islandclaws

Name some examples where the score for a film has sucked so much it actually manages to detract from your enjoyment of the film.

True Romance - Hate it. That steel drum crap sounds like it belongs in Cool Runnings, not a film of this caliber.

The Third Man - I absolutely HATE the zither... and it's all over this movie.

Eric D.

Iron Man. Ramin Djawadi's "score" is one of the worst I've heard in such a high profile film. Absolute rubbish. It's a good thing they didn't ask him back for the second film.

gmanca

Torn Curtain should have been another Bernard Herrmann film but Hitchcock wanted that fanciful score and it really detracts from it. Having Julie Andrews miscast doesn't help it either.

The score for The Limits of Control was great but it didn't match the film in that there were points of punctuation that the score would hint at but never materialized in the next scene, like the various "foreshadowing" moments in the art gallery to hint at the next person.

Mondo Kane

I agree on 3rd Man, but Zimmer's take on Badlands grew on me.

Though the movie still couldn't really be saved, Blanchard's non-stopping score on Miracle/St. Anna was deplorable.

And even though For Your Eyes Only is still ranked my top 5 Bond films, those disco-inferno tracks continue to embarrass.

Eric D.

And the music in that film was based on Carl Orff's Schulwerk. It's like a game of musical telephone!

Giantrobo

I think a classic example of the score truly distracting one from the film was the score in "Now, Voyager" (Bette Davis 1942)

According to imdb: I don't know if she really said that, but when I saw this film the first time I remember thinking how the score was way too dam loud and distracting.

GenPion

I really disliked the score to Iron Man as well... and I thought I was alone!

GenPion

I hate the zither too. It takes a lot away from the film. Completely inappropriate.

Rypro 525

To Live and Die in LA. The score was done by Wang Chung the 80's synth pop group, and it really dates the movie firmly in the 80's.

Eric D.

Not at all! The score was so bad that I spent most of the film thinking what a blown opportunity it was. I will say that I know many composers don't have a lot of artistic freedom and and usually stuck aping a temp track and doing whatever the director and producers want them to do. But still, good god that score was freaking awful!

Nesbit

Serpico. I could have done without the Italian themed score even though it was part of who Serpico was.

Blu Man

I thought it was a pretty decent score. The tracks "Merchant of Death", "Driving with the Top Down", and "Vacation's Over" really captured the spirit of the film in my opinion.

Solid Snake

What? I love it. It seems appropriate w/ the sarcastic nature and tone amongst rather serious crimes in the film.

Dr Mabuse

Come on fellas... it's 'Gangs of New York' for an easy win.

That 'pop metal' crap that starts during the opening gang clash?

Amateurish crap that takes you right out of the film.

NoirFan

The Third Man would absolutely not be The Third Man without Anton Karas' score.

Travis McClain

I second this. Eric Serra's GoldenEye score was underwhelming, but it isn't the sore thumb that Bill Conti's work for For Your Eyes Only is.

I'm also going to throw this out there, in the opposite direction: Jerry Goldsmith's score for Star Trek: The Motion Picture is so magnificent, I just wish the rest of the movie was half as interesting. Take, for instance, that five minute long scene where Scotty takes Kirk over to the Enterprise. Remove the score, and you've got an obscenely long scene that is, in Seinfeldian vernacular, about nothing. And I know it's way too long and nothing of any significance takes place. But I get distracted listening to the pretty music and it's like I just don't even care. It's that way for me in several self-indulgent scenes, where the score carries the movie. But man, the moment the music stops...I have a hard time even liking the movie.

Dr Mabuse

I love it.

Classic stuff.

Numanoid

Absolutely. And the score was a major hit in its day as well. Very few movies are as closely married to their scores as A Third Man is.

gmanca

Completely agree; that bit with Scotty in the Pod was more than it should have been thanks to the music. I will say that although the drone sound is cool, Goldsmith should not have gone with that long monotonous piece when they first enter V'ger because it punctuates how boring that sequence is. Of course, it would have been better if Wise sped it up or had been able to show the vast length without resorting to an overhead shot.

Fist of Doom

Another for The Third Man's zither score, although I can understand why it turns some people off. It makes a great film an all-time classic.

That final scene just wouldn't be the same without it.

RocShemp

I didn't hate Djawadi's score for Iron Man, I just found it very forgetable. Sadly, given Debney was saddled with all the same themes, the score to Iron Man 2 was little better.

DieselsDen

NEVER SAY NEVER AGAIN has a terrible score. It really needed the James Bond theme somewhere.

SUPERMAN III was yet another tired "remix" of John Williams original score, and the absence of the "Love Theme" was really noticeable.

I love the LADYHAWKE soundtrack, but within the film, Andrew Powell's music can really distract the audience.

And creative as it was, Scorsese's remake of CAPE FEAR and the use of Herrman's original score, didn't do it for me.

RocShemp

+1

gmanca

I know people hate that soundtrack but I think it's awesome; that movie is an 80's movie, through and through. That overly-dramatic dance number, the lack of information that was inherent at a time when police computers were not as sophisticated today. Who still takes the train from San Francisco?

GreenVulture

You mean Peter Gabriel? Eh, I thought it worked.

I get a knot in my stomach whenever I see Terrence Blanchard's name appear in the credits. Just an awful, awful composer; dunno what Spike Lee sees in him. The highest compliment I can say of his work is "Well, the music wasn't that obtrusive."