I may not be as critical a viewer as others, but I liked it as a nice coming of age and tall tales movie.
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It gets pretty solid ratings on the aggregation sites I look at (Letterboxd, IMDb), so I may be an outlier on this.
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I don’t know whether to be impressed that people are actually letting the clearly lesser movie with the better theme crush or to be scared that they don’t know that’s what they’re doing.
(In this case I choose optimism and actually think it’s the former.)
Round 1, Block 6 Justifications
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1492 vs. Herbie The Love Bug-Maybe I’d appreciate this Vangelis song more if he’d stepped out of his comfort zone and he’d only composed on synths and recorded with a real orchestra. I probably despise Vangelis less than Christopher Columbus but it’s probably closer than it should be. Is the person who nominated this song the only person who saw this film? I sure hope so. Bernie is jazzy, upbeat, fun, and fits the fun movie. I’m seriously starting to question LKJ’s music tastes based on him making a very dubious comparison of this theme to Gremlins. Goodbye Columbus…and Vangelis, at least in my mind.
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La La Land vs. Halloween-This La La Land theme is one of the most memorable themes from the movie, and a well done jazz piano. But it’s up against Halloween…come on. I have issues with some of the ‘orchestration’ in the Halloween theme, but come on.
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Chariots of Fire vs. The Cider House Rules-I did work for 3 movies in this block and the great Chariots of Fire was one of them. It’s too bad the worst part of the movie is Vangelis. Some of you seem to like him, please tell me why. Every score I’ve ever heard of his is anachronistic, elevator-y, and self-indulgent. Why do people like this guy? The Academy loved him too giving him Best Original Score over Raiders of the Lost Ark. I know I picked against the main theme of Raiders in this round, but dam I would have picked it over Chariots. What I can’t pick over Chariots is The Cider House Rules. It literally sounds like it’s trying to Weinstein an Oscar. Vangelis didn’t even show up when he won and that scores him huge bonus points for me even though his music does nothing for me.
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Terminator 2 vs. A Beautiful Mind-Terminator 2 is a memorable and excellent movie. The theme is memorable, boring, and lame. I’m no fan of James Cameron anymore, but will still watch most of his stuff pre-Titanic where I boycotted him. My favorite of his was The Abyss, which came very far from sticking the landing after an otherwise great build up. And here is Cameron’s favorite composer James Horner for A Beautiful Mind. Very very oddly, I worked on a music re-packaging show in 1997 called Fame, Fortune, and Romance which was a spin off of Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous starring creep Matt Lauer. Our job was to replace all the music and remix the shows. There was a piece of interview b-roll of Lauer interviewing a debutante used under voiceover that gave all of us working on it a clue about how nice a guy he was. Hint: he was not. Anyway, Horner had a huge amount of approved library cues for this show, but he started sending in exorbitant bills every time one of his cues was used and we were banned from using any of them after that in the 120 episode run. He might have made more money if he’d just used normal rates, since he was ‘killed off’ after only maybe 20 episodes or so. Good thing Titanic worked out for him. A Beautiful Mind worked out for him too, getting my vote here over Terminator 2.
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James Bond vs. Supergirl-The James Bond theme is spectacular in every way and almost nothing would beat it for me in this round as it is way too iconic. Not even Jerry Goldsmith had a chance for me with his excellent subtle adaptation of the Superman theme. Sorry Jerry, but you still have Dances with Wolves coming up this round and nothing’s beating that for me this round.
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Pirates of the Caribbean vs. Taxi Driver-Hans Zimmer strikes again with a theme you know even if you haven’t seen the movie like me. Oh s***, it wasn’t Hans in the first one, it was one of his frequent ‘collaborators’ aka ghost writers instead. I guess Hans wasn’t available for the first one, but they wanted the Hans sound, as ol’ Bruckheimer always seems to want. Klaus must have told Hans he was high if he thought he’d let him take credit for this one. Hans probably said, ‘fine, I’ll just score the next 3 instead even if you do all of them, if you get what I mean’. Some of the drum sounds in this track aren’t good, but it’s memorable, iconic, and Hans without being Hans which scores it some bonus points. Uh oh, we got Bernard Hermann up in here for Taxi Driver? Will he de-throne Pirates? I’ll let you know in 8 minutes which you won’t know have passed. This sounds a lot like Moon River to me for some reason. If this song is what the movie is like, it must be a happy movie. Am I right? Oh wait, at 4 minutes, it gets really ominous, like Psycho ominous. Maybe it’s not a happy movie after all. Then it turns…sexy? Wat. I am so confused by this score. 8 minutes have passed and the answer is ,’nope Bernard did not pull the upset for me’.
