# Worst soundtracks suggestions



## Loïc D (Mar 16, 2021)

I was wondering if anyone has suggestions for horrible soundtracks.

What I mean as horrible soundtrack is :
- something that poorly composed or arranged
- and/or a horrible mix
- and/or damages the (not as bad) movie
- and/or totally misses the point

I'm mostly targeting commercial releases, don't post your own stuff 

The goal of this thread is to have a gentle laugh at some stuff, not to open a flame war against a specific composer or style.

Who know, this thread might also turn a safe haven for composers lacking self-confidence. 


Ok, I'll open the ball with the first dance.

I was listening to GoldenEye the other day and not only it doesn't feel Bond-ish but it also aged badly.
(IIRC, Serra only had a couple of weeks to deliver it and was a tad overwhelmed by the job).
Disclaimer : GoldenEye excluded, I generally appreciate Serra's scores.


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## Germain B (Mar 16, 2021)

The changes of directors and composers for the Harry Potter saga created a big lack of cohesiveness. There's no memorable theme (apart from that Edwige's theme by John Williams that became the opening piece) and therefore something is obviously missing although the different composers did the job, they did nothing more...

I know there is nothing horrible here, but worth mentioning (maybe).


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## pmcrockett (Mar 16, 2021)

The score to the first Tomb Raider movie (the 2001 one) is a little like the GoldenEye situation. They didn't hire Graeme Revell until the last minute, and he had like two weeks to come up with something. It's not a great score, but it's still astonishing that Revell was able to deliver anything at all with the time they gave him.


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## chrisr (Mar 16, 2021)

I always take the approach of: 
great score - credit the composer.
not so great score - assume blame lies with the director/producer.

Works for me!


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## Satorious (Mar 16, 2021)

I thought Serra had longer than this, even if that wasn't the case - he certainly didn't leave much time to fix it (John Altman stepped up to rescore the Tank Chase at extremely short notice). A bit of info on that here: Composer John Altman explains what went wrong with Goldeneye's score.

Goldeneye is an oddity to me, I actually like what Serra did with Timpani drums and the main theme. His romantic theme for Natalya was rather nice. But everything else - yeah, not so much - often it goes against the scene (such as what I call the Outrun scene or the Casino music - which was lovely and yet utterly out of place). Would work in Leon, but for Bond? That end song is absolutely excruciating (sorry Eric, I know you sing on it also)! Talking of being out of place, I struggle with Ladyhawke - it feels tonally wrong and very - errr - very 80's!


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## JohnG (Mar 16, 2021)

chrisr said:


> I always take the approach of:
> great score - credit the composer.
> not so great score - assume blame lies with the director/producer.
> 
> Works for me!


I agree.

It's the schedule, budget, communication -- it's not just on the composer when the music stinks.

Nevertheless....there are some stinkers...


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## BenG (Mar 16, 2021)

Really interesting topic! I thought the score of Steven Soderbergh's 'Unsane' was terrible. Though, I thought the movie was not great on the whole...



(Edit: Looks like Thomas Newman himself wasn't a fan either as he used a pseudonym for his credit)


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## Laurin Lenschow (Mar 16, 2021)

Germain B said:


> The changes of directors and composers for the Harry Potter saga created a big lack of cohesiveness. There's no memorable theme (apart from that Edwige's theme by John Williams that became the opening piece) and therefore something is obviously missing although the different composers did the job, they did nothing more...


Hey, so...
A couple of things beforehand: I am aware that we are not supposed to argue in this thread, and this is not my intention. I also want to state that I do not feel offended by your post (I'm saying that in case the following makes it seem that way) and I don't want to offend you by strongly contradicting you. All I'm trying to do is to offer a different viewpoint on this subject 
(...sorry for any grammar issues btw., English is not my first language.)

