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83jrg
He is represented by Koyo Sonae at Soundtrack Music Associates.
John grew up near the Blue Ridge Mountains and holds degrees from Williams College and Stanford University.
Reviews
The Water Horse (2007)
nothing like the book; packed with pointless, repetitious "action"; score XLNT
First off, the score is a 10 -- absolutely great. However, overall this movie left our children - - ages 6 to 13 -- in tears, as the Waterhorse is repeatedly (and repetitiously) threatened by the same things over and over. Our children loved the book, but the movie includes almost nothing of the joy and private mystery that make the book so engaging. Instead, apparently in an effort to make an action movie, the filmmmaker introduces a tedious, un-funny, un-exciting, but violent pack of soldiers who blow a lot of things up. Plus, there is a frankly off-putting / gross rub-a-tug relationship between the home's drunken (female) cook and the (male) army cook, the latter of whom also turns out to be a villain, though a somewhat inept one.
The result is a movie with none of the book's charm (or its own charm) a bunch of gratuitous explosions, continually putting the child and the waterhorse in frightening jeopardy, and turning the English troops (quasi-"bad guys" in the Scotland setting) into half-frightening, half annoying heavies. And they aren't even very good at that.
Finally, there is a harsh, endlessly-milked, gratuitous handling of a family tragedy that was heartbreaking to the children and, again, a major departure from the book. Just an awful movie for our children and a tedious bore for the adults.
Shut Up and Sing (2006)
Sideways meets The Big Chill
Wrestling with what happens, not after graduation, but AFTER after graduation may at first seem kind of unambitious, but director / writer Bruce Leddy keeps you laughing through the whole thing even as he skates through mortality, repressed anger and regret, longstanding feuds among friends, and of course a brush with authority -- you know, the typical components of comedy. A delightful movie with many scenes that you'll remember vividly long after you've seen the picture. Leddy skillfully zooms through all kinds of thirty-something angst without getting turgid or tedious, keeping a patter of jokes -- sometimes deep, sometimes on the (ahem) immature side -- bubbling along so that the ride is fun. Kind of like Sideways, kind of like Big Chill, but with more jokes and EXCELLENT singing.