Search - Michael Kamen :: Die Hard With A Vengeance: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack

Five stars for Kamen's score, One Star for the CD

Inspector Gadget | On the trail of Doctor Claw | 08/23/2008

(1 out of 5 stars)

"Die Hard With A Vengeance is unfortunate enough to have pretty the absolute worst score CD of any movie ever made, I'm afraid to say. It's just a complete disaster from top to bottom.



First of all, the track listings are not on the cover or the insert. So it's a big of a con if you pick the CD in the stores considering you cannot even see what exactly it is that you are getting. The tracks themselves are, rather cryptically, named after things that did not appear in the movie. Iron Foundry? Waltz of the Bankers? What??? Second, there are awful, and very dated, rap tunes littered about the CD even though they only appear in the film for a few seconds each. Third, only a tiny, tiny portion of Kamen's music makes it to the CD. What we get is a few tracks of underscore with the main action cues completely absent. What the hell is the point in creating a score CD that represents the strength of the film in no way whatsoever?



The brilliant 'Johnny Comes Marching Home' music: missing. The bomb in the subway music: missing. The car chase music: missing. The final reveal of the bomb music: missing. The showdown music: missing. The only action track we get is the scene when McClane surfs the dump truck and even that is different from its equivalent in the movie.



Michael Kamen did two scores for this movie. His first was rejected by John McTiernan in favor of repeated themes from the first movies. So, when you think about it, there's probably about 2-hours worth of music for Die Hard 3 out there that ain't getting the CD release it deserves. Maybe someone like Intrada or Varese Sarabanda can pick this up for a limited release because this RCA release is an effing disgrace."