Soundtrack Review: Bangkok Dangerous (2008)
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This is a review of the motion picture score for Bangkok Dangerous by Brian Tyler.
“Brian Tyler delivers yet again a great action score in Bangkok Dangerous and he has reclaimed his spot as the number one action composer”
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Title: Bangkok Dangerous
Yes, so the cover art of the Bangkok Dangerous soundtrack isn’t my favourite, but I’m not an art critic. After all it’s what’s inside that matters and what’s inside is quite a powerful package. Fact 1: Brian Tyler knows how to make a song/soundtrack work. Fact 2: Brian Tyler knows action. See, when those two facts are put together we should expect great things. Brian Tyler’s PR team has been working overtime on this one as the 3 first tracks on the soundtrack has been available on his MySpace for quite some time now and they have been proved quite popular. With that they created anticipation, and guess what, it worked for me. I’ve been waiting for this for a long time and now it’s finally here.
Can it live up to the hype? This is the track list for Bangkok Dangerous:
Track List
- Bangkok Dangerous (*****)
- Assassin (*****)
- Bangkok Dangerous Main Title (***)
- Fon’s Theme (****)
- The Pupil (****)
- Bangkok Reflections (***)
- Runner (****)
- Pursuit (**)
- Underground Temple (**)
- Prague (****)
- Silent Retribution (***)
- Explosive Device (***)
- Gangland Grenade (****)
- The Hitman (****)
- Elephant (****)
- Rain (***)
- Scoping Out The Hit (***)
- Second Thoughts (*****)
- Pool Assassination (***)
- What I Do (***)
- Hide And Seek (****)
- Floating Market (**)
- River Chase (****)
- The Performance (*)
- Bangkok Downtown (**)
- Knife Test (**)
- Fire (**)
- The Meeting (**)
- The Compound Shootout (***)
- Yearning (***)
- Fate (****)
Always Full
One thing you can’t complain about Brian Tyler is that he is skimpy when it comes to available music. I don’t know how much say he has when it comes to choosing what’s on the score or not, but it seems like it’s always full. It totals 1 hour and 18 minutes and I so want this to be the norm, not the standard 40-45 minutes most soundtracks consist of. Most songs are quite short, but you get a lot of music here, ranging from pumping action cues to melancholy songs to reflect over. It’s finally here folks, and this is the end result.
Great Beginning
The soundtrack doesn’t explode into action as the first track “Bangkok Dangerous” is an excellent moody theme which plays on the heartstrings. It has all the elements of a great theme, and it doesn’t touch much on the action, just feeling the waters. If it didn’t explode in the first cue, you are in for a shock on the second track “Assassin” which is the definition of action. Any composer who wants to write action music has to sit down, listen, and learn from this track. If it doesn’t get you going, you are probably dead. “Bangkok Dangerous Main Title” is the disappointing one of the three starters. It wants to be a nice action theme, but it ends to be a standard trance theme. Granted it has some nice ethnic elements in there, but after the first two tracks, you can’t help feeling a little disappointed. Before I venture into the middle of the soundtrack itself I have to mention track number 4: “Fon’s Theme”. It is an important track because this is where you will hear the main theme of Bangkok Dangerous. It is a melancholy track which uses piano for its major elements. I think it’s a very nice theme and it’s used several times in other cues like “Silent Retribution” and “Elephant”.
Even Better In The Middle
As you get into the middle of the Bangkok Dangerous soundtrack you realize that there’s not as much action as you would expect. “The Pupil” for example, which happens to be one of the best tracks on the soundtrack, is not really an action cue, but more of a grand thematic song, although the percussion in the background is a bit more “pushing”. Then you have “Bangkok Reflections” which is probably the quietest track on the soundtrack, which is indeed very reflective in the way it is built up and played. Just a lonely guitar with some reverb. Quite a simple theme, but it’s nice nevertheless. Tracks like “Pursuit” and “Underground Temple” doesn’t really add to the soundtrack as a whole and are some of the weakest tracks on the soundtrack. “Prague” is a very good track which also never pushes the envelope. “Silent Retribution” has the return of the main theme featured in “Fon’s Theme”, and it’s a nice quiet song which also is the longest track on the Bangkok Dangerous soundtrack.
