Following the UK theatrical release of Fifty Dead Men Walking, Movie Score Media releases the hard-hitting contemporary original score by Ben Mink. The movie is a gritty action thriller which is based on the true story by Martin McGartland who was recruited by the British Police to spy on the IRA in the late eighties...

While I'm sure this soundtrack works well to heighten the emotions of the movie, as a stand alone collection of tracks it's rather disappointing. Peppered through out with dull music cues, there's very little soul to this soundtrack.

Only in mellow tracks like 'Last Sweet' does composer Ben Mink get to show a deeper side to his composing. This was my favourite track on the album and the only one I actually really enjoyed.

Tracks like 'Street Fighting' and 'Danger' have a ring of Harry Gregson Williams's music from Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare about them. This is something I'm picking up a lot at present - as though several modern composers are huge COD4 fans. I've mentioned this previously in reviews of Stuart Hancock's soundtrack for Underground as well as Benjamin Wallfisch music for The Escapist. Or it could be that this is the latest sampling software that everyone's currently using.

The last track 'We Will Have Won', for me, was the worst track on the album. The lyrics sound like the words of someone who's trying to be a poet - but failing miserably - and the music is so cliched that you'll have heard this in about a million other incarnations in numerous other films.

It's not really worth wading through this album to get to the good tracks, because even they aren't overly impressive. If dull, music cues are your thing then you'll love this - otherwise don't bother.

4

Darren Rea