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When the score detracts from the film

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Old 07-28-10 | 08:16 PM
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Re: When the score detracts from the film

I understand how the music in True Romance could bother you but I disagree too. I felt it worked perfectly with the tone they created.

I usually notice it in films I'm already bored with. HATED the music in The Happening. Already an awful movie that the score seemed so out of place in many scenes.
Also, New Moon has horrible songs played in incongruous scenes. Like where the redhead chick is running from the wolves in the forest, instead of a suspenseful score there's some weird vocal nonsense playing that immediately took me out of the film to wonder what someone was thinking when they chose that on purpose.

A standout is Ridley Scott's director's cut of Legend. Not that the score is bad, it's just in comparison to the Tangerine Dream score that made the original so dreamy, it's awful and overblown. I hate about 90% of the changes he made to the film.

Last edited by celmendo; 07-28-10 at 08:27 PM.
Old 07-28-10 | 10:09 PM
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Re: When the score detracts from the film

Off my head:

The Stepfather (1987)
Philadelphia (1993)
Most 2000s horror scores

Last edited by Yeti4623; 07-28-10 at 10:12 PM.
Old 07-28-10 | 10:11 PM
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Re: When the score detracts from the film

Complaining about the score in The Happening is unnecessarily cruel. It's like telling a fat girl she's got crooked teeth.
Old 07-28-10 | 10:13 PM
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Re: When the score detracts from the film

Originally Posted by Yeti4623
Philadelphia (1993)
No way!

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Old 07-28-10 | 10:34 PM
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Re: When the score detracts from the film

Originally Posted by Groucho
Complaining about the score in The Happening is unnecessarily cruel. It's like telling a fat girl she's got crooked teeth.
I thought that score was far better than that film deserved; it was very good.
Old 07-28-10 | 11:39 PM
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Re: When the score detracts from the film

Eyes Wide Shut. Not a great film by any stretch, but made far more excruciating by the score which was apparently performed by a cat walking across a piano.
Old 07-28-10 | 11:44 PM
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Re: When the score detracts from the film

I remember lol at the music in Death Sentence, of course the film was already so bad it may have actually added to the enjoyment of it.
Old 07-29-10 | 07:37 AM
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Re: When the score detracts from the film

Spike Lee has an annoying (and loud!) score thru-out his movies.
Old 07-29-10 | 08:54 AM
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Re: When the score detracts from the film

The original Last House on the Left. The silly banjo music ruins the impact of the brutality onscreen. It belongs in a bumbling redneck comedy, not a film about murder/rape/revenge. I kept expecting to see Jackie Gleason chasing Burt Reynolds and Sally Field. And the godawful ballads just add to the wretchedness.
Old 07-29-10 | 10:07 AM
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Re: When the score detracts from the film

Originally Posted by Meglos
Star Trek IV.

A big let down after the dirst three movies.
IV has my favorite score after The Motionless Picture. Plus, the punk song kicks ass.

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Now John Williams' score for E.T. ruins the movie. I fucking hate it when composers try to push my buttons. I know E.T.'s dying. I don't need to be hit over the head with sad music.
Old 07-29-10 | 10:09 AM
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Re: When the score detracts from the film

After watching Night Of The Living Dead, I started wanting to own other 'Dead' movies, I really liked Return Of The Living Dead, it was a lot of fun. But when I started looking at Return Of The Living Dead Part II, I found out that when they wanted to DVDitize() it, they'd lost the rights for the original score and replaced it with some crap that doesn't even fit. Most reviewers claim it totally ruined an otherwise good movie, I guess that's one movie I'll have to do without. -kd5-
Old 07-29-10 | 10:29 AM
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Re: When the score detracts from the film

Originally Posted by Hokeyboy
People are really complaining about The Third Man zither score? Really?? Wow...
Haha. You must be new here.
Old 07-29-10 | 10:41 AM
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Re: When the score detracts from the film

Watchmen...

Some of it worked well (The Times they are a-changin')...but some of the guitar stuff reminds of the intro to the SNL Shmitz Gay commercial. And the use of "Hallelujah" during the sex scene was almost laughable. Some of the music really hit...but the stuff that didn't completely took away from the film (which I thought was pretty boring anyway).
Old 07-29-10 | 12:25 PM
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Re: When the score detracts from the film

8mm - That crazy Indian sounding music kept taking me out of the movie. The only thing that fit was the Aphex Twin song "Come to Daddy".
Old 07-29-10 | 12:43 PM
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Re: When the score detracts from the film

Originally Posted by toddly6666


Dave Grusin's jarring piano score throughout the film is the most annoying movie music i've ever heard. Just awful.

