Music Composed by John Ottman
Rating: ***

John Ottman is once again charged with pumping up a thriller, this time with more thrills than chills, in Cellular, a film that teaches us just how important reliable cellular phone service is for our daily survival.

The score marks a unique approach for the composer in that it employs a smorgasbord of electronic percussion and effects that help to fatten out the score, which has been written with economy in mind. Punctuated with rests, Cellular lurches forward with a meaty brass stab, segues into percolating synth percussion and then… Quiet… If this sort of start-stop type of action scoring is your sort of thing you’re going to be grinning like an asshole at a funeral. Otherwise those more accustomed to the entire orchestra ripping forward in unison in the latest score from the seven-man action anthem team will be majorly disappointed.

John Ottman

Cellular is tightly constructed of miniature orchestral bursts (”Going Shopping”, “School’s Out”) straight out of Scoring For ’70’s Action Movies playbook. This is refreshing and fun at times, but doesn’t provide the most stable of listening experiences. The composer does dribble in some pop influences with drum loops and a So-Cal e-guitar, but the score is fairly traditional (the cool vibes and strings in “Making A Connection” make it a disc highlight, other great moments follow in “Freeing Ricky”) in nature. Unfortunately at almost sixty-minutes, this is a pretty long haul. Recorded in Seattle, the album producers were afforded the luxury of releasing as much or as little music as they wanted, so they elected to slam almost all of it on disc. While this provides the discerning (and loaded with free time) listener the opportunity to program out their least favorite tracks, the disc as a pure listening experience is hit and miss.

Personally it took me a few listens to really connect with the score. On first listen I couldn’t be thrilled less, but giving the album a few more chances yielded a few chestnuts. If you’re searching for a mix of contemporary and classic action scoring you could do a lot worse than Cellular. It’s written with some knack for quality and has personality, unlike many of the soulless action scores that are churned out like buckets of Becel these days.

Music Composed and Produced by John Ottman; Conducted by Bruce Harvey; Orchestrated by John Ottman and Lior Rosner; Recorded and Mixed by Casey Stone; Availability: In print; Label (Catalogue): La-La Land Records, (LLLCD 1025); Release Date: October 5, 2004

01. Opening / Abduction (3:09)
02. Going Shopping (3:35)
03. Making a Connection (2:20)
04. The Bait (3:08)
05. Mooney’s Curious (1:22)
06. Freeing Ricky (4:05)
07. School’s Out (4:23)
08. We’re Going to Die (2:11)
09. LAX (4:21)
10. Epiphany/The Bank (4:04)
11. The Pier (4:10)
12. Lost Connection/Dirty Cops (4:44)
13. Hot Porsche/Simply Biology (3:37)
14. Police Station (4:01)
15. Fake Out (2:12)
16. Shoot Out (5:42)

Total Playing Time: 57:23