October 14, 2013

Greg's Top Ten Favorite Movie Soundtracks that were Better than the Movie:

10. The Crow: While the Brandon Lee swansong, The Crow, wasn't really a "bad movie" it also isn't particularly good, either. Again, that's just my opinion. The soundtrack, however, is one of the best of the 1990s. Stone Temple Pilots "Big Empty" and The Cure's "Burn" are major highlights but for the money, the Nine Inch Nails cover of Joy Division's "Dead Souls" is incredible and easily my favorite song on the album.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RWs8kdGUgDg

9. Shaft (original): Yeah, that's right, I've seen Shaft and didn't think much of it. Sue me. The soundtrack, however, is a timeless classic that pretty much everyone has heard in some form or another. Isaac Hayes was the man, even if he was a scientologist.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cEaRCAcfOEQ

8. The Saint: Ah, there was a time when Val Kilmer was slated to be the next major action star. That didn't exactly work out as planned. In fact, between being the next Batman and being an updated version of Roger Moore's Simon Templar in The Saint it's really quite amazing his career when down the tubes so quickly. The Saint was a disaster of a movie but the soundtrack features the likes of David Bowie, Daft Punk, Duran Duran, Moby & The Chemical Brothers. However, Sneaker Pimps "Six Underground" is the song that propelled the soundtrack to this list. The Nellie Hooper edit is a classic.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZlA_ljYaBhQ

7. Tron: Legacy: This was a no-brainer to make this list. The movie was a joke and a major letdown for those of us 80s children who fondly remember the Disney original. At least we were rewarded with Daft Punk's chart-topping soundtrack.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LadRcupWDuI

6. Magical Mystery Tour: Beatles films get pushed into two very distinct categories - awesome (A Hard Day's Night) and terrible. Magical Mystery Tour is definitely the latter. Obviously, copious amounts of drugs were used when the "script" was being written. Something tells me lots of acid and LSD were consumed because the film is an unmitigated mess and almost unwatchable by Beatles standards.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2MsXVJ6Ba24

5. Singles: Movies like Singles are such a snapshot in time. For me, this movie was my high school's soundtrack - a grunge-laden record that today stands as one of the decade's finest. Smashing Pumpkins, Soundgarden, Alice in Chains, Pearl Jam and Mother Love Bone. While the film is just "meh" the soundtrack is a who's who of 90's grunge greatness.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iUeHyaAMOxA

4. Saturday Night Fever: Everyone born before 1970 will probably hate me for the inclusion of the John Travolta classic but, IMO, the film is utter crap. I cannot watch this movie without falling asleep between Bee Gees tracks that are peppered throughout. However, that's the entire reason for watching - the Bee Gees absolutely make the movie worthwhile. Though I can't stand disco, it's undeniable that the soundtrack to Fever is one of the greatest of all-time.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XpqqjU7u5Yc

3. Batman Forever: Ah, look, another Val Kilmer movie makes the list. If this were a Top Ten Best Soundtracks list, he'd also have made the cut (Top Gun). Kilmer was a terrible choice to play Bruce Wayne. As the Bat, he was decent, but as Wayne he came off as stiff and completely without character - something Michael Keaton had in spades. The soundtrack was the soundtrack of my high school senior year summer. I must have listened to U2's "Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me" over a thousand times.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zuy4828wpvg

2. Empire Records: The film was nearly direct-to-video fodder that completely tanked at the box office. Today it's a cult-classic that would make many people's guilty pleasures list. Rex Manning Day, anyone? I mean, it's by no means whatsoever a good movie. It's downright uncomfortable to watch at times but it's still ridiculously entertaining even at its worst. The soundtrack, however, was a huge success and gave us one of the best one-hit-wonders of the 90s.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nkKxGzm98AU

1. Purple Rain: Soundtrack gets an A+. Movie gets about a D+ and the only reason I wouldn't give it an F is because it's better than Prince's Under the Cherry Moon, which is so bad I think third world countries use it to torture people. Prince tries to "act" by pouting a lot and being overly dramatic with expressions that even Nicolas Cage finds over the top. Did I mention this movie gave us all Appolonia? Yeah, her career really took off, didn't it? Still, the soundtrack stands as perhaps the greatest of the 1980s and that's really saying something when you consider how much great music came out of the MTV generation.

http://www.myvideo.de/watch/6729113/Prince_Purple_Rain