What movies do you think have the worst music scores? I've been watching several Gene Hackman films this week and saw "Hoosiers" for the very first time. Nice little film and Gene is great in it, naturally. But I thought the score was really bad. The story took place in the early 50's and yet the music was very 80's. It was just really odd and did not work at all. I felt the same about "Ladyhawke". Which was discussed a lot at the time of it's release. Still, a great film. With terrific performances.

All those 80s movies with synthesizer scores are terrible. #1 example to me is Terminator.

I remember describing the score of Eyes Wide Shut to my friends as “a cat walking across a piano”.

Fuck off.

The synth score in The Princess Bride is a crime against humanity! Imagine how amazing it would have been with an actual orchestra.

At least a mechanical, computerized score sort of connects with The Terminator. A mechanical, computerized score for a medieval fantasy is inexcusable.

I recall Mission to Mars being laughably bad, but in fairness the whole movie was.

This is my number one of worst movie decisions ever. That ridiculous, children's toy-sounding score made me feel so embarrassed I had to shut the movie off halfway through. It hold great popularity, and so many people love it, but I can't get past that goddam music. It makes the movie literally unwatchable for me.

Ladyhawke was a really good movie, seriously dated by the Alan Parsons score. Definitely a poor choice for a movie score.

Halloween 5 is factually a bad movie because it has a comedic score for the scene with the stupid cops. Even if the scene was meant to be funny, you do NOT put a comedic score in a horror movie.

Mesa of Lost Women is and will always be the worst.

I'll just make a note that it is okay to talk to each other like this, since I was banned for a while, many years ago, for doing so.

The soundtrack was a product of its time but in 1984 this was considered very progressive and futuristic-sounding with its use of electronica. It's one of the very few iconic and widely recognizable instrumental soundtracks in the last 50 years.

It has been awhile, but I remember Neighbors having an awful score that did not fit the movie.

That's fine but when you come in just to get a rise out of people with your "edgy" bullshit, you are going to get called out on it, sweety.

or

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You think Hoosiers has a bad score? That hurts.😢

I recognize a picture of Hitler when I see it. That does not make him good.

If you think I posted that I think the Terminator soundtrack sucks just to get a rise out of people, you are fucking loony. I don't like that soundtrack. I think that synth score sounds weak and tinny. I've been watching that movie for 40 years and I have never liked the soundtrack. I don't like those 80s synth soundtracks, That's what I posted because that's my opinion. Obviously, anyone and everyone can disagree with me, and that's fine because this is a truly subjective matter

And why in the world would what I posted be "edgy"?

I watched Terminator (for the first time in probably 20+ years) not too long ago and the score was the first thing that stood out and not in a good way. It's so fucking terrible. Fortunately the strengths of the film make up for this disastrous choice.

Also it was the first movie that came to mind when I clicked on this thread, so you aren't alone.

I love synth scores, but people are free to hate them. I know many do.

I’d reckon half of my vinyl soundtrack collection is made up of synth scores.

Oh and just because I rewatched it recently, 3000 Miles To Graceland has a horrible score.

Oddly enough as a (sort of) musician and definitely a music lover, I never even notice the score of a movie. I have like one or two on vinyl, that's about it total.

That said, after someone pointed out (and only after they pointed it out) how bad Bill Conti's score for the Bond flick For Your Eyes Only is, now it's all I can hear and it ruins the movie for me. I was in a much better place before someone alerted me to it.

What about Blade Runner?

I am trying to think of one but it seems the movie score is less important today compared to the old days when you would hear the same themes or variations of the same theme throughout a movie like the Star Wars and Indiana Jones flicks.

I don't think it's that scores are less important, they're just not as often "front and center" as they were in the 80s and 70s. Compared to films from that era, movies today have very intricate sound design, which can push the music into the background, or require less of it to cover scenes filled with dead-air. You don't always need score to establish the mood of a scene or a location, because the sound effect editing can do that work.

Also, more films use pre-existing songs to fill the soundtrack.