Too many movies these days, but the Resident Evil franchise suffers from this. Fight scenes that are overlayed by nu-metal and Rob Zombie-esque growls and yells. It takes me out of the action (any action really) if the music overwhelms what the stunts and choreography are attempting to tell.
Wise Blood, after the Flannery O’Connor novel, would have been a pretty odd movie regardless, but its totally jarring “wacky hijinks” soundtrack does not fit at all and actively ruins some scenes. Terrible decision.
The Princess Bride is another example. It’s not that the music itself is really bad, but it’s played with a really bad synthetic orchestra, which in my mind and ear puts it in the “bad kids’ TV adventure series” category as opposed to the great movie that it is. Seriously, they didn’t have the money to book an actual orchestra?
As a big fan of the Chemical Brothers I still think they had no idea what they were doing scoring Hanna.
A movie about a 16 year-old trained survivalist/assassin and they have this bizzare electronic score that makes you think there will be a twist at the end revealing she’s a cyborg.
Vangelis’s soundtrack for Chariots of Fire.
Acsenray - really? I rewatched Chariots recently and I think the soundtrack (and the costume & art design) really add to it. obviously, mileage varies. The music has been terribly overplayed though.
Yeah, it’s way too anachronistic.
Almost every single Michael Mann movie.
A lot of people would disagree with you here. At least with regard to Heat and Last of the Mohicans. Thief and Manhunter are pretty dated.
Heh, I was just coming here to mention Ladyhawke, and Legend in the same vein. I grew up loving both those movies, and still love them, but oh that music… yeesh.
Luckily, there’s a director’s version of Legend that uses the originally intended orchestral score (the studio forced a release of a more “modern” soundtrack by Tangerine Dream close to the last minute.)
Manhunter was done in the “Miami Vice” style of the time. It was cutting edge then, and yes, pretty ridiculous 25 years on. The theme going into the end credits is especially dated now.
Possibly. For me, it just made me giggle a lot. I mean, here’s Steve McQueen trying to escape on his motorbike and getting all tangled in barbed wire and very dramatic, and all I hear is “Hogan’s Heroes.” It didn’t work at all.
I thought that Shutter Island was a thought-provoking movie, and excellently crafted, but the score (while nice) was just overly bombastic. It just came and hit you over the head and was annoying. Fail.
Can we include movies where the music worked, but doesn’t work upon rewatching? That would have to be Juno for me. The dialog is cloying enough the second time, but the music is impossible to get through.
Also, and this is no fault of Kill Bill, but the scene where Beatrix hides in the bathroom at the restaurant and the band is playing that “Woo Hoo, Woo Hoo Hoo” song during a long tracking shot - I’m forced to fast forward. Some commercial used up the remaining twenty times I could hear that song for the rest of my life.
Another one that does this is Marie Antoinette.
I really like it; I think in both of these cases, the music, whether you like the particular song or not, captures emotion to modern ears in a way that period music doesn’t. Both of these movies have, for example, party scenes in which they play modern rock music. As modern audiences, we get the excitement and the energy that we’d get if we walked into an equally-fun party in recent times. Playing period-appropriate music just doesn’t bring that to most of us; music from pre-revolution France to our ears brings up visions of museums or symphonies, not raucous parties.
I kinda wish more movies set in Olden Dayes would do this.
Donnie Darko. *Great *movie. Horrible 80’s-sounding pop crap.
I thought that the use of music in Casino was overdone. I won’t say it ruined the movie for me, as I still like it, but it does detract from it to some extent.
It worked in Goodfellas, but not Casino.
David and Lisa. I’m not sure it needs a soundtrack at all, since it’s one of those early '60s Deep Meaningful Films that could just as easily be a stage play. What it definitely doesn’t need is on-the-nose, overly dramatic, loud!!! orchestration. Saw it on DVD, gave serious thought to getting my own copy, decided the soundtrack would make it unbearable on a second viewing.
Did you mean to post this in “Movies that are made completely extra awesome by the music”?
[quote=“Labtrash, post:10, topic:616329”]
I may be in the minority but I absolutely *hated *the modern music soundtrack to A Knight’s Tale.[/QUOTE
:eek: Me too! I thought it was absolutely appalling.
Vangelis’ score for Blade Runner. Cheesy dated 80’s synthesizer washes. Not illustrative of mood or tone. Scott must have gone way over budget by the time he got to thinking about scoring this.