Typically going by his stage name, Junkie XL, Tom Holkenborg has become one of the premier minds in show business when it comes to creating a score for a movie, enough so that it deserves a good bit of recognition that he’s so rightfully earned. A lot of us tend to go to the movies and watch the action, the drama, the comedy, and so on and so forth and seem to pay little attention to the soundtrack that’s blasting at us along with the dialogue at times, but on a much deeper level the score is what’s really keeping us in our seat since when it’s set along with the movie it conspires to create a set of emotions powerful enough to keep us interested and entirely invested in what we’re watching. Of course there are those movies in which the score doesn’t matter since a person is so firmly set against them, but when it becomes a blended harmony between the movie and its score it’s hard to avoid and it’s even harder to say that without the music that you would care about the movie as much.
Here are the five best movies that Tom has scored.
5. Divergent
Honestly the books seemed to have been given a lot more attention than the movies thus far but one can’t help but agree that the idea behind them is something profound and in this day and age something that seems more likely to happen one day. The fear of such a thing of course is enough to keep people trying to rail against such a future, but the whole concept is something that continues to unnerve and attract one idea after another since the concept is something that seems terrifying but at the same time compelling since free will and the freedom of choice is something that people are typically loathe to give up.
4. Black Mass
It’s been stated by Bryan Alexander of USA Today that the real James “Whitey” Bulger didn’t really care for Johnny Depp’s take on his character, which honestly doesn’t really make a lot of people shed a tear since during his day Whitey was one of the most violent gangsters that Southie had ever known. The movie might not have caught the attention of enough people to really make it any bigger than it was but there was something insanely creepy about the way that Depp played this character and how into it he really got. If you go and read the actual history of Whitey Bulger you might be kind of taken back to realize just how bad the guy really was.
3. Deadpool
The Merc with a Mouth had been featured in animated spots before this movie but selecting Ryan Reynolds for this part was absolute genius since he not only played the part of Wade Wilson to a tee, but he picked up on the vibe of Deadpool in such a big way that you can’t help but think that he’s the only guy that should be wearing the suit until he’s not able to do it any longer. Whether there will be a Deadpool 3 or not, or if he’ll show up in other movies, is kind of hard to say at this point but it does feel easy to say that he’ll be a fan favorite for quite some time after this and the second movie.
2. Mad Max: Fury Road
If this movie had nothing else going for it then the soundtrack would still be considered awesome since it was the kind of pulse-pounding sound that you can’t help but get into. Think about it this way, someone decided to have a live guitarist pumping up the soldiers while in the middle of a high-speed chase across the desert, and while it might not seem entirely practical there’s no denying that hard-hitting music that tears at the nerves and spurs people on is bound to put people in the spirit of pillaging and ripping their enemies apart. What a lovely, lovely day indeed as the war party goes ripping across the sand.
1. 300: Rise of an Empire
It didn’t really live up to the movie that came before it but the imagery and the soundtrack conspired to make this movie a bit more memorable than some feel that it should have been since the insane and ultimately bloody battle between the Persian army and the Greeks was something that hadn’t been seen at that point and was quite honestly the kind of tale that bards were bound to speak of for years to come. The factual battle actually wasn’t deviated from as much as people might think and while the movie did take a lot of liberties it still kept to the core idea for the most part while seeking to entertain the audience.
Tom has got some mad skills without a doubt.
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