Customer Reviews

A Beautiful Mind

5 star:		(36)
4 star:		(14)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

James Horner (Titanic) soundtrack has written a beautiful score, but unfortunately the soundtrack theme is repeated completely through the whole soundtrack. Its like Horner could not get off this one hook.

However "A Beautiful Mind" has reminisince of "Titanic" soundtrack. Horner is following John Williams territory taking a good theme and making variations of it (Superman/Star Wars/Close Encounters).

Horners hook is a good one but however is not the best score I have ever heard nor does it break the barriers with motion picture it goes with.

My vote goes to "In the Bedroom", this soundtrack is a musical feast that takes all levels of the motion picture it surrounds.

"A Beautiful Mind" is where Horner has one hook and runs with it through the whole soundtrack and film, also the soundtrack doesn't seem to fit the complete picture of the movie sometimes going towards sappy.

A good to fair soundtrack that doesn't deserve any OSCAR buzz.

My favorite CD of all time and easily Horner's best soundtrack! I can't get enough of this haunting and beautiful music.

This is probably the best movie soundtrack I have ever heard since I love classical music myself and this is haunting and chilling but it is also beautiful and James Horner, instead of just letting you listen to the music, pulls and drags you in a great kind of way and listening to it, I get goosebumps and I kind of remind myself of John Forbes Nash Jr, he had mental problems like me and suffers depression but I am not schizophrenia(I thought I was but that's another story!!). The music is so uplifting I cried several times because it is just a masterpiece!!

Despite the title of this review, this soundtrack shares none of John Nash's traits aside from brilliance.

James Horner's score is at once exciting, dramatic, haunting, dark, and beautiful. The tracks will cause a vast range of emotion to swell within you and all will keep you listening. The classical themes are very well composed, each using the instruments given to truly elaborate what feeling is meant to be displayed in the piece.

Some tracks are intruiging or moving in a simple way, making a slow pace through the piece. Some of these tend to seem repetitive or similar, but listening closely will reveal simply a similar theme in widely different tracks.

Others can be downright inspiring. While dark and brooding, "Nash Descends into Parcher's World" is very heartfelt, with deep instruments pulling along the shadowed dread of what's to come, and produces a villianous feel in a film that really has no villain. It's this negative flow that actually surges the piece forward, making it one stand out, and at the same time, flow right along with the rest of the track, despite the differences.

And unlike many movie scores, this one is able to pull itself alone without needed the recollection of the film or having scene the movie previously to truly enjoy all the scores.

By far, the most brilliant piece on this soundtrack and the one I listen to most frequently is the theme and first piece on the CD, "Kaleidoscope of Mathematics." The easy pipe and string that starts, along with the quickening piano that are all exhulted by Charlotte Church's incredible and beautiful singing. This is an amazing piece through and through, and it's probably one of the best tracks for a movie I've ever heard.

"A Beautiful Mind" is yet another incredible soundtrack by James Horner, and one that is proof of why movie soundtracks are needed as much without the movie as they are within.

-Escushion

Although not so good as "Bicentennial Man", this is a good soundtrack from Mr. Horner. In the first cue, Horner uses material heard before in "Sneakers" and "Bicentennial Man": The piano riff, which I call "James Horner's Technology Theme".

I think it Charlotte Church made a nice contribution to this album. The song "All Love Can Be" is very good, actually.
My favourite tracks are: "A Kaleidoscope Of Mathematics", "Saying Goodbye To Those You So Love" (Contains a beautiful piano solo) and "Closing Credits".
On this cd are also some nice interviews with James Horner and Ron Howard.

If you liked "Bicentennial Man", I think you'll like this album very much.

I hate to be a party pooper but must echo the countless bad reviews of this score and many other recent James Horner works. Don't get me wrong, I adore James' work, but I think even he's intelligent enough to put 2 and 2 together and realise his fans are starting to dissipate at the very thought another James Horner score. He was a pioneer of the great 80's action score and is up there with Jerry Goldsmith and Bernard Hermann as one of the greatest composers of all time but when he constantly regurgitates decade old chords, its little wonder hoards of faithful fans start frowning in confusion and "A Beautiful Mind" is no exception. As soon as I hit play on track one I thought to myself "If I wanted to listen to the soundtrack for "Sneakers" I would have put it on, but hey, here it is as the theme to Beautiful Mind with one of two minor tweaks here and there, but fundamentally its the theme for his earlier score "Sneakers", all his fans know it. The rest of the score pretty much suffers from this mysterious syndrome possibly with the narrow exception of "Cracking the Russian Codes" but even that smells of his "Apollo 13" score. Come on James, you know we love you and all but please come up with some fresh material and win back your fans, p-l-e-a-s-e.

This is essentially a rehash of Horner's scores to Titanic, Apollo 13, Sneakers, and a half dozen other movies, and it isn't even terribly well done. "A Kaleidoscope of Mathematics" is a pretty good song, but it's just repeated in various forms throughout the song. The vocals are unoriginal and boring, and the song for the end credits is rambling, and the lyrics are cliched and trite. Overall not really bad, but a disappointing score for James Horner, whose scores are normally magnificent.

That's arguable the only word to describe this James Horner masterpiece. The soundtrack really models the movie perfectly, so it makes a great complement to the movie, unlike other totally irrelevant soundtracks which seem to have been put together on another continent. There is a good mix of music here; about half of the CD is thoughtful and bittersweet, and the other half is keep-you-on-the-edge-of-your-seat stuff that even people who think they HATE classical music will probably love. As other reviewers have pointed out, it is a bit repetitive, but I believe it's a strength, not a downside. If you've seen the movie, you know that many of the same themes of overcoming difficulty surface multiple times, so looking at it that way, the soundtrack mirrors that. Even if you think that's just overanalyzing things (which it probably is ;), you'll almost definitly find at least one song here that you'll want to play over and over, so why does it matter if it's a little bit repetitive? It's doing the job for you. I'd recommend this to anyone, whether or not you like the movie, Horner's previous work, etc. This is a universal masterpiece.

I dont regularly listen to movie scores, rather buy a cd. But after I watched this movie I just had to go out and buy it. I am not sure how a person could say this music awful, because with all honesty im more of a techno / hard banging music kinda guy. But it is one of those albums that are dark and mysterious, I will now be checking out more movie scores because of this and james horners/charlotte churches talent. 5/5

Don't get this CD it's a waste of money. There is no music on it, at least nothing you can play on your PC with XP! Just a couple of macromedia interviews and the movie trailer.

Rate this piece of junk plastic at minus five stars!