Mittwoch, 3. Oktober 2007

The Ten Most Awesome Soundtracks For Bad Movies

Making a list of good songs (not scores!) which unfortunately belong to bad movies wasn’t as easy as it first sounded. Sure there are plenty of bad movies with great soundtracks but most of them did not have an original soundtrack, meaning songs which are written specifically for the film. On the other hand, the movies had to be really stinkin’ bad and the song had to be awesome. Luckily, the last ten years especially brought enough material to make a tenmost list:


10.
Queen: "Flash"
Flash Gordon (Imdb: 6.1)
I think most people remember this movie only because of its Queen soundtrack, still causing generations of people to scream "AHAAAA!!" everytime they hear the word "flash". The movie is a cheesy campy movie adaptation of the Flash Gordon comic strip.





09.
Jamiroquai: "Deeper Underground"
Godzilla (Imdb: 4.5)
This movie could have been so much more but instead it was just a mixture of bad dialouge, a CGI-horror and lots of running in the rain. The soundtrack was pretty decent including such hits as Puff Daddy's take on Led Zeppelin's "Kashmir" calling it "Come With Me" or Wallflowers cover of Bowie's "Heroes". Jamiroquai's video shows a theatre being flooded and falling apart after clumsy Godzilla walks through the screen.





08.
Gavin Rossdale: "Adrenaline"
xXx (Imdb: 5.4)
Ex Bush frontman and husband of Gwen Stefani, Gavin Rossdale's first steps as a solo artist was "Adrenaline", a song which remained rather unnoticed. Yet opposed to his soundtrack for Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines where he collaborated with the Blue Man Group (!), this song is pretty good. The movie is a fairly decent action movie. The soundtrack consists of 2 CDs, one with rock the other with rap music to cover up the whole market. That's marketing for ya.





07.
Alanis Morissette: "Uninvited"
City Of Angels (Imdb: 6.3)
This is one of Alanis' best songs, consisting of four piano notes which are repeated throughout the song making it almost hypnotic. Unfortunately this song was on the "City of Angels", a corny chick-flick, what destroys the whole song for me. Everytime I hear it I see Meg Ryan driving her bike eyes closed. Damn.





06.
Dolores O'Riordan: "God Be With You"
The Devil's Own (Imdb: 5.7)
Irish singer and frontwoman of the Cranberries Dolores O'Riordan haunting song is featured in this movie that neither Harrison Ford nor Brad Pitt could help from bombing. Thematically matching yet the movie fails to keep up with the song.




05.
Prince: "When Doves Cry"
Purple Rain (Imdb: 5.6)
Well, it's Prince all right. I rather listen to him than watch him.



04.
Marilyn Manson feat. The Sneaker Pimps: "Long Hard Road Out Of Hell"
Spawn (Imdb: 4.6)
The good old times where Mr. Manson's shock level was at its peak and knew how to rock. All songs on the soundtrack were collabrations between rock and electronic artists and had some very terrific results. Whereas the film, again an adaptation of a comic, is just horribly boring.




03.
U2: "Elevation"
Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (Imdb: 5.2)
You'd guess a movie that has Angelia Jolie as Lara Croft and bands like U2 and Nine Inch Nails on its soundtracks would be guaranted major hit. And that's when you'd be wrong. No matter how good the soundtracks is, it can't help the movie from sucking. With a budget of 80 Million Dollar, director Simon West somehow managed to make everything in this movie look cheap.




02.
Björk: - "Play Dead"
The Young Americans (Imdb: 5.7)
This is one of Björks finest and slightly forgotten tunes. The strings are wonderfully arranged and give a certain soundtrack feeling to it. Unfortunately the movie doesn't fit the song at all.




01.
The Smashing Pumpkins: The End Is The Beginning Is The End
Batman & Robin (Imdb: 3.5)
It is amazing that this song managed not to be dragged down by the crapfest that "Batman & Robin" is. It has rightly won the Grammy for "Best Hard Rock Performance" in 1998. Great arrangements, great lyrics and great drum-work. The soundtrack also featured a slower version with slightly different lyrics called "The Beginning is the End is the Beginning".