Whereas Elfman evoked Schifrin's style, but made it his own, Zimmer (and entourage) does his own thing. There are swathes of rock riffs, electric guitars, a minimum or orchestra and the occasional dollop of male voice choir for the comically over the top drama. Instead of Elfman's funky, orchestral upgrading of the M:I theme for the big screen, we get Zimmer's electric guitars laden one in track 5, which is loud and woefully bad. The quieter moments are, surprisingly, the best the album has to offer; Lisa Gerrard delivers some more of her pleasant vocals, most notably in Injection (covering one of the more stupid moments in the film). The fashion for flamenco music in film scores continues here in Seville. The foot tapping and clapping may be slightly old hat - indeed, it doesn't sound hugely different from Horner's Zorro, just vaguely generic and Spanish - but it's good on CD and works marvellously in the film with Woo's trademark slow motion direction.
Heitor Pereira provides a quite lovely acoustic guitar solo in Nyah (film version), one of the album's highlights. Unfortunately, it's one of the few of note and the whole thing is generally irritatingly eclectic and bounces between one uninspiring passage to another; the wailing guitars are especially unwanted. Each cue is designed to work as an item unto itself, but doesn't lend itself melodically, stylistically or dramatically toward any kind of end point. This would be just about acceptable if it was enjoyable, but if you don't enjoy the disparate elements, then you're still stuffed. I tried, I really did, but I can't recommend it and recommend the film even less. What a shame.
Rating ~ 
Total Time ~ 45:56 *
Contains Mission: Impossible theme by Lalo Schifrin