I was looking for some help with something.

[Kevin]

I was wondering if you guys can remember a recent (after 2000) movie or scenes in particular where the music just didn't seem right or hindered the movie/scene in general?

[JoshRode]

Sounds like a Clark question.

[cdouglas]

Sounds like a Clark question.

I saw the Bat-Signal and came running.

This happens frequently to varying degrees. One that springs to mind is a movie called Everything Must Go, which is a really soulful film but which often leans on a twinkly, cutesy score which seems to undermine the depth of the movie.

Honestly, I feel like the year's most overpraised score is the work Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross did on The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. The music wasn't really written directly for specific scenes in the movie (Reznor and Ross simply wrote a lot of material, handed it to Fincher and said, "Do what you want with it."), and it shows. The music is tediously simplistic at best and aggressively distracting at worst; it does little to enhance the atmosphere of the movie and never even approaches the focused tenacity offered up by Karen O's Led Zeppelin cover over the opening credits.

[mavrach]

Red - The movie was just fun, but the music screamed that they weren't taking anything seriously. It was upbeat but I felt that it could've used some more power to enhance the action a bit.

[mkiker2089]

The clearest example to me has a muddy timeline. I'm refering to 80s shows released in the last few years with incidental music. The music is almost always poor quality techno. One prime example is in Murder She Wrote where Jessica plugged in a stereo and music came on. Doc thought it was horrible, Sheriff Metzger guessed it to be Jethro Tull, and Jessica guessed it as Metallica. The techno made them all seem clueless but my guess is that in the original they played Metallica to show that Jessica is actually smarter and more worldly than one might think.

[Kevin]

What about movies that needed more music in it? I've heard people comment that Eastwood's Mystic River needed more music because of the emotional subject matter.

[mkiker2089]

It's been a while since I've seen it but I think Woman in Black could have used more music. The movie had the scares just right but it felt like hollow scares. It was scary but no in an enjoyable way. I can't put my finger on the terminology but you may understand. Music could have smoothed out the scares and made the pacing better.

[Dan Mancini]

The music is tediously simplistic at best and aggressively distracting at worst;

You've summed up Trent Reznor's entire music career in 12 words. Thanks 10pts easy!

[Mitchell Hattaway]

Doesn't this discussion begin and end with Ladyhawke?

[Gabriel Girard]

For Your Eyes Only

[Steve T Power]

Doesn't this discussion begin and end with Ladyhawke?

Yup, it does.

[Dan Mancini]

I've always thought Eric Serra's GoldenEye score was a painful mismatch to an otherwise awesome flick—it's too synthetic and pandering to mid-'90s sensibilities.

[mavrach]

I loved the For Your Eyes Only music but agree on Goldeneye. FYEO still has that Roger Moore cheesiness (which I like) and it's his best movie IMO. Goldeneye was trying to be more modern so it needed a more epic score.


If we're talking pre-2000 movies now, I haven't seen Ladyhawke, but I think this begins and ends with The Princess Bride.

[Andrew Forbes]

I've always thought Eric Serra's GoldenEye score was a painful mismatch to an otherwise awesome flick—it's too synthetic and pandering to mid-'90s sensibilities.

Word. Was about to post the same thing. One of my favorite Bond title songs, though. I don't think I'd say this in any other situation, but it makes me wish Bono and The Edge had been responsible for the entire score.

[mkiker2089]

Going back a bit some say Day of the Dead has a bad score. I disagree vehemently however. The synthesizer score helps encapsulate the movie. Some movies are dated, others a meant to be a testament to their time and grow stronger because of it.

[Kevin]

I nominated The Da Vinci Code. Hans Zimmer is a genius and one of my favourite composers but outside of the final scene, the score is a mis-match for the film. The music makes the film over-dramatic and amusing as a result.

[Andrew Forbes]

Going back a bit some say Day of the Dead has a bad score. I disagree vehemently however. The synthesizer score helps encapsulate the movie. Some movies are dated, others a meant to be a testament to their time and grow stronger because of it.

I hated this score the first three or four times I saw the movie. I can't say I love it now, but it has a certain charm.

[Attrage]

Doesn't this discussion begin and end with Ladyhawke?

I'm sitting here trying to think of one. I know I have seen movies where the score didnt fit, but I cant think of any right now. In the meantime, I'll just keep laughing my ass off at this comment. So, so true. Seriously...WTF??? It's such a shame, because it's actually a reasonably cool movie.