I will start with the assumption that you are not heavily invested in the Harry Potter franchise, because "Edwige's Theme" (it is called "Hedwig's Theme) does not look like a typing error. This is - of course - completely fine. But it also makes me want to comment on your post, as someone who grew up with this franchise and deeply loves the soundtrack of these movies (which is partly due to nostalgia, I acknowledge that ).
I don't disagree with everything you said - yes, there is a certain lack of cohesiveness in both the soundtrack and the tone of the movies, and yes, this was mostly caused by the change of directors and composers.
However, Hedwig's Theme is (at least in my opinion) by far not the only meorable theme from these movies. Let me spam some links 

For reference: When I am saying "Hedwig's Theme" I am referring to the first 17 seconds


I am mentioning this because this is not the only memorable(! ) theme from that track but the one that is usually associated with it. Speaking of this track - here are two other passages you might recognize: 2:31 - 2:45 and 2:48 - 3:00.

Some more beautiful and at least relatively well-known ones:




0:00 - 0:08 and 1:32 - 1:59




1:30 - 1:50





1:10 - 1:39


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## Laurin Lenschow (Mar 16, 2021)

Now on to "although the different composers did the job, they did nothing more". Feel free to correct me, if I'm wrong, but to me this sounds like you are saying that the music works but is only okay and nothing special. I want to give some examples of scenes in which the music is (in my opinion) absolutely brilliant. These examples are intentionally _not _from the first three movies, as I don't think anyone is going to doubt that John Williams did a marvelous job there.

This scene is from the sixth movie, which even fans say is "okay but nothing more". I also chose this one because "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" is not the one that immediately comes to mind when talking about great musical moments in the Harry Potter series.



0:40 - 2:14 (This just sends shivers down my spine every time I watch it )




1:03 - 3:34 This theme just fits the character perfectly.




0:00 - 1:34

What I love about this last one (apart from the incorporation of Hedwig's Theme at 0:58) is that all the movements of the dragon are present in the music. You can hear it climb upwards, pause to breathe, take off and finally the ecstasy of flight.


Ok, so... I could go on for hours/pages (can you tell?), but I should probably find an end.
I put a lot of time into this post and I'm probably overreacting, but I just had to get this off my chest after seeing my favourite soundtrack of all times mentioned in a thread about "horrible soundtracks" (I know you did not say it was horrible, but still, I hope you see where I'm coming from.).
I hope I did not annoy anyone with this rather long post(s) - and kudos to everyone who actually read all of this and listened to (/watched) the examples.


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## Cheezus (Mar 16, 2021)

First example that comes to mind is the OST for Dragon Quest XI. My girlfriend played through this whole game and I constantly had to hear this battle theme pop up over and over again:



The composition itself is pretty annoying after a couple of listens but even worse the MIDI sounds chosen for it are so grating for a song that repeats *hundreds of times* throughout the game.

Perhaps the worst part is that this was the composer's own decision. The entire soundtrack was recorded with real orchestra but the composer apparently insisted on putting only the MIDI versions in the game so he could sell the proper recordings separately. Only the Switch version, which IIRC was released more than a year after initial release, has the true orchestral recordings in the game.


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## BenG (Mar 16, 2021)

Cheezus said:


> The entire soundtrack was recorded with real orchestra but the composer apparently insisted on putting only the MIDI versions in the game so he could sell the proper recordings separately.


Wow. Thought this was from the 90's and shocked to find its from 2017. How does this even happen?!


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## EgM (Mar 16, 2021)

Cheezus said:


> First example that comes to mind is the OST for Dragon Quest XI. My girlfriend played through this whole game and I constantly had to hear this battle theme pop up over and over again:
> 
> 
> 
> ...




Not Sugiyama's best work, lol

Bought this game a year ago, didn't play it yet... Hearing this, it'll be painful


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## Soundlex (Mar 16, 2021)

"Asterix Conquers America" is an absolute masterpiece of a disaster by Harold Faltermeyer...
The worst of the worst, folks. Not only it sounds terrible but I couldn't keep count on how many times he totally misses the point.


