Lalo Schifrin - Rush Hour - Original Film Score (1998)

Director Brett Ratner's idea seems to have been to update and comment on the martial arts classic Enter the Dragon with Rush Hour, and in hiring Lalo Schifrin, who scored the earlier film, he took a big step toward achieving his goal. Schifrin, whose dramatic, jazzy scores for film and television were dominant in the late 1960s and early '70s, but who has been less prominent since, takes up the challenge of writing a score as bold and dramatic as his earlier ones, and the effects are as powerful here as in the Dirty Harry films, Enter the Dragon, and Mission: Impossible. Sudden shifts from his patented funk-for-orchestra style to Asian motifs, quick rhythms, and blaring horn themes all suggest Schifrin's characteristic approach. If he is almost parodying himself by doing all this in an action-comedy film starring Jackie Chan, the echoes of his earlier music help the movie work, and they are enjoyable on disc.~Rush Hour [Original Score] Review by William Ruhlmann