I felt the heavy piano fit the film perfectly
Old 07-29-10 | 12:46 PM
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Re: When the score detracts from the film

Originally Posted by Jaymole
The Perfect Storm

It's a very mediocre film, but what made it almost unwatchable for me was the "hit you over the head" score that hammered home every emotion you are supposed to feel.
I respectfully disagree, really loved the main score in this. I had the exact opposite reaction. I felt it made an average film good.

Last edited by amplified; 07-29-10 at 12:52 PM.
Old 07-29-10 | 12:57 PM
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Re: When the score detracts from the film

Shrek 1 and 2
Watchmen

More the soundtrack than the score. Watchmen had one well placed instance of everybody wants to rule the world, most of the rest was intrusive as hell.
Old 07-29-10 | 12:57 PM
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Re: When the score detracts from the film

Originally Posted by toddly6666


Dave Grusin's jarring piano score throughout the film is the most annoying movie music i've ever heard. Just awful.
Aw shucks, I loved it.
Old 07-29-10 | 01:52 PM
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Re: When the score detracts from the film

Originally Posted by nmr1723
Watchmen...

And the use of "Hallelujah" during the sex scene was almost laughable.
I'm not the biggest fan of that movie but I think that choice of song was intentionally funny. I know it made me laugh my ass off as I'm sure that "Hallelujah" was going through Dan's mind when he finally nailed Laurie.
Old 07-29-10 | 01:58 PM
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Re: When the score detracts from the film

Old 07-29-10 | 02:00 PM
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Re: When the score detracts from the film

The Lady From Shanghai.

Welles hated it, and I agree.
Old 07-29-10 | 02:32 PM
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Re: When the score detracts from the film

Originally Posted by joefrog91
8mm - That crazy Indian sounding music kept taking me out of the movie.
But it did brink back memories of hare krishna members bouncing around Hollywood Blvd!
Old 07-29-10 | 02:47 PM
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Re: When the score detracts from the film

Originally Posted by Sean O'Hara

Now John Williams' score for E.T. ruins the movie. I fucking hate it when composers try to push my buttons. I know E.T.'s dying. I don't need to be hit over the head with sad music.
Then you must hate the vast majority of film music, because that is what film music is supposed to do in the first place.
Old 07-29-10 | 02:51 PM
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Re: When the score detracts from the film

Originally Posted by nmr1723
Watchmen...

Some of it worked well (The Times they are a-changin')...but some of the guitar stuff reminds of the intro to the SNL Shmitz Gay commercial. And the use of "Hallelujah" during the sex scene was almost laughable. Some of the music really hit...but the stuff that didn't completely took away from the film (which I thought was pretty boring anyway).
Originally Posted by RichC2
Shrek 1 and 2
Watchmen

More the soundtrack than the score. Watchmen had one well placed instance of everybody wants to rule the world, most of the rest was intrusive as hell.
Recorded songs aren't part of the score, folks. As for the songs, they're all taken from Alan Moore's original source material; each issue opened with lyrics quoted from a specific song that he felt conveyed part of the theme of that segment of the story. Zack Snyder may not have placed them where you would have, but I thought it was key to recreating Moore's story that he did feature the songs in the film.

And what possible instances of the score got in the way of Shrek and/or Shrek 2?!
Old 07-29-10 | 02:57 PM
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Re: When the score detracts from the film

Originally Posted by MinLShaw
Recorded songs aren't part of the score, folks. As for the songs, they're all taken from Alan Moore's original source material; each issue opened with lyrics quoted from a specific song that he felt conveyed part of the theme of that segment of the story. Zack Snyder may not have placed them where you would have, but I thought it was key to recreating Moore's story that he did feature the songs in the film.

And what possible instances of the score got in the way of Shrek and/or Shrek 2?!
Hence my comment on it being the soundtrack. Technically a different thread altogether but ehh I'm here.

And song choice wasn't the problem with Watchmen, it was purely the way it was cut into the movie. Of course, Snyder was entirely too literal for a lot of the stuff when it came to that movie. Shrek 1/2 were dated by their soundtracks, again not the score but still worth complaining about as often as humanly possible.


The score used in Cop Out was pretty distracting, being an almost too obvious nod to the 80s buddy cop comedies that inspired it.

Last edited by RichC2; 07-29-10 at 03:02 PM.


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