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## Germain B (Mar 17, 2021)

Laurin Lenschow said:


> Ok, so... I could go on for hours/pages (can you tell?), but I should probably find an end.
> I put a lot of time into this post and I'm probably overreacting, but I just had to get this off my chest after seeing my favourite soundtrack of all times mentioned in a thread about "horrible soundtracks" (I know you did not say it was horrible, but still, I hope you see where I'm coming from.).
> I hope I did not annoy anyone with this rather long post(s) - and kudos to everyone who actually read all of this and listened to (/watched) the examples.


Haha, sorry about that (and for the french "Edwige"), and thanks for your answer !

I have to say that I agree with your points, and mine is not contradicting it.
When I wrote "did the job" I was including the idea that the job can be amazingly done, but for a scene, a moment. The reproach I make here is that the canvas behind all of those cues could have been much more cohesive, and I find it unfortunately really obvious. I lack those musical bonds that I'm expecting in such a saga.

(Oh, and I regularly listen to those soundtracks (especially the first 3, masterpieces by the master) as I love the general magical atmosphere)

Sorry for the digression, @Loïc D.


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## lux (Mar 17, 2021)

The entire HP saga is full of beautiful music, some reported here by Laurin, chapters have their own sound and feel and thats perfectly fine to me. Also the directors changes. After all is a story about kids growin, and every stage of our lives has a different look, sound and feel in real life. It happened to all of us. Unless you guys still listen to lullabies on your earbuds. Which would be fine enough as well, as tastes are subjective


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## FGBR (Mar 17, 2021)

Satorious said:


> I thought Serra had longer than this, even if that wasn't the case - he certainly didn't leave much time to fix it (John Altman stepped up to rescore the Tank Chase at extremely short notice). A bit of info on that here: Composer John Altman explains what went wrong with Goldeneye's score.
> 
> Goldeneye is an oddity to me, I actually like what Serra did with Timpani drums and the main theme. His romantic theme for Natalya was rather nice. But everything else - yeah, not so much - often it goes against the scene (such as what I call the Outrun scene or the Casino music - which was lovely and yet utterly out of place). Would work in Leon, but for Bond? That end song is absolutely excruciating (sorry Eric, I know you sing on it also)! Talking of being out of place, I struggle with Ladyhawke - it feels tonally wrong and very - errr - very 80's!



Haven't seen Goldeneye since the 90s, but now I want to see it again! Just checked out that end credits song, and that is indeed very odd.


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## Yowakeem (Mar 17, 2021)

Not to derail the thread. But here is a pretty good 3 part vidoe series about the music in Harry Potter. 
It touches on alot of things that has been said in this thread. I find it really interesting.


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## Daniel James (Mar 17, 2021)

This will always be my favourite.



Still reminds me of the solo horn in BBSO haha

-DJ


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## Yowakeem (Mar 17, 2021)

Come to think about this for use of song that dosent fit:


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## tmhuud (Mar 17, 2021)

It follows


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## dariusofwest (Mar 17, 2021)

These two pieces are among some of the worst I've heard


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## Satorious (Mar 17, 2021)

FGBR said:


> Haven't seen Goldeneye since the 90s, but now I want to see it again! Just checked out that end credits song, and that is indeed very odd.


If you're feeling particularly masochistic - it's here... (it might even reuse some elements Leon/The Professional - I forget now)


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## FGBR (Mar 17, 2021)

Satorious said:


> If you're feeling particularly masochistic - it's here... (it might even reuse some elements Leon/The Professional - I forget now)



Thanks, I found it and listened to it last night, not sure if I want to hear it again so soon  

I've enjoyed other scores from Éric Serra, but can't say I remember much of the Goldeneye score at all. I was just a kid at the time though, might be time for a revisit. (But I sure loved those John Barry scores as a kid!).


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## Loïc D (Mar 17, 2021)

Thanks a lot for all your contributions !

@Daniel James : I think I know who composed this score... My cat does exactly this when she’s walking on the keyboard (and I’m struggling with SStB solo horn).


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## SquirrelMan (Mar 17, 2021)

Satorious said:


> Talking of being out of place, I struggle with Ladyhawke - it feels tonally wrong and very - errr - very 80's!


