# The Movie Bombed, But the Soundtrack is Great



## robgb (Jun 14, 2018)

From King Arthur:


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## Parsifal666 (Jun 14, 2018)

Gee, there are so many. Sodom and Gomorrah by Miklos Rozsa comes right to mind. Unbelievably epic, often concert-level composition (perfect for something like Met Ark 1)...the movie sucked a spoiled egg.

King of Kings was pretty lame, too. An even better score.

For fun, just check out how many suck movies Goldsmith penned incredible scores for lol.


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## chrisr (Jun 14, 2018)

For me - Wim Mertens' "Belly of an Architect" - absolutely love it!


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## gsilbers (Jun 14, 2018)

I think the best scores are from movies that bombed. Why? Because the producers know and have to compensate


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## Symfoniq (Jun 14, 2018)

We could have a long thread on this subject. So many films didn't deserve their scores. A few notables for me:


Cutthroat Island (Wow. Just...wow.)
The Rocketeer (actually a great score _and_ movie, still bombed)
Hook (it didn't bomb financially, but this movie definitely didn't deserve one of John Williams' greatest scores)

There's a lot of bad movies that I'm very thankful got made, because of how they enriched the word of film music.


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## robgb (Jun 14, 2018)

Symfoniq said:


> The Rocketeer (actually a great score _and_ movie, still bombed)


Yes. Never understood why that one bombed. I loved it.


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## Symfoniq (Jun 14, 2018)

robgb said:


> Yes. Never understood why that one bombed. I loved it.





I try to watch it at least yearly. In my ideal alternate universe, the planned-for sequels would have gotten made, too.


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## fretti (Jun 14, 2018)

Finally I know I'm not the only one loving that soundtrack (and movie)


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## Wally Garten (Jun 14, 2018)

Symfoniq said:


> Cutthroat Island (Wow. Just...wow.)



Oh, man, I've never listened to this before. It's great! Love the choral work.


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## NoamL (Jun 14, 2018)

Basil Poledouris, "Starship Troopers."


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## robgb (Jun 14, 2018)

NoamL said:


> Basil Poledouris, "Starship Troopers."


It made 121.2 million USD back in 1997. I don't think that's considered a bomb.


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## NoamL (Jun 14, 2018)

On a $105m production budget plus marketing. From what I've read it barely made its money back.


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## robgb (Jun 14, 2018)

NoamL said:


> On a $105m production budget plus marketing. From what I've read it barely made its money back.


Point taken. Yet is spawned a couple sequels. Go figure. I think what happened is that people didn't realize it's a satirical take on right wing jingoism...


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## jhughes (Jun 15, 2018)

I enjoyed the movie but I can't say I thought the music was great.


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## TGV (Jun 15, 2018)

If the trailer is anything to go by, this movie is Jason Statham's Cockney character in a LOTR pastiche that was made to look like Assassin's Creed, with a bit of Sir Digby Caesar Chicken thrown in for good measure.


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## storyteller (Jun 15, 2018)

Biggest flop? Great movie? Great soundtrack?

*Winter's Tale *for sure.


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## Satorious (Jun 15, 2018)

Rubbish film, big flop, first class score:


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## gsilbers (Jun 15, 2018)

NoamL said:


> On a $105m production budget plus marketing. From what I've read it barely made its money back.




its hard to gauge since a lot of the money studios make comes from the back end deals. And since streaming became a thing each one of those outlets pays a lot of money and pays it yearly per country. 
Plus syndication and international broadcasters who also been showing it yearly. 
Also those box office numbers don't show tax breaks and other ways of lowering the final cost vs money made. Also merchandise, games etc. 
IF they have sequels, even if its direct to video then in general its a good movie release. 
well, at least not as bad a John Carter.


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## NoamL (Jun 15, 2018)

Speaking of Disney flops, John Powell's score to _Solo_ is just as great as all his other work.


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## sluggo (Jun 15, 2018)

Powell's Solo score is one of the best Star Wars scores since the 80's. Disney says it's box office disappointment but I guess that's in comparison to other SW films. 

JNH's Lady in the Water is a beautiful score to one of the worst films I've ever seen. I walked out of it...in my own home.


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## NoamL (Jun 15, 2018)

It's in comparison to the budget - it's the most expensive SW film ever, and it's bleeding theaters.. It's a verified flop at this point, the only question is how much. Will likely lose a bunch of theaters soon to Incredibles 2 which is having a smash O.W.! Luckily Disney wins either way....


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## lucianogiacomozzi (Jun 16, 2018)

sluggo said:


> Powell's Solo score is one of the best Star Wars scores since the 80's. Disney says it's box office disappointment but I guess that's in comparison to other SW films.



I think we have to remember that it was an inflated budget due to the fact they got rid of the first set of directors in the middle of production. But I definitely enjoyed the score!


