James Horner - Red Heat - Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (1988)

Red Heat ranks among James Horner's most dated and pedestrian film scores. A seemingly random jumble of modern synthesizer textures, ethnic instruments, and traditional Russian choral music, its inconsistency is compounded by its tired, derivative melodies. Bookended by militaristic themes borrowed wholesale (and uncredited) from Prokofiev's cantata Twentienth Anniversary of the October Revolution, Red Heat otherwise favors viscous electronics and thudding rhythms virtually devoid of substance. There's little structural consistency within each individual theme, let alone from track to track, and the arrangements are particularly slapdash. Recommended solely for Horner completists, and even then with major reservations.~ Review by Jason Ankeny