One star

As an exercise in pointlessness, this soundtrack to the film of the same name really does take the biscuit.

The fact that it's 2002 and almost nobody else does late 80s rock anymore has failed to click with Adams, who is determined to ram his anodyne brand of husky ballads down your throat.

The only saving grace for this whole depressing affair is the fact that some of the soundtrack is instrumental and thankfully written by somebody else (Hans Zimmer). But even this fails to save the whole sorry affair.

The rest is soulless ballad-rock by numbers, something Adams is quite proficient with but something you've heard a million times before - and it wasn't good then.

If you've heard the single Here I Am, multiply it by 14, add a standard sounding film score and you've heard the album.

What's sad is that he seems so happy doing this, making no attempt whatsoever to break the mould.

It's a shame this man is given airtime anymore. It's a shame indeed that he's still got a record contract.

JS