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Worst movie with a great score


Musica42

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Apologies if this rather banal topic has come up before, but what in your opinion is the worst movie to wind up having a great score?

I've got a few candidates:

Congo, Jerry Goldsmith

Cutthroad Island, John Debney

Disney's Dinosaur, James Newton Howard

The Neverending Story II, Robert Folk (which would be my actual choice from this list)

The Omen III, Jerry Goldsmith

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Apologies if this rather banal topic has come up before, but what in your opinion is the worst movie to wind up having a great score?

I've got a few candidates:

Congo, Jerry Goldsmith

Cutthroad Island, John Debney

Disney's Dinosaur, James Newton Howard

The Neverending Story II, Robert Folk (which would be my actual choice from this list)

The Omen III, Jerry Goldsmith

Hmm. Obvious, but THE PHANTOM MENACE? I'd also say STAR TREK V, even if I do have a soft spot for it.

On the subject of Jerry, RAMBO: FIRST BLOOD, PART II definitely qualifies.

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Dinosaur is an ok movie, wouldn't say anything particularly bad about it personally.

I'd suggest The Happening, Quantum of Solace and The 13th Warrior, although the quality of the latter two movies seems hotly contested.

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...what about great movie with the most dreadful score? Could a movie be great in spite of its score?

Anyways, how about The Black Hole? That movie was pretty awful, but the soundtrack was good.

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A few off the top of my mind that haven't been mentioned yet:

The Adventures of Pluto Nash

The Bridge to Terabithia

I'd suggest The Happening, ...

I loved The Happening. I strongly disagree with its message, but it's a very well done film. Although, the score (other than the awesome end credits suite) is really dull IMO.

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...how about The Black Hole? That movie was pretty awful, but the soundtrack was good.

Depends when you saw it, I guess.

Myself, as a Boy I saw it in the cinema with a gigantic screen and it had a profound effect on me.

For good scores to poor films, I'd agree about Omen III : The Final Conflict.

Others I'd choose, are....

Alien III

First Knight

Poltergeist II

Predator II

Stargate

Logan's Run

Another one I'd say is received well or not,depending on when it was seen. At the time it was fresh. Now it looks very dated indeed. I really wish the silly ice robot scene wasn't in it, but the story was a very clever one for the time and even now.

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Dinosaur definitely sucked. The worst part was the trailer/opening sequence, which portrayed the movie entirely differently. As soon as the dinos/monkey things started talking it just went to crap. Even the animation seemed pretty lackluster. Another problem I had was that it was a movie about dinosaurs and it was dreadfully boring. All I remember was the dinos walking around and lounging in a cave.

Congo is a guilty pleasure.

I still maintain Hook is underrated and actually pretty decent.

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Conan The Barbarian!

Really my dear fellow, you should contemplate this statement on the tree of woe. ;)

Conan the Barbarian has several corny moments,but irresistable in the way the original Wicker Man is.

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I've got a soft spot for Dinosaur. Grant a big portion of it is a rip off from The Land Before Time but to me it's a fun movie. Seeing the CG dinosaurs interact with real world environments and such is pretty impressive.

Melange, you think Stargate is a bad movie?! Oh come on now...Stargate is a fun movie from beginning to end. After all it was the only movie that started Stargate SG-1, Atlantis and now Universe.

For Star Trek V: The Final Frontier...it's an okay movie for the most part but once they reach the great barrier it just kills the rest of the movie in my opinion.

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Melange, you think Stargate is a bad movie?!

Perhaps not 'bad' as such,Trent. Fun,like you say. But the potential of it wasn't realised in my opinion.

To me it is a movie which started really well and looked promising,but then went down hill by dumbing itself down.

I don't know what those series are like, as I haven't seen them.

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Something by Goldsmith no doubt. ;)

Possible. Although I really like Logan's Run.

But one thing keeps surprising me. With Goldsmith being constantly mentioned as the main film composer to write great scores for crappy movies, I have the feeling that people forget one thing: While he certainly had a large number of stinkers among his assignments, there also were several great ones, even some that are counted among the great classics. Especially early in his career, when those seemed to clearly outweigh the lesser movements and Goldsmith had lengthy collaborations with some notable directors.

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I don't know what those series are like, as I haven't seen them.

SG1 - Started great! Ended stupid.

SGA - Started good. Got much better! Was canceled right when it began to be really good.

SGU - Started kind of iffy. Has progressed firmly downhill in every episode so far.