Funny - I absolutely love Ladyhawke. I remember seeing that in the theater and thinking it was a breath of fresh air. There was a big fantasy boom at the time and a glut of fantasy/dragon/wizard films and they all had these huge, sweeping, overly romantic and overly excited scores. I really give them credit for trying something different and if anything it gives the film a unique vibe to me. Right down to the Eventide 3000 down pitched delays on the final swordfight in slow motion. Out of all the films from that era I rewatch (Dragonslayer, Excalibur, Sword and the Sorceress, Clash of the Titans, Sorceress, etc.) Ladyhawke is the one I watch the most over and over and a good part of it is how much I enjoy the score in the context of what's going on. 

As for any scores I really dislike or miss the point (which is kinda subjective I guess) but Junkie XL's score for Battle Angel to me is just horrible. Either he just didn't bother to do any research or he just phoned it in. As someone who's read all the graphic novels I feel like he completely had no concept of what the main character was about or even the world they inhabited. It just sounded like another generic score without even trying. An easy paycheck. 

That film has a lot of other flaws as well but Junkie's score is well....IMO....Junk.


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## NekujaK (Mar 17, 2021)

I realize the intent of this thread is slanted towards modern scores, but for me, when I think of worst scores, what immediately comes to mind are selected B-movies from the 1930s and 40s where the "score" is simply some background music that runs through the entire film without pause and no apparent attempt to tie the music to the emotion or action of the scenes. It's as if you're watching the movie and listening to the radio at the same time. If I recall correctly, I believe episodes of "The Little Rascals" used a similar scoring "technique".

Fast-forward to the 1960s, and the most cringe-worthy scoring element for me was when they tried to be "hip and groovy" by inserting generic, very square, bluesy-sounding "rock" music that was obviously played by musicians, and/or composed by writers, who had no actual idea of what rock 'n' roll really sounds like. Unless a film actually licensed popular songs, this bland vanilla-rock sound is ubiquitous among nearly all 60s films and TV shows.

Soundtracks and scoring have a come a long way since those days...


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## Nimrod7 (Mar 17, 2021)

Masterpiece... 



I am considering re-orchestrating it...


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## doctoremmet (Mar 17, 2021)

The horror! Just to give readers a short break, here’s an example of one of the best composers of the 8 bit era (who learned Motorola 6502 assembly just to have access to more options and save memory), the genius Rob Hubbard.



Noone ever will have to reorchestrate this brilliant piece of SID music. Okay, back to ugliness.

Edit: OMG, that bit from 3:17 onwards is insane.


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## TimCox (Mar 17, 2021)

Ok, here's a contentious one (I'm assuming).

The score is great, the film is great, but the two never felt like they worked in tandem _to me_.

That film is, "The Machinist" with a score by Roque Baños. It's a fantastic Herrmann-esque score that absolutely nails the Hitchcock vibe but, by no fault of the composer and possibly just my personal opinion, it is distracting and comes across as cheesy in several places.

For reference, here's a clip (at about 4:10)



(You'll have to go to youtube, apparently! Sorry everyone)

EDIT: Language warning, lol


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## [email protected] (Mar 17, 2021)

NekujaK said:


> I realize the intent of this thread is slanted towards modern scores, but for me, when I think of worst scores, what immediately comes to mind are selected B-movies from the 1930s and 40s where the "score" is simply some background music that runs through the entire film without pause and no apparent attempt to tie the music to the emotion or action of the scenes.


One of the reasons could be that those B-Movies mostly used library music which was very generic and couldn't be "tied" that much to the visuals. The studios also often re-used pieces from different productions for budget reasons. The label _Monstrous Movie Music_ has published a lot of albums with re-recordings and original archival editions which feature a lot of scores from those films. The producer David Schecter wrote me that it's sometimes impossiböe to "recreate" the complete score breakdown for these films because it's just a mess regarding how many tracks from different sources were used.

