Red Sky isn’t what you’d call an “A-title”. This direct to video misfire from Mario Van Peebles is full of everything you’ve ever seen from any other film. With nothing new to bring to the table in this Top Gun meets Behind Enemy Lines, I thought it would be interesting to see how a versatile talent like Timothy Williams would approach it. Now, Williams is probably not a name you would know, but he is in no way new to the business. The man has proven himself as an amazing orchestrator and conductor, and is known for working on many of Tyler Bates’ scores. He also has a decent amount of scores he has composed under his belt as well. That is why I found the score for Red Sky to be surprisingly not terrible. But with only 26-minutes of music and an asinine plot, the music never really stood a chance to be anything more than a decent distraction.So here is what works. The score to me has lots of great melodies and action writing. In fact I was impressed at how some of the arcs were able to build in such a short score. Nothing about the style or approach is noteworthy other than the nostalgia factor. I found myself thinking more about 90’s action scores from Hans Zimmer more than getting wrapped up in the narrative. The style and sound put a smile on my face because it did slightly remind me of that amazing decade for action films. Other than that the score has little else to offer. Everything here is standard and expected. We expect those "on the nose" character moments that are supposed to forcefully flesh out these characters, give them some heart. When in reality they are cliched and eye-roll inducing. The rest of the score follows the film’s predictable path and culminates with a cheesy anthem about being a kick-ass fighter pilot.Red Sky’s score could have been a lot worse. However, Timothy Williams managed to focus on decent melodies and an old-school 90’s sound to make the score a decent distraction. The score offers nothing compelling in terms of a narrative or characters, but from what I heard here I know that Williams is capable of great things if he had the right project. I think this score put on display some great writing moments, and he’s definitely a composer to keep on your radar.Kaya Savas for filmmusicmedia.com