Top 10 Soundtracks for Bad Movies

[A nice list contributed by Brent Chittenden.  I like lists.  Got any?–AC]

With all the fuss about the Oscars this past weekend (for the record, the only time in the past 12 years I’ve watched the Oscars was while in the Emergency Room after I had mysteriously passed out. I got to see a good ton of James Franco’s mug while have 8 staples smacked into my skull. The staples hurt less), I got to thinking about films and soundtracks and came to a revelation on how many bad films are out there with pretty solid soundtracks.

So for your amusement, discussion and argument purposes, here’s the Top Ten Awesome Soundtracks To Bad Movies.

10) Singles

I’m a big fan of Cameron Crowe’s film work, but Singles is kind of a mess of a movie. It feels really unpolished and when you watch it, it’s almost like they needed another 6 months of pre-production to work on the script. The soundtrack, however, is filled with the best of the best of grunge with a little Paul Westerberg thrown in for good measure.  The only Seattle act missing is Nirvana but it does feature Alice in Chains, Chris Cornell, Pearl Jam (who have cameo’s in the film) and even Mother Love Bone. The soundtrack is a good snapshot of the scene… too bad the movie wasn’t.

9) Johnny Mnemonic

A pretty forgettable Keanu Reeves film and sadly this soundtrack is starting to be lost to the mists of time. A good example of alternative music with a bit of an industrial edge, lots of good stuff on here from Helmet and KMFDM but it also features a Bono and the Edge rarity; a song that was supposed to be part of a musical based on A Clockwork Orange.

8) Lost Highway

This is the film where David Lynch went from doing weird for the sake of the film to doing weird for weird sake. Pretty odd, makes no sense and the worst offence of all, it’s pretty boring. The soundtrack however was produced by Trent Reznor. Incorporating bits of the score along with bits of his own music (there are at least two track on here credited to Reznor as opposed to Nine Inch Nails) and introducing North America to Rammstein. It also featured “Eye” by The Smashing Pumpkins (an interesting song due to it being released after Mellon Collie but before Adore) and “The Perfect Drug” a song that Reznor says isn’t his favourite but I still quite like it.

7) Spawn

This is based on a comic book but what you really have to remember is this film is a giant turd of a film. It’s bad. That being said, the soundtrack is solid. Much like Judgement Night, Spawn’s soundtrack matches up a lot of the popular alternative and metal acts with popular electronic  artists of the period in what turned into one of the more ingenious mix or mash albums out there.. And while I’ll be the first to say that not every song on the album is gold (Orbital and Kirk Hammett’s “Satan” for instance) there are quite a few gems here. Slayer and Atari Teenage Riot, Butthole Surfers and Moby among many others, my favourite track is from Henry Rollins and Goldie.

6) Judgement Night

To be fair, this movie isn’t terrible, it’s just not very good. Emilio Estevez and his white collar buddies end up in a bad neighbourhood on the run for their lives from a fairly nasty bad guy in Dennis Leary. The soundtrack however joins A ton of the top alternative acts of the 90’s with some of best hip hop acts of the 90’s– I think; my hip-hop knowledge is a little weak. Biohazard and Onyx, Helmet and House of Pain, Mudhoney and Sir Mix A Lot! One of the best tracks is this little number from Teenage Fanclub and De La Soul.

5) Batman Forever

Not a great film… okay to be fair to the rest of the audience, Batman Forever was kind of crappy but to us comic book nerds, this film was a bit of a travesty, But the soundtrack is pretty kick ass; U2 with “Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me” , Michael Hutchence covering “The Passenger”, Nick Cave, PJ Harvey, Massive Attack, The Flaming Lips. Even Seal’s schlocktastic “Kiss From A Rose” has a certain charm to it.

4) House of a 1000 Corpses

One of the few soundtracks on the list that also features score elements, House of a 1000 Corpses is not a good film. I think it’s well directed but the script isn’t great, I liked it better the first time I saw it… when it was called The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (Sorry, Mr. Zombie). In fact when this film came out on DVD, my roommate and I rented it and found the dvd menu infinitely better than the actual movie. But the soundtrack is quite good. The score bits are pretty solid and it features a cover of “Brick House” with Zombie and Lionel Ritchie.

3) The Matrix Reloaded

Filled with rock, electronic music and with a second disc of a solid film score, this is a soundtrack that gets played in my home a lot. I love the original Matrix film, it was a nice breath of fresh air when it arrived on screens for those who love action films.  Unfortunately they then made The Matrix Reloaded which is filled with half-assed philosophy and a story that never delivers. But at least we got this awesome Dave Mathews remix out of it.

2) The Harder They Come

This is one where I might get in trouble with film geek people, yes I know it helped start the trend of midnight movies, yes I know it was one of the first films from Jamaica to hit the mainstream but honestly, this is a bad film. The soundtrack however is a reggae essential is along with Bob Marley, it’s the reason reggae broke into the North American market.

1) Purple Rain

Purple Rain is the monument to Prince. It’s a weird, a lot of people (myself included, this is one of my favourite guilty pleasures) think this movie is much better than it actually is.  The movie is pretty bad and when Morris Day is the best actor of the piece you have issues. Prince is supposed to be sort of down on his luck but his wardrobe could buy my current home.  BUT the soundtrack is so good, so well done, that it almost makes the movie seem awesome.