Amazon.co.uk Review
If there's one thing film producers and record executives like more than Success, it's Success Part II. Thus when Ridley Scott's high-tech sword 'n' sandal epic
Gladiator scored both Golden Globe wins and Academy Award nods for Best Film and Best Score, it was a sure bet that another volume of Hans Zimmer and Lisa Gerrard's music for the film couldn't be far behind. While not exactly leftovers, the tracks here sometimes point to the fact that there wasn't enough fresh material to fill this volume out, hence we get some remixed cues, a handful of familiar music with dramatic dialogue excerpts edited and superimposed (or misplaced, with decidedly mixed results), and even a beat-heavy, dance club mix of "Now We Are Free". With a little over half an hour of entirely fresh material and some souvenir dialogue snippets over the rest, there's enough here to please
Gladiator die-hards. Also of note: guitarist Heitor Pereira's flamenco-flavored flourishes are better showcased throughout while "The Gladiator Waltz" serves up one of Zimmer's original synth demos (with a dash of Russell Crowe dialogue upfront), a dramatic amp-up of Holst's "Mars, the Bringer of War" that's a prime example of the composer's state-of-the-art digital orchestral conjuring. --
Jerry McCulley