Think of a movie, good or bad, that was made worse by the soundtrack

[Rabrrrrrr]

I think of Kevin Costner's "Robin Hood" that, while a mostly shitty film, had a wonderful soundtrack and music until that asshole Bryan Adams song came into the film.

What the fuck was up with that bullshit?

There were a couple other films ruined by having a rock song appear in an otherwise all orchestral soundtrack, but I can't remember the names.


What movie do you think was made worse, not enhanced, by the soundtrack?

[CBHagman]

1. Not a film per se but a mini-series...

A couple of years ago PBS showed a British mini-series called The Jury. It dealt with the lives of the people serving on a jury in a murder case. I thought the cast was excellent and script intelligent, but the soundtrack drove me round the bend. It was one of those pensive, melancholy scores with a female vocalist doing a lot of humming -- very distracting, and it detracted from what was otherwise an emotionally involving story.

[nuxvomica]

2. Ordeal by Innocence

A poorly done movie version of an Agatha Christie mystery but with a great cast (Donald Sutherland, Faye Dunaway, Christopher Plummer). It had the typical English country atmosphere of a Christie story that clashed mightily with a jazz score by Dave Brubeck!. The movie wasn't great but, man, the score was annoying though possibly listenable on its own.

[Lautremont]

3. Any film where the score shoves you like a bully in the lunch line;

or, in other words, any Hollywood film of the last twenty years or more. With each crescendo they tell you "You are feeling PATHOS! You are feeling FRIGHTENED! Oh-ho-ho, this is FUNNY!" Geez, stop it already and let the movie do its thing.

[XemaSab]

10. Almost any film scored by John Williams

The dude has no capacity for understatement.

[Arkham House]

4. Glory

A pretty good Civil War story, very loosely based on the Mass 54th, the first all-black regiment...but James Horner's music almost ruined it. At the climax, the music was almost a parody of The Hallelujah Chorus...veddy uplifting and spiritual...and very annoying and getting in the way. Jesus, let the action speak for itself...

[Tyrone Slothrop]

27. I've never seen that movie

But my roommate my freshman year of college loved that soundtrack and played it incessantly.

Really cool guy...
:sarcasm:

[MorningGlow]

5. Haven't seen it but somebody please tell me

that they didn't REALLY use "Collide" in the latest incarnation of Pride & Prejudice with Keira Knightley. It was bad enough to see a period piece saddled with a modern song in the TV ads...

:puke:

[BreweryYardRat]

6. Ladyhawke.

That got turned off halfway through because I couldn't take the suckiness of the soundtrack. Pity, since it seemed to be a good flick.

Medieval settings do not work well with 80s music.

[BigMcLargehuge]

7. Ko Otani's score for Godzilla Mothra King Ghidorah

and Otani's scores for the Heisei Gamera trilogy suck wind

[scoey1953]

23. I loved the original score for the 1953 version of Gojirra

Yay! Lets hear it for obscure music that few people listen to anymore!!

[swag]

8. "Moulin Rouge," the Baz Luhrmann

piece of shit was an awful movie made worse by an abominable soundtrack.

[Taverner]

33. I'm glad I'm not the only one who hated that film

Sorry, it sucked, reaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaally sucked....

[fudge stripe cookays]

9. "Ravenous" with Robert Carlyle

about an army unit in the Sierra Nevadas or somewhere in the late 1800s.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0129332/

I just remember it being very discordant and unpleasant.

[AlCzervik]

28. oh dear god i saw that movie about a month ago

thought i was going to puke from all the blood but i did enjoy it, the movie that is, not the blood.

[giant_robot]

11. Both Flash Gordon and Highlander II

I have nothing against pre-1980's Queen, but in the '80s they made two abysmally bad films even worse.

[Rabrrrrrr]

12. Oh, I agree on Flash Gordon. Pure rot, in terms of music and movie.

The music is okay on its own, but it doesn't work with the movie at all.

Thankfully, I've never submitted myself to the suffering that is Highlander II, after some trusted friends warned me off of it.

[giant_robot]

13. You have very good friends, sir. n/t

[Rabrrrrrr]

14. I think they are worthy of a spot in heaven, just for that.

And they - and I - are guys who can pretty well tolerate even really bad crap if it's a science-fiction or ass-kicking violent movie, especially with fantasy overtones.

But even they, who can sit through some miserable shit, came back from that movie appalled.

I consider their sacrifice one of the greatest in the history of humanity. Sure, Jesus said that offering one's life is the highest form of love; but at least in death, the pain is gone. These guys were willing NOT to die, but to suffer endlessly for all their living days with the memory.

[Skittles]

24. FLASH!!!! AH-AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

ya

[meegbear]

31. SAVIOROFTHEUNIVERSE!!!!

So bad it's good.

[Kat45]

15. "Crossroads" (not the Britney movie)

A movie involving blues music. The movie wasn't great, but the blues soundtrack by Ry Cooder was excellent--worth getting the CD.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

30. Whew! I thought you were going to say it was bad!

Ry rocks!

[RevCheesehead]

16. You mean like Forrest Gump?

The first time I saw the movie, I thought it was clever. Now I think of all the musical "gotcha" stuff as trite and rather annoying.

[Rabrrrrrr]

17. The whole movie is trite and annoying.

:puke:

[RevCheesehead]

18. You wouldn't say that if Wilford Brimley was in it.

Now, "China Syndrome" - there was a movie, with precious little music at all in it. And quite a bit of Wilford.

[Rabrrrrrr]

19. Wilford Brimley wouldn't have done that movie!

Or he would have required it to be rewritten to not suck.

[Taverner]

34. Uh oh...DU'er ForrestGump might see this

And bring all kinds of tribulations by the hand of the mighty Elvis upon thee!

[ContraBass Black]

20. I only saw it once, so I avoided that issue.

:hi:

[RevCheesehead]

21. Hi, CBB!

:hi:

[wickerwoman]

22. Any movie that has ever used "We Will Rock You" or "My Girl"

Neither is an abominable song on it's own, but both are such vomit inducing cliches when included in music soundtracks. Doubly so in "A Knight's Tale" when the crowd at a frickin* medieval jousting tournament starts singing "We Will Rock You". :sigh:

Also, although I loved all of the Lord of the Rings movies the songs that ran on the credits for all three were pretty much phoned in by the respective artists (Enya, Annie Lennox and someone else- maybe Enya again) and did nothing for the scores in the rest of the films.

[Deep13]

25. The Wicker Man nm

[Tyrone Slothrop]

26. Planes, Trains and Automobiles

A nice funny family holiday comedy that's ruined by some squealing 80s guitar bullshit that pops up periodically.

I still have no idea who or why did that soundtrack, but they should be shot.

[mr blur]

29. Wim Wenders' "Million Dollar Hotel"

Pretty good film with awful music from the dreadful Bono and the appalling U2.

[Blue_In_AK]

32. Couldn't agree with you more about Bona and U2.

:puke:

[Paladin]

35. Worst Sound Track Ever: "Neighbors" (1981)

This is the only movie I've ever encountered where the sound track literally ruined the movie for me.

The flick was already laboring from the truly unfortunate decision of Dan Ackroyd and John Belushi to switch roles: Belushi ended up playing the uptight, suburban nebbish, while Ackroyd did the crazy-ass neighbor from hell. I could have put up with that, but jeez, that music. Bombastic, loud, not even remotely attuned to the movie's weird vibes. I think I read somewhere that the composer was a friend of Belushi's, which is easy to believe.

Really sad, because the movie had the potential for minor cult classic status.....