What's new

Movies with Bad Music Scores (1 Viewer)

Ocean Phoenix

Supporting Actor
Joined
Feb 10, 2004
Messages
591
I hate the score to Punch-Drunk Love. It actually contributed to my disliking the movie, and this is the only movie in which music had that affect on me. At times, I got the feeling that the sounds on the score were just "weird for the sake for the sake of being weird" and they irritated me a lot.
 

DeeF

Screenwriter
Joined
Jun 19, 2002
Messages
1,689
Oh, I completely disagree about Punch-Drunk Love. The music represents his neurosis. I think it's one of the most brilliant scores ever conceived (and the movie is good too).
 

Mike Graham

Supporting Actor
Joined
Aug 31, 2001
Messages
766


I thought McCarthy's theme during the battle between the Enterprise and Bird of Prey, cut with with the action of Veridan III, was perfect.:emoji_thumbsup:
 

DeeF

Screenwriter
Joined
Jun 19, 2002
Messages
1,689
In order to defend my opinion properly, we watched The Treasure of the Sierra Madre again this weekend (great movie!) The only objectionable music is that one theme, the "prospecting" theme, which is a simple variation of Dvorak's "Humoresque," used humorously in other movies like Mr. Deeds Goes To Town. This theme is bouncy, optimistic, and banally major, and so Steiner does the very most cliche thing, changing the theme to minor at melodramatic moments, and then back to major for "triumph of the human spirit" moments.

Change that theme, or remove it, and the movie would be 1000 times more effective, I believe.
 

Patrick H.

Second Unit
Joined
Nov 23, 2004
Messages
496


Disco tracks aside, I'm actually gonna stick up for Marvin Hamlisch's underscore for The Spy Who Loved Me. There are some good dramatic orchestral bits in there, the Carly Simon theme song is a classic, and the Bond theme (when it's not disco) really kicks in that one! (Unfortunately, little of the good stuff is on the CD...just the disco.)

For Your Eyes Only is another story, though...that thing must've been dated when it was in theaters! I remember watching this film with a large group of friends a while back, and the music alone had us in hysterics. It wasn't even good disco! You could do the MST3K "wakachoo!" from Mitchell to it! LOL!

GoldenEye isn't quite so bad, I don't think. I'd rate it as an interesting experiment that wasn't very successful; Eric Serra's style ultimately wasn't flexible enough to work for Bond, IMHO. The classic John Barry sound just IS James Bond...it was born of a specific era, but the genre has made it timeless (look how well it worked for The Incredibles, for instance). Tinker with it or modernize it too much, and it just doesn't work. I think even David Arnold, who'd carried the torch very well, finally went a little overboard with the techno on Die Another Day.
 

Matt Czyz

Supporting Actor
Joined
Jun 5, 2003
Messages
902
Real Name
Matt Czyz
Years (and here I mean "many, many, many years") ago, I was wanting to purchase the score to 2001: A Space Odyssey. Not knowing *any*thing about the particulars, I bought the first 2001 CD I came across--the rejected Alex North version. I put the CD in, waiting for the opening chords of Thus Spake Zarathustra to kick in. Of course, they never did, and my friend who I was with laughed quite a lot at me. I listened to that CD once, I think, and could not stand to hear it ever again. Not only did I not enjoy the score, but coupled with the disappointment that it wasn't the score I was expecting, has made me give that CD the ole skunk eye any time I see it at a store. Stupid Alex North rejected score. I never did get around to buying the correct score, either.
 

Haggai

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Nov 3, 2003
Messages
3,883
Ha, funny story, Matt. I can definitely recommend the Rhino CD of the real 2001 soundtrack.

This movie provided at least one other funny mistaken-identity-type HTF story, with Seth Paxton claiming that he and a friend once flipped by the opening sequence on TV, and Seth said, "What is this, Ape City?" :D
 

Aaron Reynolds

Screenwriter
Joined
Feb 6, 2001
Messages
1,715
Location
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
Real Name
Aaron Reynolds

Wha-ha-ha? The whole film's an anachronism! The score fits perfectly. It's a late '60s pop film with late '60s pop dialogue and late '60s pop music, disguised as something altogether different. Watching that movie 100 times (really) got me into Burt Bacharach.

And I'm going to stick up for both The Spy Who Loved Me and For Your Eyes Only. They ain't Goldfinger (or my personal fave Bond score, Diamonds Are Forever), but they work for their films and totally set the proper tone in terms of when. The disco ski sequence at the start of Spy screams out at you "I'm from the '70s and I'm cheesy, love me for what I am!" Plus, it distracts from the hideous rear-projection close ups of Roger Moore, where he's standing almost straight up and looking unimpressed by the speed at which he's supposedly skiing. Or adds to them, depending on your point of view.

I'm not a big fan of the GoldenEye score, but I suspect that I'll end up feeling the same way I feel about SWLM and FYEO in another ten years.

Scores I hate: Dead Poets Society. And Witness. Not so much the score itself, but the use of the score in the films. On its own the music is quite nice.
 

