2003 has proved to be something of a breakout year for Harry Gregson-Williams.  Sure, he's scored various big movies in the past, but the diversity of his three main 2003 assignments, Sinbad, Veronica Guerin and The Rundown show that he has moved towards the top of the Hollywood film composer ladder relatively quickly.  He's done it with consummate skill, and if the films themselves didn't attract a great amount of praise from critics, the scores certainly got noticed and I'm sure that of all the Media Ventures group to emerge over the last decade, Gregson-Williams is the one whose future as a solo composer in film music is the most assured.

The movie is an action comedy based in the South American jungle and Gregson-Williams's score is therefore fashioned around very elaborate percussion, much of it real (for once) and not of the horrible synthesised variety.  There's not much in the way of a main theme, just an underlying feeling and atmosphere that pervades every track.  Despite most of the tracks being so short, the album doesn't come across as being particularly bitty, essentially because of the consistent tone.  

There are a few tracks that do stand out in this.  The jungle rhythms reach dizzying heights in "The Jungle" and "Journey Ends" and there is some good action music in tracks like "Monkeys and Rebels", "Massacre" and especially "Get it On", which is terrific.  Other highlights include typically-assured guitar performances by Heitor Pereira which showcase his undoubted flair.  Sometimes though, Gregson-Williams seems just to be drifting along without really having much to say, and possibly with the judicious pruning of a few of the tracks this album would have played a lot better.  Nothing is particularly poor, the album just loses a little momentum from time to time.

This is the sort of album that makes for very good listening without actually being spectacularly good in any one way.  It is another confident and attractive score from the composer who can surely only move on to bigger and better things in the coming years.