Amph Bad movies with great scores/main titles (media heavy)

Wing Commander (1999)

Based on the popular video game series of the same name.

Bad movie credentials: It stars Freddie Prinze Jr. and Matthew Lillard. Likely 'nuff said, but I'll continue. The director (and also the game's creator), Chris Roberts, never directed another film. Currently holds a 4.1/10 rating on IMDb, and a %10 score (based on 48 reviews) on Rotten Tomatoes. Grossed a whopping $11,578,059 against a $30 million dollar budget.

The music: The score was done by someone named Kevin Kiner, and doesn't make much of an impression, but David Arnold (Stargate, ID4) was commissioned to write the movie's main titles, and he delivered a rousing, old fashioned symphonic masterpiece that made promises of fun and adventure that the movie itself failed to deliver on.




You certainly don't have to go into this kind of detail, but please share your favorite pieces of great music from bad movies.

 

The music of the Movie Legend.

And the music of the movie Days of Thunder.

 

Great titles. Crappy movie.

 

Wing Commander and Far & Away are both fantastic examples of this.

By far my favorite example of this is Snake Eyes, the Brian De Palma film with Nicolas Cage & Gary Sinise. It's an absurd "mystery/thriller" about an assassination attempt at a boxing match and government conspiracies and other ridiculous things.

And Ryuchi Sakamoto (a composer who's been working since at least the 1960s) turned in his best score with this tragic, beautiful masterpiece.



Hot damn, will you listen to that? So evocative and moving.

 

This is probably applicable to everything Bruno Nicolai composed for, but let's go with Sartana.

The Sartana films are a pentalogy(!) of films all starring Giani Garko in the titular role of "Blonde protagonist with suspicious motives who has goofy trick weapons." They're enjoyable but utterly disposable Django knock-offs, but Bruno Nicolai is up there with Ennio Morricone in raw ability to compose music, and it really shines through.





Of course, what's even more interesting is that the also impeccable Marcello Giombini was the composer on another one of the films, and he was a frequent collaborator with the original's director, Gianfranco Parolini. So if you're thinking to yourself "Gee, Ramza, Sartana sounds dumb as hell, but what if there was a slightly dumber rip-off made by the same guy, composed by Giombini, but starring Lee 'Goddamn' Van Cleef?" well, you are in luck, my friends. There are two.





And as for the third Sabata-not-to-be-confused-with-Sartana film? Well, that starred Yul Brynner and had music composed by...

Bruno Nicolai.



This has been an installment of My Favorite Genre is Dumb as Hell.

 

Cutthroat Island. Some people liked it, but I thought it was just lackluster, and I didn't buy into any of the actors in their roles. The score, however is one of the alltime great pirate movie themes.

 

I feel like half of everything Goblin ever composed would fit here in this thread.

 

The International: 59% on rottentomatoes with 37% of the audience liking it.

 

The Prequel Trilogy

 

1941 (1979)

Bad Movie Credentials:

Directed by Steven Spielberg, who already had Jaws and Close Encounters of the Third Kind under his belt; one of the screenwriters was one Robert Zemeckis, with help from John Milius; featured an all-star cast in both lead and supporting roles. What could go wrong?

The Music:

Along with some of the great hits of the late 30's/early 40's, the musical score was the work of John Williams. 'Nuff said.



And in the end, the movie tried just a bit too hard.

 

I liked Cutthroat Island at the time, but it hasn't aged well at all.

 

Which score; Tangerine Dream or Jerry Goldsmith? Probably gonna get blasted for this, but I prefer Tangerine Dream.

I absolutely love the track War from that score. I have it on my workout list.

I actually watched Cutthtroat Island for the first time about a year ago. Pretty lousy movie for sure, but two things stood out; Frank Langella and the great John Debney score.

1941 is one of only a handful of Spielberg's movies that I haven't seen (though I'm familiar with its rep), but I have listened to its score.

 

This is my answer, as well.

 

Cutthroat Island! Can't believe I forgot that one. Great score; never actually saw the movie, but I'm aware of its reputation.

 

Thunderbirds. Great treatment of a classic TV sci-fi adventure theme in front of an absolutely awful movie.

 

Which Legend score?

I liked the soundtrack to the 1993 movie Sliver, and that was about it.

 

No one for Transformers: The Movie?

 

The pop songs definitely have The Touch, but I don't remember much about the score.

 

Battle Beyond the Stars (1980)

I actually like this movie, but I fully admit that's mostly nostalgia talking. Mostly.

Bad movie credentials: Produced by Roger Corman. I could stop right there, but I'll continue. "Hero" is played played by Richard Thomas (aka John-Boy Walton). Currently rated 5.4 on IMDb and holds a %45 score (based on 11 reviews) on Rotten Tomatoes.

The Music: One of the first scores by James Horner, and all of what would become his signature sound in several mid-80s sci-fi films (Star Trek II & III, Krull, Aliens) is on full display here. Not surprisingly, Corman would recycle the score for a number of his other releases (he would also recycle many of the f/x shots produced by a young man named James Cameron).

 

No that doesn't sound like Star Trek at all.

 

St. Elmo's Fire. Atrocious movie but a really good soundtrack.

 

Earthquake (1974)

This is actually one of my favorite films, but it's definitely got some iffy qualities.


Bad movie credentials: Ava Gardner plays Lorne Greene's daughter in this, despite there being only a 7-year age difference between the two. Also, George Kennedy's line "Earthquakes bring out the worst in people" is rather atrocious, as is this effects shot:


.


The blood splatter at the end... holy hell, how did that make the final cut? But, even with that, this film features many great practical effects. Onto the music...







Aside from the great shots of the L.A. basin/the Hollywood Hills there, I think it's a very nice, effective theme by John Williams... yes, that John Williams. It builds up to a nice, dramatic finish, and many sections of the remaining score throughout the film do a great job of setting a creepy mood.