So what was the worst movie with the best soundtrack. You can choose a truly horrible movie with a decent soundtrack. You can choose a mostly bad movie with a fantastic soundtrack. Even better, find a horrible movie with an amazing soundtrack.
I really think I have the winner. While I was laying down in what felt like my deathbed this weekend I came across Blues Brothers 2000. A truly awful movie. None of the charm of the first one. Not one laugh. Boring plot. No Belushi. But the music is amazing. I watched to the end just for the music. The movie was worth making just to see the Louisiana Gator Boys at the end. One of the best super groups ever put together. And of course the Blues Brothers Band was one of the tightest R&B groups ever put together. And in this one they got a good singer in Joe Morton.
No one better mention Crossroads (Macchio not Spears) because dammit that’s a great movie.
I kind of liked that movie. And the soundtrack was trying really hard to be a Springsteen ripoff. But it certainly was popular. It brings me back to a simpler time. A time when we thought that Tom Berenger and Michael Pare were going to be big stars.
Singles was pretty bad. But I don’t think the movie part was totally unwatchable. It is Cameron Crowe after all. I seem to remember a few good parts. I’ll have to go back and try it again to see.
“La Bamba” is a good soundtrack with standout performances from Los Lobos and a couple of other good numbers (including a semi-uncanny Eddie Cochranesque rendition of “Summertime Blues” by Brian Setzer).
The movie on the other hand is second-rate with distracting subplots including Ritchie Valens’ relationships with his mother, irritating half-brother and girlfriend whose parents Do Not Approve Of The Relationship. I’ve never been able to stomach watching it all the way through, but the album is worthwhile.
The first one that came to my mind was ‘One From the Heart’. A muddled mess of a drama (from Coppola, no less) but a wonderful soundtrack by Tom Waits with Crystal Gayle.
Unpopular opinion time - Highlander. Yes, the first one.
The movie had a great premise, but squandered it on a paper thin plot and characters who never quite rose to being two-dimensional (although Clancy Brown as the Kurgan almost salvaged it on that front).
But A Kind of Magic is pretty much the best soundtrack album ever.
Alleged comedy Young Einstein. Ebert’s review summed it up accurately: “Young Einstein is a one-joke movie, and I didn’t laugh much the first time.” Great soundtrack though, a nice sampler of late 80s Australian bands, including the Paul Kelly hit “Dumb Things”
My husband and I love that movie, it’s one of our favorites and we think it’s a work of genius. But then, what do we know, we also adore The Cotton Club. We saw One From The Heart in the theater when it was first released and it blew us away. It was the first VHS we ever bought and boy was it expensive (at least $100.00) but it was worth it. We watched it dozens of times over the years. Unfortunately no one will ever see the theatrical version we fell in love with. Several years ago it was released on DVD and the editing was completely butchered, ruining the entire movie. For us, anyway. All the good stuff is still there, but it doesn’t fit together the same brilliant way.
But yes, the soundtrack is indeed wonderful. The film is about 4 couples, Teri Garr and Frederic Forrest who break up, then Teri Garr and her new beau Raul Julia, Frederic Forrest and his obsession with Nastassja Kinski, and the unnamed singers are characters also. They’re not singing about the action on screen, they’re singing about themselves.
We had the LP and wore it out but never saw a CD. Then we found the CD in a store in London at the end of a trip there. We had already spent all of our money and had to borrow cash from a friend to get it. Thanks friend!
The full album is on YouTube. Here’s a beautiful taste for those who’ve never experienced it. Tom Waits. Crystal Gayle. Jazz Sax & trumpet. Melancholy lyrics. melt
I can get behind that. Highlander is a bad movie that grows on you after your buddies make you watch it dozens of times. The Queen songs were great and “A Kind of Magic” does act as a de facto soundtrack album.
In a similar vein I would also nominate Purple Rain. The movie does not have the cult following of Highlander, but it was pretty popular at the time. I thought it was a bad and cliched movie that would have been all but forgotten without its soundtrack. But what a soundtrack.
I have not actually watched *Streets of Fire*in many years, but I don’t think it is bad in the sense of unenjoyable. It might well be bad in the sense of overwrought and incredibly campy.
Almost all the examples listed are song compilations, which is pretty easy to assemble even (or especially) for a crappy film.
My vote goes to Cutthroat Island, as craptastic a pirate movie as you can imagine, with virtually no charm or excitement, despite plenty of heavy-lifting to achieve both.
But John Debney’s score? Especially as realized on the album, where it’s not buried by explosions and Geena Davis talking? Absolutely brilliant, one of the best of the 90s and stands up well to the classic Korngold music from the same genre. One I listen to over and over and never get tired of it. Remarkable stuff, even though the movie it came from is truly horrible.
I would consider The Last American Virgin to be more lousy than good but Rotten Tomatoes has it at a 70% approval percentage with makes my smiley all :dubious:
That said, there’s no question the soundtrack is loaded.
An eclectic mix of 80’s goodness (Whip It and I Know What Boys Like) serious power ballads (**Journey’s **Open Arms and *Keep On Loving You *by REO Speedwagon) one golden remnant from the disco years (That’s the Way…I Like it) hell you’ve even got U2 in there with I Will Follow.
But wait, there’s more! There are also well-known hits by the Police, Quincy Jones, the Cars and The Commodores.
The movie might not get the job done but this soundtrack can rock the house as strong as any other.