Worst sound track decision in history?

[werp]

Watching A Game of Thrones series three, episode three and Ser Jaime Lannister has just been separated from his right hand. Fade to black and this Godawful rockabilly track starts up!
WTF?
For the life of me I can't recall anything that has dragged me out of a tale so completely and abruptly...

[Ghostwave]

I remember that. I thought the audio was f-up.

[nasenmann]

Already mentioned it in bad scifi:
The credits tune in event horizon.

Though that's not really accurate, because the track perfectly goes along with the shitfest the film becomes after a promising start.

[bailees7irish]

Already mentioned it in bad scifi:
The credits tune in event horizon.

Though that's not really accurate, because the track perfectly goes along with the shitfest the film becomes after a promising start.

Paul W.S. Anderson sucks.

[Smoking_Gnu]

Already mentioned it in bad scifi:
The credits tune in event horizon.

Though that's not really accurate, because the track perfectly goes along with the shitfest the film becomes after a promising start.

Just watched that on Netflix and the subtitles during the credits say "funky jams by [whatever the band was]" or something along those lines.

I didn't think the movie was that bad; just well-shot schlocky horror all around. Would have been nice if they hadn't (allegedly) cut the more violent/gory parts.

[nasenmann]

Well no fan of gore horror here, no matter how tame or extreme.
The first part of the movie just made me expect something..more subtle and rewarding. The whole tone of the film seemed so confused as a result. To the point where i have to give it bonus points for novelty, despite it sucking.

[jancivil]

How about that rap for the beginning of Iron Man 3? Omfg.

[Smoking_Gnu]

Well no fan of gore horror here, no matter how tame or extreme.
The first part of the movie just made me expect something..more subtle and rewarding. The whole tone of the film seemed so confused as a result. To the point where i have to give it bonus points for novelty, despite it sucking.

Fair point. It indeed could have been creepier and more atmospheric (in fact, my favorite horror films are the ones capable of blending excellent atmosphere with excellent gore, i.e. The Thing), especially once we know more about what happened to the ship. I'm guessing they tried to emulate that Lovecraftian minimalism and "leave it to your imagination," but that's a bit more difficult to do with something as visually stimulating as a movie.

That said, I saw a network-tv-censored version when I was 10 (the first "legitimate" horror movie I ever saw, so to speak), it scared the shit out of me and I couldn't sleep that night, so I've always had some fond memories of it.

[do_androids_dream]

The Burton remake of Charlie and the chocolate factory was completely ruined by the terrible, terrible music. It was already not such a great movie anyway but I couldn't believe how bad it was.

[infectedpimple]

Lifetime's Lizzie Borden Took an Ax starring Christina Ricci comes to mind in the category of wildly inappropriate soundtracks, at least in recent memory.

Granted, the movie wasn't anything special to begin with, clearly much of its production budget was used to lure Ms. Ricci to the project, but too much of what was left after Wednesday Addams signed on the dotted line went toward the licensing fees for a bunch of obscure rock acts that did nothing to enhance the atmosphere of the piece, and if anything undermined any pretensions of subtext it might have otherwise enjoyed. The song selections made it seem like they were trying to remake Natural Born Killers, just with Lizzie Borden in the central role. Turned what would have been a competent if forgettable period piece into something wince-inducing and ridiculous. My admiration for Ms. Ricci was certainly tested by the experience.

The use of Thom Yorke's "Analyse" for the end credits of The Prestige, one of my favoritest films, always leaves me somewhat disappointed because tonally it doesn't seem like a good fit to my ears. The sentiment isn't lessened either by the seeming arrogance of sticking a song called "Analyse" after a movie like the Prestige.

And then there's Beastie Boys in the new Star Treks. As soon they had Brat Kirk driving his step-dad's car off the cliff to a song that was already cliche when the movie was released, I knew Abrams' Trek wasn't going to be for me. So then instead of following whatever perilously thin plot they had going, I started thinking that by Kirk's time Beastie Boys is actually classical music. It's for nerds like Spock to write dissertations about at Vulcan Nerd University, not rebels like I'm Such a Rebel Because My Daddy Died Kirk. It reminds me that Kirk should be listening to something that should seem offensive or even incomprehensible to our ears--something far beyond the avant garde. Something from another world and another time. Exactly the sort of stuff a sci-fi films should be doing--challenging us with the new, the dangerous, not superficially glorifying and further commercializing clown acts of old.

