Bicentennial Man: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack

Even the greatest names in film scoring have occasionally face a dilemma not so different from making a good Thanksgiving dinner: how to stuff a turkey. And not even noted scenery carnivore Robin Williams (playing a household robot who gradually becomes human) could mug his way out of this syrupy Chris Columbus-directed reworking of Pinocchio. Modern maestro James Horner dishes up a serviceable, twinkly score full of swelling strings and quietly "magical" passages; Spielberg-Williams Lite--not to mention a decade or so late. The James Horner-Will Jennings-Celine Dion team responsible for Titanic's "My Heart Will Go On" (and on and on and on) returns here with the decidedly tacked-on "Then You Look at Me." Dion retired immediately thereafter--'nuff said. --Jerry McCulley