Stuart Hancock's score for Chee Keong Cheung's, Bodyguard - A New Beginning is an engaging modern film music piece written for orchestra and electronics. This score puts a little more emphasis on character-driven music, as the story is about a Hong Kong bodyguard who is sent to the UK to protect a woman whose identity is known only by his boss. Hancock's dark, percussive and driving action music is coupled with reflective themes and atmospheric suspense writing...

Following on from Stuart Hancock's soundtrack for Underground, he proves he's not a one trick pony with the release of the equally stunning score for Bodyguard - A New Beginning.

The score kicks off with the pretty impressive 'Opening Titles' and along the way it touches upon just about every emotional theme imaginable.

The opening bar of 'Yuen's Betrayal' reminded me (for a split second) of Christopher Young's main theme for Hellraiser. Although, to be fair, it's a lot different once it starts. Then, about half way through I caught a flavour of Jerry Goldsmith's score for First Blood.

'Chase' also has touches of John Williams score for Jurassic Park mixed with Jerry Goldsmith's music for Total Recall and, once again, First Blood.

In fact themes from First Blood and Jurassic Park seem to appear briefly every now and then through this album, with First Blood-esque segments in 'Return to Hong Kong' and Jurassic Park style themes in both 'Cat and Mouse' and 'Final Conflict'.

These homages are not overly obvious, and to be honest will probably only be noticed by a soundtrack anorak like myself. This album is packed to bursting with original themes which differ greatly from track to track.

With Bodyguard, Hancock proves that his work is up there with the best that Hollywood has to offer. Expect great things from him in the future.

9

Darren Rea