Gamer (Soundtrack) by Robert Williamson and Geoff Zanelli - Review

Shamer!

Review by Christopher Coleman

If the CRANK films were visually exhausting, then GAMER is a clear case of visual abuse and ROBERT WILLIAMSON and GEOFF ZANELLI's score is just as guilty, but against our ears instead. In GAMER, we are once again taken down the path of an incarcerated man being able to obtain his freedom by winning some outlandish game or sport. In their respective eras, both DEATH RACE and THE RUNNING MAN asked the audience the same question, "Could this be where we are headed for our entertainment?" Hmmm. Yes. It could very well be where we are headed. Certainly nothing new about the question or it's answer. It has been asked since the age of the Roman Gladiator came to an end and the answer remains unchanged. Since we are now in the "age of the video game," perhaps the writer/directors felt it was time to re-wrap and present this question for a new generation. Or perhaps Neveldine and Taylor just needed some sort of premise to hang another couple hours of visual nonsense on. Whichever the case, in GAMER, the central is figure, Kable (Gerard Butler), a prisoner who get's to work off his sentence in a game called, Slayer. Now, this game is of the life and death sort. He also has a wife and daughter to find, who have been taken from him, but how does he win the game and save his family at the same time? It's such a pickle. In comparison, old Arnold had it easy when he won THE RUNNING MAN, since he at least had control of... himself. Poor Kable does not have this luxury, since he is merely the in-game-avatar of a teenaged-master-gamer, Simon. So off we go into this gritty, grungy, shaky, fleeting world of GAMER and to assist us into full migrane-inducing-immersion is the original score by ROBERT WILLIAMSON and GEOFF ZANELLI.

Read the full review of Gamer here

OSN Interviews Geoff Zanelli Composer for Outlander

Move over October, it appears January now belongs to monsters.

Last year (almost a year ago to the day), we were pleasantly surprised with J J Abrams monster-movie-revival, CLOVERFIELD. For 2009, we get dragons. While it originally released in Europe in 2008, OUTLANDER is scheduled for release in select US cities in January 23, 2009.

After watching the trailer, of course I asked myself, "Who's writing the music for this crazy sci-fi-viking-thriller?" A quick search turned up GEOFF ZANELLI. The next question was "Wonder what direction he will go." So...I came across this interview with Outlander.Solsector.Net, which gives a more than a few clues. Also included are six soundclips from the score courtesy of Lalaland Records who is reportedly releasing the original soundtrack for OUTLANDER.

Call me crazy...but I see "guilty pleasure" written all over this film. As for the clips...call me crazy, but this just might be the year's first doable sci-fi/action score.


Check out the interview and clips here.

Disturbia (Soundtrack) by Geoff Zanelli

Not Exactly Mr. Rogers’s Neighborhood
Review by Cap Stewart

Imagine you lived in a quaint-looking suburban community. The neighbor to your left was a voyeur and the neighbor to your right was a serial killer. Both people would be considered creepy, albeit in different ways. The nosey neighbor would be a nuisance, whereas the bloodthirsty neighbor would be, well, more of a mortal threat. The music to DISTURBIA, composed by GEOFF ZANELLI, is sort of like a combination of those two neighbors. At times it’s annoying (which is obviously a bad thing) and at times it oozes homicidal menace (which, in this case, is a good thing).

DISTURBIA tells the story of a teenage voyeur who is convinced that one of his neighbors is a murderer. The basics of the plot are taken from, or at least inspired by, Alfred Hitchcock’s 1954 film, REAR WINDOW, which starred James Stewart and Grace Kelly. Although considered by many to be Hitchcock’s finest effort, REAR WINDOW is one of my least favorite from the esteemed auteur. When I discovered Hollywood was offering a modern retelling of the story, I wasn’t thrilled in the least. You couldn’t—and still can’t—pay me to see DISTURBIA. (I would say, “You couldn’t pay me to listen to the film score either,” but that’s not quite true. I mean, here I am writing a review with a free CD spinning in my computer.)

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