Fresno Famous

Editor's note: This review comes to us from Silverlinin, who was one of the winners of our "Hanna" ticket givewaway. 

Can a great soundtrack make a movie?

For the second time this year, I found myself watching a marginal movie basedon nothing more than the promise of an epic soundtrack.

Last night it was the Joe Wright directed film "Hanna" starring that blonde girl fromAtonement Saorise Ronan, Eric Bana and Cate Blanchett.

While I am a fan of both Eric and Cate, I have to admit that it was the soundtrackby the Chemical Brothers that had me signing up to win the free tickets that Fresno Famous had up for grabs. Before I get too far along, thanks for the freetickets Fresno Famous, free is always a good thing.
I should explain that The Chemical Brothers were my gateway drug toelectronica. I was in the pit at the Bomb Factory in Dallas for their Dig Your Own Hole tour in the 90s, and the Brothers and I have definitely been "working it out" for years. Plus, it wasn't too many months ago that my love of electronica had meenduring the disaster that was "Tron: Legacy" just to hear Daft Punk get "Derezzed."

"Hanna" was not a disaster by any means, but I was hoping to walk away wantingto be a 16 year old assassin complete with a bow and arrow and a fluency inArabic. Instead, I walked away thinking they should have gone further, it shouldhave been darker, it should have crawled under my skin and slipped into mydreams for the next few days. An R rating might actually have worked well here.

There were a few brilliant fight scenes including a "Matrix"-esque urban-underground combat scene that should have been longer and a late-night cargocontainer scene that could have been shorter…both of which where only brilliantthanks to the Chemical Brothers soundtrack.

I don't think I was the only one in the packed audience a bit underwhelmed. AsI walked out several of the folks around me were mumbling that the film wasdefinitely lacking. A bit of a surprise really since the movie is getting strongreviews and Focus Features is putting some serious marketing muscle into it. Ithink they are hoping to make "Hanna" into a teenage girl version of Jason Bourne.
So this brings me back to my original question, can a great soundtrack make a movie? I say if free tickets are involved, definitely.