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Beautiful World vs. The Fountain-I have never heard of either of these movies. Beautiful World’s theme does nothing for me. The Fountain easily takes it for me, whatever it is. After doing a little research, I have heard of The Fountain after all. I’m always amazed at how different Clint Mansell’s music is from his Pop Will Eat Itself days when he does movie scores. The ending of this song is almost as annoying as most PWEI songs, so maybe he still had a little of that in him. It’s still enough to easily win for me.
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O Brother Where Art Thou vs. Meet Joe Black-I missed this match up before posting so I’m covering it now. The marketing campaign was so fiercely bad and possibly honest that I didn’t want to watch this Coen Brothers movie. This did not bring back good memories and it’s up against the great Thomas Newman who has few peers in the industry. Of course, he did that really terrible phoned in theme for The Newsroom which I will never forgive him for, but this ain’t that and he will easily win this match up for me.
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Just put it in
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Happy to see this get some love even if it didn’t get any votes 
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I nominated two Evangelion movie themes.
Beautiful World isn’t as good as One Last Kiss imo
But Utada Hikaru is GOAT
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Pairing that theme with driving the nighttime streets of 70s NYC just works for me
Whereas you could pair that derivative PotC theme with any one of a million mindless action adventure stories aimed at children and it would still work.
It would even work in Crimson Tide
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I tried hard to get Bernard Hermann the vote but couldn’t get there.
Sorry meant to respond to LKJ
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I nominated it and I didnt watch the movie in full. I knew it because it was the intro music of the German boxer Henry Maske in the 90s. I like the theme.This is the music I would listen to if I am down and need some energy or while being on a run to go a little faster. I am probably in the minority in this forum judging from the song that won the tv show theme contest and all the walrus competition but somebody statistically has to like mainstream music otherwise some of those successful musicians wouldnt have been as successful.
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Nah, I’ve never seen Taxi Driver. I despise the Pirate’s theme because my freshman roommate would play it every night to fall asleep.
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Round 1, Block 7, Matchup 49
#3 Gladiator
VS.
#126 Ten Et Tiwa
#3 Gladiator vs. #126 Ten Et Tiwa
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#3 Gladiator.
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#126 Ten Et Tiwa
0
voters
Round 1, Block 7, Matchup 50
#62 Man of Steel
VS.
#67 Batman theme
#62 Man of Steel vs. #67 Batman theme
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#62 Man of Steel.
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#67 Batman theme
0
voters
Round 1, Block 7, Matchup 51
#30 Requiem for a Dream
VS.
#99 Anthem (Us)
#30 Requiem for a Dream) vs. #99 Anthem (Us)
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#30 Requiem for a Dream.
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#99 Anthem (Us)
0
voters
Round 1, Block 7, Matchup 52
#35 Across 110th St
VS.
#94 The Sting (The Sting)
#35 Across 110th St vs. #94 The Sting (The Sting)
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#35 Across 110th St.
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#94 The Sting (The Sting)
0
voters
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Round 1, Block 7, Matchup 53
#14 Adele - Skyfall
VS.
#115 Tara’s Theme (Gone with the Wind)
#14 Adele - Skyfall vs. #115 Tara’s Theme (Gone with the Wind)
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#14 Adele - Skyfall.
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#115 Tara’s Theme (Gone with the Wind)
0
voters
Round 1, Block 7, Matchup 54
#51 Killers of the Flower Moon
VS.
#78 Legends of the Fall
#51 Killers of the Flower Moon vs. #78 Legends of the Fall
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#51 Killers of the Flower Moon
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#78 Legends of the Fall
0
voters
Round 1, Block 7, Matchup 55
#19 Star Wars theme
VS.
#110 Kaneda’s theme (Akira)
#19 Star Wars theme vs. #110 Kaneda’s theme (Akira)
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#19 Star Wars theme.
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#110 Kaneda’s theme (Akira)
0
voters