Bruce Almighty (Promo)

Review by Thomas Glorieux:

Only John Debney can master so good the comedy genre and the action genre while simply writing one after another in a matter of months. I guess its then fair to say that John Debney is one of the best composers in the business. Always seen too light when he scores Liar Liar, or Cats & Dogs, always seen big when he pushes Cutthroat Island or The Scorpion King further towards us, John Debney is a terrific voice in the movie scoring business. Especially when you hear what he makes of Bruce Almighty. A better film then the energy packed, crazy but entertaining Liar Liar, its as good as comedy and drama mix. In all the unserious ness, there is a story of a man who doesn't know what he's missing until he misses it and that responsibility is more then just sending an e-mail towards the soul. Especially grand in his role (besides of course Jim Carrey and Jennifer Anniston) is Morgan Freeman as God. You simply couldn't pick a better God then him and he makes the movie simply work. Now, with Tom Shadyac also comes comedy writer John Debney. Like Alan Silvestri, Debney masters the comedy scoring as no other and he just couldn't fail to miss an opportunity as Bruce Almighty after he scored Liar Liar for Shadyac. Just as that film, Bruce was an enormous success and Debney made his name with that so good that he scored Mel Gibson's controversial The Passion of the Christ after it. To go from a comedy God person to a serious and bloody God film is all the more curious but Debney just pulls it off. Anyway, Bruce Almighty was released in a small package along with various good songs but the promo (a typical occurrence with Debney) is covering just a little more score then the next. Making sure that Bruce Almighty altogether functions as one of the best 3 star scores of the bunch.

A bit in the vein of Dragonfly's sweetness and Liar Liar's comedy music is Bruce Almighty, covering the typical comedy and sprightly writing like he did before also in Little Giants and Cats & Dogs. 'AB Positive' brings forward the piano and string theme of Bruce growing to a more orchestral rousing version of it. 'Walking on Water' has a variation on that theme while some noble and magical choir makes 'Bruce Meets God' work all the same. '7th at Seven' brings Bruce's theme and Grace's theme together in a soft but sweet like nature and especially Grace's theme shows up lovely in 'Grace's Prayer' before a choral grand ending shows the best track of the score finishing powerful. 'Bruce's Prayer' shows too Grace's theme and altogether is lovely as the next one. But the promo is also exhibiting some extra good cues, such as for instance the Elmer Bernstein like piece 'Parting of the Soup', brass and choir make it almost The 10 Commandments revisited. Or what about the excellent 'End Credits Medley' with its Bruce theme manner of fast paced comedy writing along with a classical ending of grand style. Very good to hear. The rest bases itself around Bruce's theme or some light choral stuff, making the unreleased tracks 4 and 12 the best of the bunch. I'm not gonna criticize Varèse of not releasing more because they scored good with the song and score release of Bruce Almighty. Its just sad in a way these are missing on the list. Anyway, a promo shows the quality of the composer's work good and Bruce Almighty does it good to show Debney's truly versatile voice. Its not Cutthroat Island, its just Liar Liar with choir and that makes all the more fun when Debney does it that good. Think about it, comedy based or serious, God always knows where to find John Debney, the almighty of us all!

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Tracks

Single Disc

1. AB Positive (2.59)

2. Walking On Water (2.01)

3. Bruce Meets God (1.27)

4. Parting Of The Soup (0.40)

5. Day At The Office (1.14)

6. Love Me (2.20)

7. Riot (1.16)

8. 7th At Seven (3.01)

9. Bruce's Theme (1.13)

10. Grace's Prayer (3.25) Excellent Track

11. Bruce's Prayer (3.45)

12. End Credits Medley (2.37)

Total Length: 26.27

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=== Link to Composer Site: John Debney ===