They have also a very informative info pages: https://www.mmmrecordings.com/Bonus_Stuff-/Monster_Music/monster_music.html

Here is a quote:


> *As fans of our Monstrous Movie Music series know, a lot of the music that is so indelibly linked to the monsters they love is, in fact, equally indelibly linked to other visuals as well. Herman Stein’s powerful “Main Title" from Universal’s 1955 Tarantula perfectly conjures the menace of a colossal arachnid running loose in the desert. Except for one thing. The piece was originally written in 1952, where it served as the “Main Title” for Universal’s Rock Hudson western, The Lawless Breed. This process of “tracking” -- re-using cues from the studio’s music library in subsequent pictures -- shows that what makes something sound “monstrous” is often merely in the ear of the beholder. *



But there is one thing, though: Wall-to-wall-scoring was a real exception in the "Golden Age" and I don't know where the cliché that those "old movies" always are completely "drowned" in dramatic underscore comes from.

Most of the movies from the 1930-1960 only had between 20%-40" scored, of course there are exceptions. But I know only of ONE Film which has a wall-to-wall-score: LAND OF THE PHARAOHS (scored by Dimitri Tiomkin).
If you look at the vast catalogue of Golden-Age scores on CD from Intrada or Varèse Sarabande, they often only run 20-30 minutes in their complete form and are often paired with others to fill up the CD.


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## Satorious (Mar 17, 2021)

doctoremmet said:


> Here’s an example of one of the best composers of the 8 bit era (who learned Motorola 6502 assembly just to have access to more options and save memory), the genius Ron Hubbard.
> 
> 
> 
> ...



Rob Hubbard is amazing and was so ahead of the game (excuse the pun) - I also love Monty On The Run (which came before this - it's slightly based on The Devil's Galop).



Have you checked out the band Press Play On Tape @doctoremmet - I think they have done covers of both of these (among some a few other 8bit classics). Anyway, sorry to hijack - back to talking about rubbish music again...


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## doctoremmet (Mar 17, 2021)

I have not - but I will! Thx!


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## Loïc D (Mar 17, 2021)

SquirrelMan said:


> Funny - I absolutely love Ladyhawke. I remember seeing that in the theater and thinking it was a breath of fresh air. There was a big fantasy boom at the time and a glut of fantasy/dragon/wizard films and they all had these huge, sweeping, overly romantic and overly excited scores. I really give them credit for trying something different and if anything it gives the film a unique vibe to me. Right down to the Eventide 3000 down pitched delays on the final swordfight in slow motion. Out of all the films from that era I rewatch (Dragonslayer, Excalibur, Sword and the Sorceress, Clash of the Titans, Sorceress, etc.) Ladyhawke is the one I watch the most over and over and a good part of it is how much I enjoy the score in the context of what's going on.
> 
> As for any scores I really dislike or miss the point (which is kinda subjective I guess) but Junkie XL's score for Battle Angel to me is just horrible. Either he just didn't bother to do any research or he just phoned it in. As someone who's read all the graphic novels I feel like he completely had no concept of what the main character was about or even the world they inhabited. It just sounded like another generic score without even trying. An easy paycheck.
> 
> That film has a lot of other flaws as well but Junkie's score is well....IMO....Junk.


Interesting because both movies are on my to-watch list.
They just jumped on top of it now


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## Satorious (Mar 17, 2021)

Ladyhawke might just be me, I'm not a fan of 80's synth-based fantasy films - there are quite a few of them - that was just the first example I could think of. But give me anything "80's high-tech" like Knightrider, Airwolf or Streethawk and I'm all over it!


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## MikeRolls (Mar 26, 2021)

dariusofwest said:


> These two pieces are among some of the worst I've heard



I reckon Squarepusher could do a great cover of this..


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## JohnBMears (Mar 26, 2021)

Cheezus said:


> First example that comes to mind is the OST for Dragon Quest XI. My girlfriend played through this whole game and I constantly had to hear this battle theme pop up over and over again:
> 
> 
> 
> ...



Sounds like the music from ANT-MAN


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## Nimrod7 (Mar 26, 2021)

JohnBMears said:


> Sounds like the music from ANT-MAN


Please don't listen to this music.

