La-La Land Record release Henry Jackman's score for The Interview. In this action-comedy, Dave Skylark and his producer Aaron Rapoport run the popular celebrity tabloid TV show Skylark Tonight. When they discover that North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un is a fan of the show, they land an interview with him in an attempt to legitimize themselves as journalists. As Dave and Aaron prepare to travel to Pyongyang, their plans change when the CIA recruits them, perhaps the two least-qualified men imaginable, to assassinate Kim Jong-un...

Henry Jackman's score for The Interview is an almost faultless example of how to make movie action adventure music also accessible outside of the film. There's a feel of James Horner's scores for the original Star Trek movies, most notably in the track 'The 'Wrath Of Kim' - which implies that it may have been intentional.

Staying with the Trek theme, 'So Long Sook' has a segment that reminded me of 'Ilia's Theme' from Jerry Goldsmith's score for Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979).

There's some "bonus material" on the disc, in the form of Jackman's score for This is the End. I say "bonus", but as the running time for The Interview score isn't very long, adding this additional music is a way of padding out the album. The two compliment each other remarkably well too. And oddly enough, 'The Final Rapture' (which is from This is the End) also pays homage to Star Trek: II - The Wrath of Kahn.

Of this album's 35 min, 08 sec running time, the first 11 tracks (22 min, 11 sec) are from The Interview, with the remaining 6 tracks (12 min, 57 sec) being from This is the End.

At times this album blurs the line between score and classic music. It's an epic sounding score that's well worth adding to your collection.

9

Darren Rea