I’d say the difference between the score to Ladyhawke and the soundtrack to A Knight’s Tale is that the soundtrack to Tale is supposed to be a joke, while the score to Ladyhawke is meant to be genuinely evocative of the setting.
Plus, The Alan Parsons Project is fucking garbage. I can forgive a musical anachronism a lot easier if it’s David Bowie.
I hated the score for Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. It was New Age-y garbage that kept drawing my attention away from the film over and over again.
“He Needs Me”, from Punch Drunk Love. He needs me! He needs me! He needs meeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!
I watched this movie on DVD, and it was getting on my nerves to begin with. When this song came on, I quite literally stood up and began banging my head into the wall. (For those wondering why I didn’t just quit watching it, few movies provoke that strong of a reaction – positive or negative – from me, so I was interested to see if it’d get any worse.)
‘Aqua-Marina’ always ruined the ending of ‘Stingray’ for me.
What…?
This is what I came to say. The soundtrack to A Knight’s Tale just underscores and enhances the whole fun tone of the movie. The soundtrack to Ladyhawke completely clashes with the movie. And takes, what is IMHO, a decent movie and sticks a dagger in its heart. A real shame, too. I like that movie but the soundtrack is so obvious that you can’t ignore it and it renders the movie almost unwatchable.
I love the anachronism of A Knight’s Tale’s soundtrack. I think that movie is going to be a cult movie sometime down the road. I for one thought it was highly entertaining.
I never saw Punch Drunk Love, but I remember this song from the movie Popeye! Olive Oyl sings it and I love it!
I liked all of Shrek except for the asinine Smashmouth song at the end. Same for “La vida loca” at the end of Shrek 2. I haven’t seen the third, but from the previews I’ve seen it looks like it also has inappropriately modern music, and I’m guessing it ends with another lame song that will make the movie look incredibly dated not long from now. I realize pop culture references are part of the appeal of Shrek, but a music video is not the way to end the movie.
I’ll probably get shot for this.
The song near the end of Magnolia* that they all sing. Where it goes from one character to the other. I can hear it, but I can’t hear the words so I can think of what it is right now. Pulls me right out of the movie. I’m not sure if it fits with the OP, I like the song (I think, I can’t remember what it is), but the way that scene is put together I just can’t stand.
*BTW I liked the movie, just not that scene.
At the risk of further hijacking the thread with the opposite, I put in another vote for “A Knight’s Tale”. I saw the ad and it made me cringe. Then I caught it on tv and, was , as the first example, the crowd at the joust all singing “We Will Rock You”…well as notered these medival jousts usually get treated as formal events, with Kings, and Ladies and noble knights, and classical music. When in fact they were probably more like modern sporting events, including a stand full of racuos fans, getting drunk and beating each other up over who should win. Seems like a very evocative song for the scene, really.
Can’t think of anything else at the moment but of course there’s always the zithers of the “The Third Man”, which is still a point of debate.
“Save Me,” by the great Aimee Mann. And that sequence was my favorite part of the movie.
For me it was the only part of the movie I liked. But wasn’t the song “Wise Up?”
Another vote for the entire score of Ladyhawke as nearly ruining the movie, and I like the Alan Parsons Project. It doesn’t fit the tone at all. On the other hand, given the costumes and what they did to Chaucer in A Knight’s Tale, the rock and roll music kind of suits it. I’m with betenoir on liking “We Will Rock You” in the jousting scene. It’s the kind of move you enjoy so long as you don’t take it seriously.
Paul Thomas Anderson actually uses Shelley Duvall’s performance of the song in his film (not surprising since he’s an enormous Altman fan).
Oh, and I think it works marvelously in PDL. 
It was indeed.
“Save Me” is also on the soundtrack, and is pretty similar in style. It was the one nominated for the Academy Award.
I didn’t think it was the song itself that was bothersome about the scene, it was the way it interrupted the movie. It was more like a musical for a moment.
Most of the entire soundtrack for Scarface is horrendous. Has not aged well.
Don’t get me wrong, I love Roberta Flack, but you may as well go to the bathroom / grab a beer / whatever during Play Misty For Me when Clint (not quite discovered editing yet) plays the entire song “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face” during a romantic interlude scene. (Ending with them standing naked in the Big Sur river making out - and strangely not getting hypothermia).
And the worst offender, IMO - that crappy windmills song from the original Thomas Crowne Affair. Ugh.
You didn’t like the “Scarface” music?! I hate to be that person who defends every heinous song choice, but I adored it. I know, I have a thing for disco, but I think it defines the time. And there’s gotta be points for juxtaposition–light hearted music and evil deeds. And…well, I just like music you can dance to.
Had they stuck with more Miami-like latin music I think it would have gone better. Now I cringe at the over-synthesizer-dated sound. I don’t think it really sounds much like disco either.
Same here–I came of age in the early 80s and it’s just right. Miami Vice, Scarface, Streets of Fire…
Madonna doesn’t sing a note and nearly ruins Die Another Day when she appears in the gentlemen’s club.