I was playing Dragon Quest when it first came out.
This music almost ruined my life. It was repeating in the game every 20 seconds, battle after battle.
It got embedded into my brain. I was driving, and that music was playing back in my head.
I was working and that music was there. People were talking to me at work, and that music was in the background. I was trying to sleep and I dreamed that music all over night.

It destroyed my inspiration. I couldn't write music anymore.
I had to visit a therapist, which prescribed 3 months listening a sine wave at 60hz to reset my brain.

Please don't listen to this music...


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## Loïc D (Mar 26, 2021)

Worst end credits ever.
Who wants to listen to children song after this ?



It comes from a French B-movie that is (almost) famous for casting politicians from the defunct RPR party (right wing).


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## noisyblocks (Apr 9, 2021)

Loïc D said:


> I was wondering if anyone has suggestions for horrible soundtracks.
> 
> What I mean as horrible soundtrack is :
> - something that poorly composed or arranged
> ...


I confess that I never liked the score for Titanic, which is odd because I like so much of Horner's work.


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## AudioLoco (Apr 9, 2021)

Was watching this movie, Mission to Mars, and cringing so hard about the completely out of place OST.... Waited until the credits to see which John Smith have written this taste-less thing and....ooops!

Ennio doing genres that are not westerns is really really never to my taste, I said it!


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## SquirrelMan (Apr 9, 2021)

noisyblocks said:


> I confess that I never liked the score for Titanic, which is odd because I like so much of Horner's work.


Supposedly the story is that James Cameron wanted Enya to score it. She turned him down so he hired Horner and told him to write like Enya. Which is why the titanic score sounds like third rate Enya.


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## SquirrelMan (Apr 9, 2021)

AudioLoco said:


> Was watching this movie, Mission to Mars, and cringing so hard about the completely out of place OST.... Waited until the credits to see which John Smith have written this taste-less thing and....ooops!
> 
> Ennio doing genres that are not westerns is really really never to my taste, I said it!


Mission to Mars isn't horrible - I liked his little chromatic themes for the floating in space stuff. Ennio's fine outside of westerns. The Untouchables is probably one of my favorite scores, period. 

Besides, Ennio on a film he's not 100% in sync with is still miles ahead better than anything you're gonna get out of Zimmer, Junkie XL, etc. or any of the modern guys on their best day.


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## noisyblocks (Apr 9, 2021)

SquirrelMan said:


> Supposedly the story is that James Cameron wanted Enya to score it. She turned him down so he hired Horner and told him to write like Enya. Which is why the titanic score sounds like third rate Enya.


I could never get over the fact that, not only was a major motion picture score using a sampled choir, but a REALLY BAD one. I would have paid for a choir out of my own pocket just to save face. I would have sung it all myself just to save face.

BUT, it was a Cameron movie and so maybe time, not money, was the problem...


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## South Thames (Apr 10, 2021)

> BUT, it was a Cameron movie and so maybe time, not money, was the problem...



Money was a problem, I remember Don Davis saying so, and that's why quite a lot of the score is non-orchestral. 

But I don't think that's the reason for the synth choir. When Horner had the chance to re-record parts of the saore in London for Back To Titanic, he (incredibly) used the same atrocious synths.


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## Piotrek K. (Apr 13, 2021)

Loïc D said:


> Worst end credits ever.


Game of thrones: hold my beer!

Spoilers in video!



Spoiler: Video








Every time when I think of this I just can't stop smiling in this WTF just happened way - comedy gold! :D

And in general whole GOT score is huge lackluster and missed opportunity imo (but I hate that style of music - let's call it "Zimmer pupils drumming randomly"). But in the end show lined up with the score


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## Crowe (Apr 13, 2021)

tmhuud said:


> It follows


I guess this shows tastes differ. I think Disasterpiece's 'It Follows' is a brilliant soundtrack.

But +1 on Sugiyama's cashgrab on Dragonquest XI, of which it has been said he only did so he could sell more properly orchestrated versions of the OST Album.


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## cygnusdei (Apr 22, 2021)

Pacific Rim? It's just endless loops of guitar and synths on blues scale


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