Hans Zimmer Revealed - review

If I was asked to name my top three favourite film composers, very easily and quickly I would rattle off the name John Williams (mostly for sentimental reasons of the scores that meant so much to my childhood), Hans Zimmer and Clint Mansell.

This week I am lucky enough to get to see two of them live in concert. Clint Mansell at the Old Fruitmarket in Glasgow on Tuesday 14th but first it was the turn of Hans Zimmer at the Hammersmith Apollo in his first ever public performance of some of his most iconic pieces of work in Hans Zimmer Revealed... And Friends!.

We'll get onto who some of the friends were in a minute but suffice to say that the main reason 5000 people had packed the Apollo was to see the man in question and he did not disappoint as he took us through an epic two and a half hour journey through his incredible back catalogue.

Best known these days for his work with Christopher Nolan, Zimmer started the concert almost trolling the audience by beginning with a piece from Driving Miss Daisy it introduced Hans on the piano accompanied by his small band (consisting of a string quartet, guitar, clarinet and percussion).

It proved the perfect opener as they seamlessly moved onto Discombobulate from Sherlock with Hans picking up the bango followed by , all the while with curtain upon curtain rising up to reveal layer upon layer of orchestra to bring these pieces of music to life.

Between the music, Hans would tell amusing and self-deprecating anecdotes about his time in the business and the inspiration behind certain pieces were a fascinating look behind the process. Like for example how Barry Levinson's wife buying the soundtrack to A World Apart led to his first Hollywood score with Rain Man or trying to convince Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer to let him use a choir on Crimson Tide.

Cue the Crouch End Festival Chorus choir to appear and perform that and an incredible number which gave me a whole new appreciation for the Angels And Demons score which simply astonishing heard live (complete with some crazy drum solos).

One of the biggest cheers of the first half came when Hans dropped the G word and played a suite from Gladiator. Sadly Lisa Gerrard couldn't be there but singer Miriam Blennerhassett did an admirable job in her place.

The best thing about The Da Vinci Code, Chevaliers de Sangreal, quickly followed along with The Lion King, amazingly the only Oscar win that Zimmer has had despite nine nominations but one he did specifically for his daughter Zoe.

The first half concluded with a barnstorming medley from Pirates Of The Caribbean that finished with a violin-off between Ann Marie Simpson and Aleksey Igudesman (who nearly stole the show by wearing a selection of silly hats and masks to compliment the film).

The second act began like the first, softly and slowly with the Badlands-inspired score for True Romance but was soon followed by Zimmer bringing out the big guns for a "Super" and heroic end to the show.

Man Of Steel must have been an incredibly daunting job to take on. To create something that would encapsulate Superman but also able to stand tall outside the shadow of John Williams' original theme.

Not only did Zimmer accomplish that but his score is the best thing about the film and further proved by the live performance.

I wonder if Zimmer has the balls to try and create a new sound for Batman in. Batman vs Superman: Dawn Of Justice given that he has spent the last ten years defining The Dark Knight?

The Dark Knight was still to rise but not before myself (and probably a few others I imagine) were reduced to tears when they played Journey To The Line from The Thin Red Line.

Oh yes, earlier I mentioned that the evening was called Hans Zimmer Revealed... And Friends and the second half brought out a special guest in the form of The Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr who played on several tracks to the delight of the crowd, including a different and punk rock Electro-fying track from The Amazing Spider-Man 2.

Zimmer then finished the show with a suite from The Dark Knight Trilogy which concluded with a moving tribute to Heath Ledger and the people of Aurora, Colorado with a piece called Aurora which is an alternate take on Rise from The Dark Knight Rises.

The curtain came down on Hans and his team receiving their second standing ovation (they got one at the interval as well) but eagle-eyed fans would have spotted that one film was rather conspicuous in its absence from the playlist.

Thankfully Zimmer returned for an encore of Inception that would bring the show full circle with Zimmer alone under the spotlight playing the final note of Time.

And alas our time with Hans was over but it was a night to remember as he brought so many of his memorable movie music moments to life on stage.

It is one thing to listen to a film score at home on CD or on the move on an iPod and enjoy it but this was like being transported back to the first time you heard it while watching the film and experiencing it all over again.

Hans down one of the best live performances I have ever seen.

5 stars

The Lion King 3D - review

Normally I try to avoid going to the cinema when it is full of a) annoying teenagers and b) screaming kids, (hence why I like going to The Belmont!) but it was always going to be a near impossibility when going to watch a Disney film on a Saturday afternoon at the local multiplex!

Luckily when the film you are watching is as good as The Lion King, you can (nearly) put young children singing or kicking the back of your seat to the back of your mind for 90 minutes and enjoy an animated classic on the big screen.
Bamlet TM (Bambi meets Hamlet) was one of the last great classic animated films before the dawn of the Pixar age and Disney resorted to churning out straight to video sequels.
It has everything that makes Disney films such perfect family entertainment.  Compelling story, colourful and memorable characters, a few jokes for the adults and some classic songs.  Lion King would arguably have the best soundtrack of any Disney film and while the kids were singing along all the time, I could see a few adults (myself included) trying to stop themselves joining in to Circle Of Life or Hakuna Matata.  Personally though, my favourite song in the film is Be Prepared.  I love a good villain and Jeremy Irons does a snarlingly good job as Scar.
However since everyone is pretty much aware of how great the film is, the purpose of yesterdays visit was to evaluate the 3D conversion.  And the verdict?  If the opening Circle Of Life sequence is anything to go by, I wouldn't bang the final nail into the 3D coffin just yet.  It showed how 3D can be used effectively to create depth and gravitas without having to resort to cheap tricks and didn't cause the usual headaches that 3D can sometimes bring when done poorly.
Back to the age-old argument though.  Did having 3D improve the film?  No... but it certainly didn't spoil it either and that is a vast improvement on some of the conversions I have seen in the last couple of years.
I am interested in reading Charles Gant's weekly UK box office round-up on Tuesday to see how well the re-release does this weekend - it topped the US box office a couple of weeks ago.
It could lead to studios claiming that 3D isn't dead and rushing to convert their entire back catalogue into 3D.  Disney are already in the process of doing this in fact.
But I feel that it's success lies in a much simpler answer.  People just want to watch good films.  With Hollywood seemingly content on churning out an endless series of sequels, remakes, reboots, comic book movies, etc, is it any wonder that people are embracing the chance to see a really good film on the big screen, even if that film was made 15-20 years ago?
Last year Universal re-released new digital prints of Psycho and Back To The Future.  This year we get Jurassic Park, The Lion King, Ghostbusters and Amelie back on the big screen, and in 2012 Titanic is re-released in 3D.
Similar to the "golden age" thinking that the main character in Midnight In Paris suffers from (see my review), perhaps modern audiences are so disheartened with the current state of Hollywood that they are nostalgic for the past when cinema was great.
It is something to think about... but that doesn't mean that studios should look to re-release EVERYTHING they have ever made, that might be a spot of overkill!

4 stars