Soundtrack Review: Tropic Thunder (2008)

Posted by Jorn Tillnes

September 19, 2008

If you're new here, you may like to get all my posts in your feed reader using my RSS feed or get all Soundtrack Geek posts by Email. Thanks for visiting!

091908-1636-soundtrackr1 Soundtrack Review: Tropic Thunder (2008)

This is a review of the motion picture score for Tropic Thunder by Theodore Shapiro.

“Although this movie or score for that matter won’t win many awards, it and Theodore Shapiro certainly has won my respect”

Title: Tropic Thunder
Composer: Theodore Shapiro
Tracks: 22
Length: 40:02
Label: Lakeshore Records
Release Date: August 5 2008
Price: $18.99

Tropic Thunder, a very cool name for an action-comedy or a B quality action starring Dolph Lundgren. This is the former with funny man Ben Stiller directing and acting along with Jack Black and Robert Downey Jr. The trailer looks hilarious and I’ll be sure to catch this one soon. Bear in mind that I am reviewing the score to Tropic Thunder by Theodore Shapiro without seeing the movie yet.

Recently I’ve listened to quite a lot of Theodore Shapiro like “13 Going On 30″, “Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story”, “Fun With Dick & Jane”, “Idiocracy” and “Blades Of Glory”. It’s clear that comedy is his field and he goes head to head with John Debney to be crowned the king of comedy scores. This is the track list of Tropic Thunder:

Track List

You’re My Brother (****)
Four Leaf’s Plan (***)
Lead Farmer (****)
Enter The Dragons (***)
Bad Feeling About This (**)
Flaming Dragons (**)
Panda Attack (***)
Panda Call (***)
The Golden Triangle (***)
A Night At The Theatre (***)
Don’t Judge Me (***)
Portnoy’s Plan (****)
The Wet Offensive (*****)
Shadow Me, Pinocchio (****)
Flamethrower (****)
Breakdown Under (***)
Truck Escape (***)
Blow The Bridge (****)
Real Tears (****)
Simple Jack Trailer (****)
Satan’s Alley (**)
Cue Bill Conti (****)

Never Boring

One thing you can’t say about Theodore Shapiro is that he is boring. From the scores I have listened to previously and this one he seems to create a lot of varied and entertaining music. Tropic Thunder is different than the other Shapiro scores in that it’s very action oriented. In fact, during the 22 cues, there’s a lot of action and some drama, but no comedy appears to be present. What he has done here is very smart indeed, especially when taking the movie’s storyline into account. They are action stars, trying to make an action movie, so a silly soundtrack would be out of place. In this respect, Shapiro hits dead center. In order to do this he has to emulate the best action composers of recent times like Brian Tyler. Especially on track 3, “Lead Farmer” I can see the scene where Brian Tyler oversees the music while Shapiro composes, or perhaps not, but it’s very similar. He still has a long way until he can produce exhilarating Brian Tyler action cues though. Still, when put on its own as a pure action score, it does better than for example Jumper by John Powell or Iron Man by Ramin Djawadi and if I were to compare it against the action comedy scores of Hancock by John Powell and Fool’s Gold by George Fenton, he does way better.

From the first cue “You’re My Brother” it sounds like an epic action movie, and especially when the exotic jungle drums start banging he gets my undivided attention. Speaking of the drums, I just like the way they are used throughout the score in general. It creates a very nice backbeat for the action music. By the way, it sounds like 3 or 4 songs in one and it has at least 2 themes which are used again in the tracks “Blow The Bridge”, “Real Tears” and “Cue Bill Conti”. While the first cue is mildly heroic and light, the second cue “Four Leaf’s Plan” throws you right into the terror of the jungle. With its low key bass and creepy flutes and strings, it could almost be used in a horror movie.

Welcome Brian Tyler!

Did I mention Brian Tyler? Oh yes I did, and he pays a visit in “Lead Farmer” which is easily one of the best tracks of the whole soundtrack. It sounds like a great action sequence which has its low and high points, but it keeps a very high standard throughout. “Enter The Dragons” is more of a filler track, but it has an amazing rhythmic beat going for about 10 seconds. Shame it doesn’t last. “Bad Feeling About This” is the dullest track on the Tropic Thunder soundtrack. It promises nothing and it delivers. Luckily it’s only 52 seconds long. Another disappointing track follows, “Flaming Dragons”. It’s on and off, getting into all this heavy percussion just to back out when it’s about to take off.

The two panda songs works great for jungle scenes (at least the one I played in my mind while listening). They are too short though to really get it going. I should probably mention that total playtime is about 40 minutes so quite a few of the tracks had to be short. Back to the panda’s for a moment. “Panda Attack” is a fast paced song which has to increase your pulse at least by 32 (I checked). Panda Call sounds like it’s taken from the soundtrack of Lost the TV series, it’s a bit scary, but it leaves you wanting more. Then comes the adventure in the track “The Golden Triangle” which might bring back memories of The Mummy, but just a little. It’s quite a dramatic song, and I can hear some Arabic undertones at times. “A Night At The Theatre” continues on the adventure track, and it’s enjoyable but short. Right in the middle we have “Don’t Judge Me” which reminds me a bit of Iron Man because of the rock guitar used.

The Great Middle And End

Now we get into the meat of this soundtrack with 4 great songs that starts off with “Pornoy’s Plan”, which is a great teaser to what is the best track on the Tropic Thunder score “The Wet Offensive”. It’s a brilliant action cue which uses pieces from “The Lead Farmer”, but it gets even better about 1 minute in as a an eerie Lisa Gerrard-like voice over an ambient underscore gets your emotions going. It’s nice because the score needed a breather. “Shadow me, Pinocchio” is a nice and short action cue which again brings back the Iron Man-esque guitar. “Flamethrower” is even more dramatic, especially as the “crazy” tribal voice gets your pulse pumping over the hefty percussion beats. “Breakdown Under” continues with the drama, but it’s not as good as it tries to emulate Shapiro’s previous efforts. “Truck Escape” is the an homage to Iron Man, although Theodore Shapiro does bring in the tribal voice at the end, still it’s nothing special. “Blow The Bridge” starts off with great pace, but it changes into a thematic cue which uses the main theme quite heavily throughout.

“Real Tears” is easily one of the best tracks of the soundtrack. It starts off like a full blown action cue with heavy percussion and an angry horn, then it goes into epic mode with the second theme of the album and a powerful female voice added for that little extra. It ends on a high with action mixed with the powerful heroic main theme. “Simple Jack Trailer” is a nice song, but as a trailer it might not work, except in this comedy. It has elements of classic thematic strings and a powerful theme. In the middle it adds a kind of countryside guitar with light percussion before it ends with the John Barry-like strings. “Satan’s Alley” I’m not so sure about, it breaks up the nice ending and doesn’t sound very special. Welcome to the Academy Awards! At least that’s what I think about when I hear “Cue Bill Conti”. A powerful string montage which is just a great homage to Bill Conti. Although this movie or score for that matter won’t win many awards, it and Theodore Shapiro certainly has won my respect. This is a great action score put into a great comedy/action setting. It worked for Hot Shots, so why not now? Great stuff! I listened to this 5 times and I am still not remotely bored and you won’t either.

091908-1636-soundtrackr2 Soundtrack Review: Tropic Thunder (2008)