James Newton Howard is a composer on a rapid rise up the ranks as one of my favorite film composers. THE SIXTH SENSE takes a Penderecki approach - sharp stingers and dissonant sustained strings, with a soft touch of chorus and piano. It works extremely well in the film, capturing the essence of the supernatural and the melancholy romance.

Most feature films are severely lacking it seems these days to capture true magic with their scores - perhaps it's because Mark McKenzie (partime orchestrator for Danny Elfman) is writing music for television films like DURANGO. McKenzie's music manages to embarass a lot of feature scores with bigger budgets and bigger "name" composers, with a mind bending main theme, melodic, romantic passages and rousing triumphant material.

Michael Kamen's score for THE IRON GIANT is as important to the sheer delight I have while watching the film as are the voices and animation. Criticized for not containing a dominant theme, closer inspection will find there are indeed motifs and signatures that help give the score identity. The beautiful "No Following" defies the listener not to get emotional. The score album features a terrific performance and brilliant sound quality.

While not a traditional "comedy", GOODBYE LOVER the film fails where GOODBYE LOVER the score succeeds - in creating a subversive, tongue-in-cheek slyness. John Ottman is continually proving he is a composer capable of writing in different modes while still maintaining a stylistic voice yet not repeat himself - something that is difficult to do, but which he does so well with this score.

Marc McKenzie appears again - this time with another richly thematic and melodic score. McKenzie injects alot of Elfmanish madcap, lilting violins but the dominant main theme is the portion of this score that has so far achieved a great deal of notoriety. While the rest of the album never quite sustains the level the first cue achieves, it's hard to imagine any music being capable of doing so. A magnificent score that shouldn't be forgotten!

After schlepping it as James Horner's orchestrator and injecting a lot of scores with his own zeal, Don Davis was allowed the budget and time to write a truly complex and original action film score. Instead of taking the wailing electric guitar synth route, a sleek, percussive and dissonant approach was employed. With large chorus and union orchestra, Davis arrived in 1999 with a breakthrough score.

Jerry Goldsmith is perhaps the world of filmmusic's most popular composer. While he has never achieved the same public awareness that John Williams has by association with Steven Spielberg, Goldsmith it seems has continued to write great film music for films that rarely deserved it. In 1999, Goldsmith found himself in that same trap - writing scores for three films that will go down as being: a disapointment but financial success (THE MUMMY), a critical and financial failure (THE 13th WARRIOR) and one of the years worst films (THE HAUNTING).

THE MUMMY is the most satisfying of the three scores, as it allows Goldsmith the opportunity to write in mock-heroic, action and romantic modes. It shares a remarkable similiarity to THE 13th WARRIOR - which Goldsmith wrote prior to THE MUMMY - in it's ethnic-middle-eastern flair (the use of sitar) and adult chorus. THE 13th WARRIOR as an album grows a bit weary as it goes along (it runs almost an hour on CD) but highlights include Goldsmith's brilliant "Semantics" (underscoring the films one, truly fascinating scene).

That leaves THE HAUNTING, where Jan De Bont jilted previous composer of choice Mark Mancina for Goldsmith - in obvious attempts to dress up his scare-less film. I'm sure the producers hoped for another POLTERGEIST and at times Goldsmith's thematic material for Nell (Lili Taylor) treads the same area. The finale cue is the standout, while the ill-advised circus motif that opens the CD is the lowlight.

Jerry Goldsmith is "Composer of The Year" in my opinion because the three major releases with his music all were kicked up a notch or two because of his contribution. While the three may not be classic scores in Goldsmith's filmography, they are good enough as output from one composer to warrant the award.

My pick for score of the year?
SLEEPY HOLLOW - Danny Elfman. Read my review here...

The following scores were also rather interesting:
DOGMA - Howard Shore, THE OUT-OF-TOWNERS and SOUTH PARK: BIGGER, LONGER and UNCUT - Marc Shaiman, ELECTION - Rolfe Kent, HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL - Don Davis, TEACHING MRS. TINGLE - John Frizzell.

Worst Movies Of The Year:
STIGMATA, WING COMMANDER, CRUEL INTENTIONS, THE MOD SQUAD, IDLE HANDS, AMERICAN PIE, EYES WIDE SHUT, THE HAUNTING, WILD WILD WEST, THE WORLD IS NOT ENOUGH, DOUBLE JEOPARDY.

Best Movies Of The Year:
SLEEPY HOLLOW, THE MATRIX, ELECTION, THE IRON GIANT, GO, SOUTH PARK: BIGGER, LONGER AND UNCUT, DEEP BLUE SEA, THE SIXTH SENSE, AMERICAN BEAUTY.