City of Angels the movie has little to recommend it. The soundtrack is pretty damn good.
“Singles” is a rather lame comedy about the relationships of some twenty somethings, but the soundtrack album is a perfect time capsule of 1992 grunge and indie rock.
This is an easy one…
The Rocky Horror Picture Show
Unintelligible movie with a kick-ass soundtrack. Now, that doesn’t stop the movie from being a cult classic. And the stage show it was drawn from makes a bit more sense when you see a good production.
The Last American Virgin.
Great 80’s tunes.
The movie wasn’t actually horrible until the very last depressing scene. Walked out of the theater feeling terrible.
I like the film, but I have to admit the soundtrack is the best part.
Ever After is a horrific movie, but the soundtrack by George Felton was one of the greatest things I’d listened to in my childhood.
I didn’t think The Crow was a bad movie when it came out. I saw it in the theaters, I was a little obsessed with it. It was all sorts of cool. It does pretty well on Rotten Tomatoes. It was good enough for some sequels and now even a reboot.
Y’all, I got it on Blu Ray when it came out in 2011 and watched it and it was…not good. The visuals and action were good but the story and the acting were bad. I haven’t re-watched it anymore because I’m afraid to dislike it more.
That being said, the soundtrack is, to me, one of the best movie soundtracks of all time. Second only to the aforementioned Singles at least when it comes to 90s movies.
I’m hesitant to use the term “bad”—there are many movies that, by any definition, including my own, are of dubious quality or artistic worth that are dear to my heart, bring me genuine joy to watch, and I happily revisit time and time again.
That being said…Ennio Morricone has scored more than one movie that has a listing in The Psychotronic Video Guide to Film.
For a more recent film, 2019’s Dark Phoenix was a flawed, half-full movie at best, and somewhat tragically undermined and mis-handled during the production, by the sounds of it.
But while watching it in the theater, I was just taken aback by how great the music was. Then the credits rolled…Hans Zimmer. Returned to scoring superhero films, after swearing off them because of the mixed reception to Batman v. Superman.
Personally, I’ve felt that Zimmer just phones in some (not all) of his movie work, especially if it’s some mindless action flick. He sure as hell was not phoning in or half-assing a note, this time. To paraphrase MST3K: I want to see the movie Zimmer thought he was doing the music for.
Liquid Sky. Directed by Slava Tsukerman. Soundtrack is a demented circus music, speeded up.
Actually I liked this movie, but you must be baked in order to enjoy it. Most people would think it was a silly plot. Aliens, lesbians, and heroin in the NYC 1980s club scene… what’s not to like?
So a documentary, then?
No. Liquid Sky is not a documentary. It’s science fiction.
Not going to disagree with you there, although with the grittier cinematography and direction, I think it was better than the sequel. A lot.
Yesterday. It wasn’t bad, other than Kate McKinnon. She overacted her role. Absolutely took me out of the movie.
I’m going to go super super obscure for this one…
If I have the history right, Jackie Chan got freed from an onerous contract with Lo Wei by the intervention of Jimmy Wang Yu, who used that leverage to get Jackie into a couple of his own really crappy kung fu flicks, once he’d become a superstar. The first was the “I’m not imagining this, you can see this also, right?” lunacy of Fantasy Mission Force in 1983 or so, and the second was the dull and grim prison drama Island of Fire in 1991. In the latter, he’s onscreen for like eight minutes, even though his mug is all over the poster. His fight scenes are fine; the rest of the movie’s a throwaway. I watched it during my HK action flick period when I’d see pretty much anything in Cantonese and hated it even then, but…I remember the score and the closing song (probably sung by Jackie Chan) being freaking awesome. Enough so that I’d scour Chinatown CD stores for a long time in the vain hope that there was a release of it. The movie got rereleased in North America as The Prisoner, with Chan’s the only face on the front of the box, but I can only assume the distributor changed the score along with the dubbing.
Hey, good to see this! The guy I played guitar with (in a beatnik coffeehouse… we’re old) worked on that album! No guitar, just technical stuff.
He recommended The Battle of Evermore as “a cool Zep’lin cover”…
“The Lovemongers” are really Ann & Nancy Wilson, doing an acoustic side gig.
Great movie, since you took my pick I’ll go with Airheads. I like the movie, but it has 29% on the tomato meter so I guess it qualifies as ‘horrible’. The soundtrack is wonderful and doubles as the soundtrack of Sitnam’s Teenage Years.
Tank Girl was hard to sit though, but the soundtrack CD was well worn during my 1 hr+ commute in the mid-90s.
I’m glad to see a lot of my picks mentioned, specifically Blues Brothers 2000 (don’t have movie, do have CD), Conan the Barbarian (have both), Heavy Metal (which is a fine movie but crippled by format with an awesome soundtrack), but I’m surprised I didn’t see my first pick here.
Star Wars Episode 1.
I mean, terrible, TERRIBLE movie, but the soundtrack, OMFG.
I only learned that years after I bought the album. It’s as good as the original, at least.
I’m tempted to say Easy Rider, but it’s a terrific movie. Same with Animal House.
Okay. I thought of one: The Party Animal. Great soundtrack, movie not so much. Well, I like it. 