward Shearmur, a bright young composer who has delivered some sparkling gems in modern film music so far but has also worked on numerous smaller-scale insignificant little projects, just like this one here. Nothing will remind you of the glorious orchestral darkness of Reign of Fire, or the energy-pumping Williams-esque fanfares of Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, or even the genuinely creepy darkness of The Skeleton Key. This one here, is more in the veins of his Derailed score, i.e. minimalistic electronic chords for ambience creation purposes, put ontop of smoothly atmospheric synth-loops and synth pads. Although more interesting than your usual Harry Gregson Williams drone, still – just like the movie features absolutely no climax, the score too lacks passion and themes or melodic / motific procession of any sort whatsoever. If you’re simply looking for a semi-dark, urban electronic easy listening ride for your gaming needs or studying or even relaxing sessions, you might be able to appreciate this score up to a certain degree. Otherwise, if you’re in any way familiar with and fond of the much grander and certainly far more impressive side of Shearmur, there’s certainly nothing but dust sitting on this CD of yours here.
