This is a really great compilation and contains a great selection of themes from the past few years. All the selections are performed very well and are mostly arranged very well. The only thing that is really bad, is Crimson Tide by Hans Zimmer. In this arrangement the choir is far too prominent and when they try and "hum" some of the backing parts, it sounds really bad. In the original, the choir were there to add an extra dimension to the music and to sing the hymn, here they destroy the sound to a large extent, which is a shame as the actual way the music is fitted together to provide this shortened version of the original track, is very good. They do in fact sing Eternal Father Strong to Save at the end and that is sung very well, the words being considerably more clear than on the original. Conversely, most of the other selections feature a synthesised choir and tends to be more in the background. What is most ridiculous is that the suite from Independence Day uses as choir as the finale to the suite is the end of the end titles of the original. In this case, the synthetic choir is much more in the background and isn't irritatingly overbearing as in the original. This makes it seem much less over the top as the original ending. The slightly more prominent use of a church organ also enhances the music greatly and gives the ending more definition than the original, rather than dragging out as much.
The James Horner selections are all good and well performed, the suite from Jumanji makes it seem a much better score than it really is and the toning down of the inevitable sakuhatchi was very welcome indeed. Only Braveheart is rather lame sounding and being shorter than the original end credits seems to just happen rather than being as powerful as it should be. The arrangement of Apollo 13 is excellent and although finishing with an extra chord at the end, is slightly louder than the original version of this track. The Mark Mancia selections from Speed and Twister are all right, but they don't inspire me to go out and buy the scores it has to be said. The selection from Batman Forever is different to that on Hollywood '95 and these feature more synths, but they are used well and are reasonably faithful to the original. I would definitely recommend this to everyone as there are some fine performances of some great film music.
Rating ~ 