If You Say My Name Five Times In A Mirror, I'll Buy You A Shot Of Wild Turkey
So, at 6:00 p.m., I finally decided that it was time to get out of my apartment. I didn't have any clean clothes, so I decided to go to the Market Place to buy something for dinner.
No, there's no logical connection there, so if you're thinking you missed something, don't worry -- you didn't. That's just the way my mind works: "Hmm. I don't have any clean socks, so I suppose I should go buy a bell pepper and an onion so I can make spaghetti."
On my way back, I decide that while I'm cooking, I should put a movie on or something, y'know, just to have some background noise -- nothing I need to pay attention to, something I've seen a dozen times already in the past month. And since "Candyman" has been on Encore at least once a day, sometimes more, since about 1998, I assumed it would be on, and would provide me with the aforementioned ambience.
Sadly, it's not on. I think it's on later tonight, but it's not later tonight, it's now. So since I've already got it in my head that I'm going to have "Candyman" on in the background, I decide to just throw the DVD in -- I mean, not literally, since that would probably damage it.
I turn it on and the first thing I notice is that eerily fantastic soundtrack. Phillip Glass is sort of an odd duck, but damn, did he score that movie to perfection. And I started realizing that, for as much as people bitch and moan and piss and cry about what's wrong with Hollywood... sure, they've got some good points:
- Too many remakes
- Too many sequels
- Not enough realism
- Front-loading for that $80 million opening weekend
- Too much attention on the star, not enough on the story
- Jessica Alba
But I just realized tonight that one thing which is seriously lacking in film -- mainstream, indie, or otherwise -- is that score that can just knock your dick in the dirt. I suppose it's most obvious with horror films (remember the creepy-as-hell theme from Halloween? Friday the 13th? A Nightmare on Elm Street? Hell, Psycho?), but it seems that the only films these days where anybody bothers to put any thought into the score are the Big Epics -- Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, things like that.
When I was a kid, I used to buy soundtracks like they were going out of style (which they probably would have done, had they ever been in style to begin with). I can't remember the last time I bought one. Sure, that little acoustic ditty from "Brokeback Mountain" was memorable, but it wasn't even close to being in the ballpark of a "North by Northwest" or "Taxi Driver," or even "The Matrix."
I guess I just miss good movies scores. Plus, now I'm going to have to try to locate $15 so I can go to Best Buy and see if they actually have the "Candyman" soundtrack CD in stock.
And now that I've spent so much time pondering the notion of where all the great movie music's gone, I don't even feel like making spaghetti. I think I still have a pouch of Lipton Noodles & Sauce, though. That's easier to make, anyway.
So, at 6:00 p.m., I finally decided that it was time to get out of my apartment. I didn't have any clean clothes, so I decided to go to the Market Place to buy something for dinner.
No, there's no logical connection there, so if you're thinking you missed something, don't worry -- you didn't. That's just the way my mind works: "Hmm. I don't have any clean socks, so I suppose I should go buy a bell pepper and an onion so I can make spaghetti."
On my way back, I decide that while I'm cooking, I should put a movie on or something, y'know, just to have some background noise -- nothing I need to pay attention to, something I've seen a dozen times already in the past month. And since "Candyman" has been on Encore at least once a day, sometimes more, since about 1998, I assumed it would be on, and would provide me with the aforementioned ambience.
Sadly, it's not on. I think it's on later tonight, but it's not later tonight, it's now. So since I've already got it in my head that I'm going to have "Candyman" on in the background, I decide to just throw the DVD in -- I mean, not literally, since that would probably damage it.
I turn it on and the first thing I notice is that eerily fantastic soundtrack. Phillip Glass is sort of an odd duck, but damn, did he score that movie to perfection. And I started realizing that, for as much as people bitch and moan and piss and cry about what's wrong with Hollywood... sure, they've got some good points:
- Too many remakes
- Too many sequels
- Not enough realism
- Front-loading for that $80 million opening weekend
- Too much attention on the star, not enough on the story
- Jessica Alba
But I just realized tonight that one thing which is seriously lacking in film -- mainstream, indie, or otherwise -- is that score that can just knock your dick in the dirt. I suppose it's most obvious with horror films (remember the creepy-as-hell theme from Halloween? Friday the 13th? A Nightmare on Elm Street? Hell, Psycho?), but it seems that the only films these days where anybody bothers to put any thought into the score are the Big Epics -- Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, things like that.
When I was a kid, I used to buy soundtracks like they were going out of style (which they probably would have done, had they ever been in style to begin with). I can't remember the last time I bought one. Sure, that little acoustic ditty from "Brokeback Mountain" was memorable, but it wasn't even close to being in the ballpark of a "North by Northwest" or "Taxi Driver," or even "The Matrix."
I guess I just miss good movies scores. Plus, now I'm going to have to try to locate $15 so I can go to Best Buy and see if they actually have the "Candyman" soundtrack CD in stock.
And now that I've spent so much time pondering the notion of where all the great movie music's gone, I don't even feel like making spaghetti. I think I still have a pouch of Lipton Noodles & Sauce, though. That's easier to make, anyway.