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## storyteller (Jun 16, 2018)

Solo was a difficult movie for me. On one hand, I thought everything about it was top notch. The action was great. The writing was generally good. There were a tad too many references to those lucky dice that show up in all of the Star Wars movies. But other than that, the cinematography and Direction was great. The score was phenomenal. It just felt like the movie landed at a solid “meh.” I can’t tell you why.  Maybe when it hits 4K/Blu-ray I can figure out why... I just felt emotionally disconnected from it or something...


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## Fry777 (Jun 16, 2018)

I'd add Tears of the Sun to the list


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## AR (Jun 16, 2018)

Back to the OP. I thought the clive Owen Arthur has a great score.


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## Iskra (Jun 16, 2018)

robgb said:


> . I think what happened is that people didn't realize it's a satirical take on right wing jingoism...


The original R.A.Heinlein novel, yes, but the movie was an absolute and complete sh*t. I agree its music was good indeed.


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## fretti (Jun 16, 2018)

AR said:


> Back to the OP. I thought the clive Owen Arthur has a great score.


Awesome score, one of my all time favorites


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## Dtwo (Jun 16, 2018)

Cherry 2000 

Basil Poledouris


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## AR (Jun 16, 2018)

There's also JNH score for Unbreakable. I can listen to the theme endless


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## Satorious (Jun 17, 2018)

I love this score, but I'm not sure Unbreakable can be classed as a bomb in any sense of the word? I am however sad that JNH will not be returning for the cross-over/sequel "Glass".


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## robgb (Jun 18, 2018)

sluggo said:


> JNH's Lady in the Water is a beautiful score to one of the worst films I've ever seen.


I loved Lady in the Water. Movie and score.


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## robgb (Jun 18, 2018)

Iskra said:


> the movie was an absolute and complete sh*t


That's what a lot of people thought. But a lot of people don't get Verhoven.


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## I like music (Jun 18, 2018)

Symfoniq said:


> We could have a long thread on this subject. So many films didn't deserve their scores. A few notables for me:
> 
> 
> Cutthroat Island (Wow. Just...wow.)
> ...



Cutthroat Island is like an hour of jam packed musical brilliance and energy. God damn there was a lot of (great) musical content in there. Must have been a tiring day out for the orchestra.

Rocketeer, couldn't agree more. Sublime.

Hook ... great score. I thought the movie was decent enough too!


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## patrick76 (Jun 18, 2018)

Solaris. Great score by Cliff Martinez.


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## StephenForsyth (Jun 18, 2018)

easily my favourite single cue of 2017


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## DS_Joost (Jun 19, 2018)

Not a movie, but a game: Lair, with a score by John Debney. And not just a score, but one of his all time greatest. Game was great (when they updated it a year later with a patch to control the dragons with the stick instead of motion control), story was great, production design, scope, everything about it was fantastic. La-la-land released a 2CD version that I have at home, and wow, just wow. It's large scale, tons of themes, fantastic interplay. Score does not feel gamey at all, and that was exactly what they were going for. It actually really reminds me of those golden age scores, but then if it were recorded today. John Debney is really good at this.

This game would have been one of the big launch titles on the PS3, and everything went right... until the higher ups decided it was a good idea to make those motion controls mandatory. That one tiny decision, made propably in a normal afternoon, made what could have been a fantastic game into one of the biggest piles of shit you have ever played. Until the patch came out. After it was too little, too late.

Listen to this and be in awe! (the 2CD score is dirt cheap as well, pick it up while you still can!)


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## MA-Simon (Jun 19, 2018)

Jumper: Griffin's Story (The Video Game adaption of the Movie). Had an awesome soundtrack. Unfortunally the game flopped hard. You can listen to some snippets here: (Scroll down) http://christilton.com/


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## Divico (Jun 19, 2018)

Not a movie but this game was pretty bad and people had at least mixed opinions. The title theme got stuck into memory though. Really like it, though with todays overload on epic music its probably just another face in the crowd


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## Satorious (Jun 19, 2018)

Talking of Cutthroat Island and Rocketeer (agree with both), I'm suddenly reminded of David Newman's fantastic score to this film


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## Manaberry (Jun 19, 2018)

AR said:


> There's also JNH score for Unbreakable. I can listen to the theme endless




I've loved the movie and the score.


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## SillyMidOn (Jun 20, 2018)

Power of One - I actually really liked the film, but it doesn't appear to have been a commercial success, probably due to the subject matter, being set in South Africa during, and either side of WW2 (though the book it is based on was a success).

"Traditional" southern African pieces amongst some great HZ penned pieces (I much prefer his work here to his Oscar winning Lion King):


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## Bill the Lesser (Jun 27, 2018)

Glad to see it wasn't just me. I heard the Rocketeer suite on the car radio, turned around and drove 10 miles to buy the CD. Only time I ever did something like that.

I heard a Horner radio interview a few years later where he complained how every director wanted a totally different sounding score more than an appropriate score, he may have been referring to James Cameron on Titanic. That definitely was different and a real toe-tapper, but not as good as Rocketeer.


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