And then it leads to the inevitable conclusion that my Trek is dead, and that it deserves to be dead--because my Trek was about hope and optimism, that humanity will get its act together one day and survive in near perpetuity among the stars. And more and more it becomes obvious that we will not. Abrams Trek is the Trek we deserve, a mirror into our hopeless future, in which we'll spend the coming centuries here on earth consuming the same corporate products we consume now, and cannibalizing the works of our past in increasingly futile endeavors to elevate our minuscule importance in the grand scheme, only leaving earth to blow things up, presumably to survive some abstract threat to our species without ever once asking ourselves why we deserve to survive at all. Beastie Boys then not only killed Star Trek for me (though to be honest, the previous two installments had already disillusioned me), it made me think less of humanity than I already do. Quite an accomplishment really.

[jancivil]

that particular ST was marred by a terrifically hackneyed score by Michael Giacchino to begin with. It's all of this hack copy of older film music based in the 19th century which is jarring just being there for me, and it was so fvcking LOUD. I was looking at it on Netflix or like that and I didn't get past around 25 minutes just out of that, and it was a cheesy bit of fluff anyway.

There is a lot of not so great rock type of music in TV these days as well. My respect for the project drops when you do it, I'm not taken where you think you're taking me by it, and it's lazy, trying to fill in for the writing and mise en scene with a song in the first place. If there's very much of it I bolt.

[jancivil]

And I totally concur on the end titles music for Prestige, a very good flick. If I'm in the theater I stick around for the credits. Saw that either on the tube or the computer and not that big a deal to just hit off or close the tab. But f that whole kind of move.

[infectedpimple]

that particular ST was marred by a terrifically hackneyed score by Michael Giacchino to begin with. It's all of this hack copy of older film music based in the 19th century which is jarring just being there for me, and it was so fvcking LOUD. I was looking at it on Netflix or like that and I didn't get past around 25 minutes just out of that, and it was a cheesy bit of fluff anyway.

There is a lot of not so great rock type of music in TV these days as well. My respect for the project drops when you do it, I'm not taken where you think you're taking me by it, and it's lazy, trying to fill in for the writing and mise en scene with a song in the first place. If there's very much of it I bolt.

I definitely agree NuTrek's "original" score had a certain bludgeoning bluntness to it that did nothing to dissuade me from my low opinion of the overall experience, but in so far as the thread topic is concerned I guess one could say it perfectly fit the film it was attached to: obnoxious, loud, hackneyed and typical of the summer blockbuster. So if nothing else, it has that, I guess.

And yeah, modern narrative TV is definitely relying heavily on licensed musical content these days, too often as filler. In principle I'm not opposed, even if the selections don't align with my personal tastes. I simply don't want to be jarred out of an atmosphere or period that's been established in the show by a song that doesn't fit the mood or setting. Shows like Breaking Bad, House of Cards or the Wire benefit from those sort of additions; something like the Walking Dead gets a little iffier for me, though; Game of Thrones, as mentioned above, and other shows of more fantastical settings, would fall into the definite "no, thank you" column for me.

And I totally concur on the end titles music for Prestige, a very good flick. If I'm in the theater I stick around for the credits. Saw that either on the tube or the computer and not that big a deal to just hit off or close the tab. But f that whole kind of move.

I too like to sit through the credit roll, an opportunity to enjoy the composer's score in isolation while lingering in the residual mood of the production and reflecting on the experience. Sad I couldn't in this case, even though I generally enjoy Thom Yorke/Radiohead and like that particular song too. But in that context, after that haunting final scene and David Julyan's score, just a complete miss. It's a very minor quibble with an otherwise great piece of film, though. It did not wound me so deeply as Beastie Boys in Star Trek anyway!

[aMUSEd]

The new jazz-free Great Gatsby

[osiris]

I only watched the Twilight movies because of the music....