Sonic Student

363 Sonic Clips - Mega Popcorn

A sound review of popular Hollywood movies, Part I

Crash – There is a scene where a biracial lady is trapped in a car that has turned over and there is gasoline from a truck all around. You can hear the sounds of the truck and then fire touch the gasoline. It makes this igniting sound that I can’t explain (kind of a short “vooommp!” sound) that automatically heightens the intensity of the situation. You can hear the fire crackling and moving toward the vehicle. With a name like Crash, there was definitely some crashing taking place. – Tolu Akande

Left Behind II: World at War – Sound effects were used well to create a war atmosphere. After the third world war starts and bombings simultaneously occur in many large cities across the country, the President is sitting in his oval office reflecting into a video camera – you can hear explosions in the background…bombs exploding and of helicopters flying overhead. These sounds create tension and a sense of urgency. – Cynthia Erickson

Sin City – What really makes this movie great are the sound effects. The sound effects are crisp and clean and definitely defining. It enhances the actions scenes so much that that the score helps it out a bit to give it the finishing touch. When a punch is thrown, you can distinctly hear the swoosh of the arm of the pssst of a bullet whizzing by someone. Even the pounding of the rain was good and atmospheric. – Brandon Scott

Blow – Apart from the classic rock songs, there is a substantial amount of cinematic mood music…used in a very unobtrusive, natural manner [adding] tone and color to the already vibrant movie. Sound effects like footsteps, doors, dishes rattling, gunshots and of course…“cocaine snorts all sound very sharp and up close to the listener. – Karl Wickers

The Sixth Sense – M. Night (writer) can seemingly paint with sound, and what I mean by that is you know what he was thinking and he knows exactly how he wants you to look at a scene by the way the music feels and the sounds that are going on screen….there is a feeling of uncertainty when you watch his movies and all because of the sounds that he uses. – Jeb Randall

The Shawshank Reedemption – Thomas Newman, who also did music for The Road to Perdition and the Green Mile, utilizes his unique understanding of music to create new compositions for the movie…His general understanding of sound created a movie that reaches the humanity in us all. [In the Marriage of Figaro scene] the song rings out over the yard and through the interior of Shawshank. The men stop and just listen as if nothing were more important than what the two women were singing. This moment was very powerful to me. – Steven Chamoun

Armageddon – You hear the echoes of their footsteps as they walk down the hall. You also hear their voice echo very loudly in the wide open hallway. In the background you can hear other people having conversations and you can hear the computers and other electronics that are near them running …It is also very interesting to not that that when the character Chick puts down the toy space shuttle, the last sound you hear musically is the drum cymbal when the shuttle touches the ground. - Casey Doyle

Spiderman – The sound effects of the movie are top of the line….All of the sounds are very creative and sharp. Most of the sounds are very futuristic and amazing. They really help you soak in and mold the story throughout all of the action scenes…The sound transitions throughout the entire movie really are flawless. – Derek Garber

Texas Chainsaw Massacre – As the story line progressed, the sound effects of the chainsaw and the chase music graced the twisted film. As the body count grew rapidly throughout the film, there was an increase in weird sound effects. There were times when the music would throw the audience off making us believe that no action was coming. – Cas Matory

War of the Worlds – Unique sounds were those created for the aliens. Like when the lightening bolts are crashing to Earth, it really didn't resemble the sound that we would associate with lightening and thunder. I guess that was the point. They use a lot of effects when it comes to the asphalt on streets crumbling or buildings being hit by the aliens' beam. They also came up with a unique sound for human bodies being vaporized... - Antonio Correa

posted by Phylis Johnson @ 12:50 AM