"Parker"
Music By David Buckley
Varese Sarabande VSD-7179
22 Tracks/Disc Time: 57:18
Grade: C+
Parker is the latest thriller based on novels of Donald E. Westlake that have been previously made into films such as Point Blank, Payback and The Hot Rock to name a few. Jason Statham stars Parker, a professional thief with a unique code of eithics is betrayed by his own men led by his former partner, Milander (Michael Chiklis, Vegas). Parker, heals up pretty quickly and then forms a partnership with Leslie (Jennifer Lopez) a woman with the looks and the smarts along with the inside knowledge on his former crew's latest heist. Parker also gets some assistance from his handler, Hurley (Nick Nolte) so that he can be able to settle the score and come out ahead this time around. The film was directed by Taylor Hackford (An Officer And A Gentleman, Devil's Advocate, Proof of Life). The film which has garnered good reviews, but under performed at the box office so far might catch on when its released on Blu Ray and DVD when its released.
In the past Taylor Hackford has utilized a myriad of composers for his movies that have been ecclectic choices at times but have provided memorable scores. Amongst those who have worked with Hackford have been James Newton Howard (Everybody's All American, Devil's Advocate), Danny Elfman (Dolores Claiborne, Proof of Life), Bill Conti (Bound By Honor), Craig Armstrong (Ray), Jack Nitzche (An Officer And A Gentleman) and Michel Colombier (Against All Odds, White Nights) and now up and coming composer, David Buckley joins this rather solid list of musical geniuses whose music has graced Hackford's solid films. Buckley who broke in with fun score for the Jet Li/Jackie Chan martial arts adventure, The Forbidden Kingdom has since worked with Harry Gregson-Williams on Ben Affleck's thrilling film, The Town for which his contribution to the score, a pulsing energetic score that under scores alot of the major action sequences within the film brings that same, similar style to the score for Parker. This score which isn't all that disimiliar to The Town, actually has Buckley expanding his repetoire a little more with varied musical themes to match the rhythmic action.
From the album's opening track "Parker Takes Off", Buckley immediately establishes a mood and atmosphere of suspense and action mixing pulsing electronics with a rocking electric guitar motif and percussion. The score for the most part is mostly suspense and action which fans of the genre will enjoy with standout tracks such as "Ohio State Fair Heist", "Parker's Code", "Not So Clean Escape", "Diamond Heist", and "We've Got The Girl", which really do sound alot like The Town key musical moments and really do work here and have a little more energy and development than that score did. Buckley also provides JLo's character of Leslie with her own fun, standout material with the hip and funky "Leslie In Boca" and "Stick To Business", along with some air of mystery for her character "Leslie Snoops" and "Take Off Your Clothes". The album ends in a reprise of the Parker theme in "Nothing But Bills" to put a capper on this energetic score. Varese's lengthy album is a good production that however does wear you down a bit after a while, but there's plenty of good material to really enjoy the score for what it is: a no holds barred, thematic action score. With Parker, David Buckley definitely succeeded with his action packed score. Recommended with minor reservations of its length.