We are right in the middle of it now and “Explosive Device” works as a teaser to 3 great tracks in the middle called “Gangland Grenade”, “The Hitman” and “Elephant” which are all great action cues and the best one has to be “The Hitman” which touches upon the amazing action introduced to us in the track “Assassin”. Then there are a couple of slow songs in “Rain” and “Scoping Out The Hit” before one of the beast tracks on the Bangkok Dangerous soundtrack “Second Thoughts” rears it’s beautiful head. It re-visits a lot of the themes set up in “Bangkok Dangerous” and also uses a variation of the main theme introduced in “Fon’s Theme”, but instead of piano, we get to hear it using strings which is just beautiful. Shame it isn’t played like that in any other tracks on this soundtrack. There are a couple of great cues before it goes into a long period of disaster. The ones are “Hide And Seek” which is a very good action cue with an addictive bass underneath and “River Chase” which is the most percussion heavy action cue on the soundtrack.
Disappointing End
I have to say if there was a disappointing part of this soundtrack it would have to be the long-winding ending with several tracks in a row which just drags Bangkok Dangerous through the mud. “The Performance” is by far the weakest track which is just a poor man’s substitute for some proper “ancient” music. It kind of reminds me of the traditional music of Indonesia and Bali, but not as near as good. The next 4 songs “Bangkok Downtown”, “Knife Test”, “Fire” and “The Meeting” are just unnecessary fillers and if you can, just skip them as it has all been heard before and adds nothing new to the score. Perhaps they work well in the movie which I haven’t seen yet, but it’s nothing special.
Luckily it isn’t all bad as the last 3 tracks has some merit. “The Compound Shootout” is a long track, but decent track, that doesn’t get started until about 1 minute from the end with some great action pieces. “Yearning” is a quiet, but nice song to reflect by as it all ends with “Fate” which is a very nice thematic string intensive song with a nice build up. It re-visits “Fon’s Theme” using an electronic piano with a very strong reverb, which isn’t bad at all.
The Conclusion
Despite the number of poor tracks near the end, it ends on a high and this score has a lot of highs. Did it live up to the hype? Yes it did and more. Brian Tyler delivers yet again a great action score in Bangkok Dangerous and he has reclaimed his spot as the number one action composer (Like there was any doubts). It’s up the with great action scores like The Dark Knight, Death Race and Doomsday and is a strong contender for the action score of the year.
Listen to Bangkok Dangerous by Brian Tyler below:
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(11 votes, average: 8.00 out of 10)
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Comments
Hello, what is the name´s song where the girls are dancing in the night club? in the first part…thanks
Kadn Reply:
November 9th, 2008 at 2:53 am
The first song played in the disco scene in Bangkok Dangerous is “Bubble Toy – This One”.
Jorn Tillnes Reply:
November 9th, 2008 at 12:06 pm
Thanks Kadn!
ariyon Reply:
November 26th, 2008 at 12:58 am
i love that song too..could you help me to get the mp3 for this song.Bubble toy-this one.
Who is that girl name?
name of song when thier dancing with the white boots and the push song? and what other songs do bubble toys sing?
does anyone kno the song that was played when ever he sees the chineese girl… like a soft piano music and is it the song that was remixed in to a dance track ??
thanks in advance
Hello.
Actually the last track “fate” is the same than the first one (Bangkock Dangerous) with few changes.
It’s curious Brian Tyler already did it with Rambo 4 : the first track Rambo theme is the same than the track 19 “Rambo main title”
Maybe it is a kind of signature…
Jorn Tillnes Reply:
October 8th, 2009 at 3:49 pm
Nah, it’s no Brian Tyler thing. Composers has been doing it forever it seems. In the “old” days it used to be Main Title and End Title which were the same cue with a few differences. New composers doesn’t have an End Title, but something like “Fate” instead 
Soundtrack Seek
to me this album sound very much like the Tokyo Drift, and the Bangkok Dangerous track is completely the same that is on the War CD, here it sounds fine too. The main difference is that there’s not so much action here, but more of a human drama with ambient and sad main theme variations.
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