DeeF

Screenwriter
Joined
Jun 19, 2002
Messages
1,689
Agreed about Witness (which I said earlier). The score is atrociously wrong for the movie.
 

rich_d

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Oct 21, 2001
Messages
2,036
Location
Connecticut
Real Name
Rich

DeeF,

When you mention Jerry Goldsmith and Chinatown in a worst score thread ... ya had me seeing blood for a couple seconds.

Although, I must admit while I'm a big Goldsmith fan his use of heavy synthesizer in Logan's Run is tough to stomach.

With so many bad films and bad scores I don't think any of the Bond flicks really qualify but I truly agree that FYEO and TSWLM are instantly dated and poor.

I don't have a problem with The Third Man other than the main title repeats way to often as does Do not forsake me oh my darling in High Noon.

I have no idea what some of the true stinkers really are but I know I have it in for:

Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1978)

Abysmal.
 

DeeF

Screenwriter
Joined
Jun 19, 2002
Messages
1,689
Excellent comments, Rich. Goldsmith isn't my favorite, though he has done some very fine scores, I think, including Chinatown and Planet of the Apes. I like him less when he is aping John Williams -- I'm not all that pleased with the Star Trek themes, though they are fine for the movies.

But really the point of this thread was not to just mention the scores we don't like. I don't really think Logan's Run is a movie that would work better with a different score. The movie is fine, but it's not what I would call a classic (for want of a better example, I think The Treasure of the Sierra Madre is a classic). So why bother changing the score to it (when it and the score are really 70s products, so they kind of work together as cultural artifacts).

But a number of people think that this Charlton Heston movie, Major Dundee, might play better with a different music score. I think it's an interesting and new idea, to show old movies with different scores, and see if we like the movie better. Notably, the DVD revolution has made this possible, because the old score isn't being thrown out; there's just an alternative option.

A few years ago, the Cocteau masterpiece Beauty and the Beast was shown to an audience in Lincoln Center, but with its soundtrack turned off and the sound supplied by opera singers singing a new score by Philip Glass. I think it's a really interesting experiment, and I welcome it. It doesn't hurt the original movie or its score at all.

Another similar example are the new scores that we are writing for silent movies. A notable one is the Voices of Light, the "score" which accompanies the great Dreyer film, Passion of Joan of Arc. Although one can choose to watch the movie without accompaniment, this new piece (not really a score) works admirably well to set the appropriate tone.
 

Mark Dill

Stunt Coordinator
Joined
Jan 20, 2005
Messages
148
THE TERMINATOR

The music in the action scenes is so dreadfully 80's techno-rock, it totally ruins the tension in the chase scenes.
 

Kirk Tsai

Screenwriter
Joined
Nov 1, 2000
Messages
1,424


There are those who will make the argument that North's rejected score was more appropriate than Kubrick's temp and final score. I'm not one of those people, but to label it a bad or "stupid" score because of a personal mistake is in bad taste. I had heard of people buying film scores expecting to hear the existing songs-soundtracks and be disappointed, but this is something new...
 

Eric C D

Second Unit
Joined
Mar 14, 2001
Messages
285


Thirded - I rewatched it last week and had exactly those thoughts. As much as I loved the material, the music was dragging the movie down.

If we don't have to rewatch the movie, I'll give my vote for overall worst score to "The Black Hole." I couldn't get that incessant droning out of my head for weeks.

take care,
 

rich_d

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Oct 21, 2001
Messages
2,036
Location
Connecticut
Real Name
Rich
Matt,

I enjoyed the story. :) I have the North score as well. I'm sorry that did not enjoy the score. Perhaps you might give it another listen at some point.

I enjoy North's score as well as the musical performance. I do think that Kubrick's choice was better. For example, while I enjoy the track Space Station Docking I imagine it working better for a romantic comedy than space travel. Of course, even a romantic comedy might get around to its own version of docking eventually. ;)
 

JeremySt

Screenwriter
Joined
Aug 19, 2001
Messages
1,771
Real Name
Jeremy
I never liked the music for ICE STATION ZEBRA. The theme song plays every 10 seconds... and is innapropriatly upbeat and whimisical. Kinda strange for a cold war suspense thriller. This is the perfect movie to have NO music.
 

DeeF

Screenwriter
Joined
Jun 19, 2002
Messages
1,689
I love to hear what the original score sounded like to Gangs of New York (by Elmer Bernstein, I think?)
 

Todd Phillips

Second Unit
Joined
Oct 15, 2000
Messages
279


I love that score. Atmospheric and foreboding. It, along with the production design/special effects to a slightly lesser degree, are the reason I own and watch that movie (and to laugh at the dialog).
 

Matt Czyz

Supporting Actor
Joined
Jun 5, 2003
Messages
902
Real Name
Matt Czyz
Rich,

For whatever reason, I never did get rid of North's 2001 CD, and I did listen to it a few more times much later in the hopes that I would enjoy it more. Sadly, this was not to be. I just found it so much more.......boring than what Kubrick put in the movie, and honestly, the choice to use famous classical pieces was an inspired move in my opinion. North's score may be well composed, but I am *so* glad that it didn't end up in the movie.

Kirk,
I was just being lighthearted about the whole affair. I don't really think North's is a "stupid" score, just a horrifically dull one :)
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Latest Articles

Forum statistics

Threads
356,816
Messages
5,123,862
Members
144,184
Latest member
H-508
Recent bookmarks
0
Top