Search - Trevor Jones :: Around the World in 80 Days (2004) (Score)

Jules Verne's sturdy tale of Victorian globe trotter Phileas Fogg has seen screen incarnations as diverse as cameo-dotted Mike Todd 1950s widescreen epic, bawdy Aussie romp and Michael Palin travelogue. Here it's reinvented as antic vehicle for the Keaton-esque charms of martial arts legend Jackie Chan, whose comic centerpiece character effectively demotes Steve Coogan's Fogg to straight man. Given that frame, Trevor Jones' energetic orchestral score spends half its time bolstering the comic stunt work with blaring, McAction film boilerplate and the rest either parodying the former, or dishing up more inviting, cartoon-y pastiches of musical nationalism. It never rises to the level of Stalling, but its propulsive nerve is infectious. The Eurhythmics' Dave Stewart anchors proceedings with the anthemic, feel-good singalong, "Everybody All Over the World," while Tina Sugandh dishes up the obligatory sex-kitten vocal tease with the East-Asia-meets-club-beat slink of "River of Dreams." Disney soundtrack staples Baha Men also infuse the theme park standard "It's a Small World" with their typically breezy, if entirely weightless, Caribbean aplomb. --Jerry McCulley