James Horner

Meh. If you get familiar with any composer, that's just how it goes once your ear is attuned to them. I can always tell "Yep that's a John Williams." Doesn't (have to) mean anything bad, they just have their own style and gravitate toward a certain type of film

Indeed, Hans Zimmer, Basil Poledouris, James Newton Howard, you name it, all have their familiar tones and themes in all their works.

Welcome to the club. Every composer has their style, but Horner was infamous for recycling his own material. I could hear suddenly the tune of Fievel mouse in the middle of action movie, or something like that. What the f*ck was that. And he was such a promising new composer in the 80's. He has some works where he showed originality, though. Like Name of the Rose or Vibes. Ironically the latter one seemed not to be appreciated by his fans.