Tuesday, June 22, 2010

The Under Siege Review Post.

One thing I never like to do with my soundtrack collection is dispose of albums - by which I mean sell or trade them. Even if I don't like them.

Which brings us to Under Siege (Varese Sarabande), still Steven Seagal's biggest hit to date; Die Hard on a battleship but nowhere near as good, not even with Erika Eleniak topless and later plugging one of the baddies. Scored by
Gary Chang, it's an ajbect lesson why I ought not to buy albums based on its opening title, said opening is a nice straight-ahead piece that then takes a long break, not coming back until the last track - most of the album is made up of suspense, sneaking-around music... but boring suspense, sneaking-around music. Adding to the general suckage is Chang swiping the terrorists' theme ("The Takeover") from John Williams's conspiracy theme from JFK, and it's all capped with action music that's notably non-thrilling. Only the final track, credited to Chang and orchestrator-conductor Todd Hayen, really enlivens things - but by then it's too late. At least it's short. (Thankfully, Basil Poledouris scored the sequel.)

1. Main Title (4:05)
2. Fanfare (:59)
3. The Takeover (1:32)
4. Casey Gets In Touch (2:58)
5. Casey Saves Jordan (1:31)
6. Reveal Sub (:48)
7. Sub Splits (2:05)
8. They Sink The Sub (3:53)
9. Casey Rescues The Laundry (1:50)
10. Sitting Ducks (2:08)
11. The Broadway Shootout (1:46)
12. Casey Meets Strannix (:48)
13. Casey Saves Hawaii (2:48)
14. Epilogue (2:29)