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So far I think the best addition to this topic has been Alien3. That movie stunk on ice but the score is among the coolest "sound mass" works ever done. Actually Goldenthal has done some great things with real dog crap films: Batman & Robin, Batman Forever, and Demolition Man also come to mind. Some would say Final Fantasy: Spirits Within could also be added to this list.

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...how about The Black Hole? That movie was pretty awful, but the soundtrack was good.

Depends when you saw it, I guess.

Myself, as a Boy I saw it in the cinema with a gigantic screen and it had a profound effect on me.

Me too. I've never felt quite so in awe of the vastness of space and the power of nature as when I first saw The Black Hole. Yes it's cheesy in parts, but visually it's stunning. When I was 8 I entered a Cornflakes contest to win a lifesize replica of Vincent. I was very disappointed I didn't win. As a child you assume you will win just by entering...

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...Demolition Man also comes to mind. Some would say Final Fantasy: Spirits Within could also be added to this list.

Demolition Man has been a guilty pleasure of mine for a few years, I think it has some good satire in there. And most of whom call Final Fantasy: Spirits Within a terrible film are probably people whining that it is not "Final Fantasy" (their complaints are somewhat justified, though).

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My guilty pleasure (aka great score/bad movie that I still love to watch):

The Shadow

Loved the score by Jerry Goldsmith and although I KNOW the movie is nothing special I can't help but enjoy it.

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I feel that I can't competently contribute to this topic because there are so many bad movies that I really like.

Just because you like a movie doesn't mean you can't also realize its bad.:rolleyes:

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I don't know what those series are like, as I haven't seen them.

SG1 - Started great! Ended stupid.

SGA - Started good. Got much better! Was canceled right when it began to be really good.

SGU - Started kind of iffy. Has progressed firmly downhill in every episode so far.

I'm sort of liking SG:U but it's definitely not as fun as SG-1 and Atlantis were. SG-1 has been the only Sci-Fi TV series to run 10 seasons. I can't wait for them to do the next SG-1 movie that will feature heavily on Jack O'Neill's character.

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Indeed.

I'm pretty sure a show called Doctor Who has been on for quite a while.:rolleyes:

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I don't know what those series are like, as I haven't seen them.

SG1 - Started great! Ended stupid.

SGA - Started good. Got much better! Was canceled right when it began to be really good.

SGU - Started kind of iffy. Has progressed firmly downhill in every episode so far.

Probably best that SGA was canceled before it got stupid. They just need to make the direct-to-video movie finale.

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Drax,

Actually Atlantis was far from becoming stupid, in fact as stated earlier by Chuck that it was getting even better when the plug was pulled on it. A lot of people were pissed off when it got pulled and I'm one of those people too.

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Apologies if this rather banal topic has come up before, but what in your opinion is the worst movie to wind up having a great score?

I've got a few candidates:

Congo, Jerry Goldsmith

Cutthroad Island, John Debney

Disney's Dinosaur, James Newton Howard

The Neverending Story II, Robert Folk (which would be my actual choice from this list)

The Omen III, Jerry Goldsmith

Hmm. Obvious, but THE PHANTOM MENACE? I'd also say STAR TREK V, even if I do have a soft spot for it.

On the subject of Jerry, RAMBO: FIRST BLOOD, PART II definitely qualifies.

Rambo: First Blood Part II was awesome! (brainless fun)

Dinosaur is an ok movie, wouldn't say anything particularly bad about it personally.

I'd suggest The Happening, Quantum of Solace and The 13th Warrior, although the quality of the latter two movies seems hotly contested.

The thing is, QoS isn't exactly a great score either.

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Drax,

Actually Atlantis was far from becoming stupid, in fact as stated earlier by Chuck that it was getting even better when the plug was pulled on it. A lot of people were pissed off when it got pulled and I'm one of those people too.

Season 5 was my least favourite in the series, so in my view, it was in its early stages to getting stupid. Sure I wouldn't have objected to a sixth season, but I'm not too hung up that we didn't get one, so I'm just looking forward to the movie to wrap it up.

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...Demolition Man also comes to mind. Some would say Final Fantasy: Spirits Within could also be added to this list.

Demolition Man has been a guilty pleasure of mine for a few years, I think it has some good satire in there. And most of whom call Final Fantasy: Spirits Within a terrible film are probably people whining that it is not "Final Fantasy" (their complaints are somewhat justified, though).

I'd add Final Fantast VII Advent Children. Totally useless spinoff with a very solid score by Uematsu-san himself.

My other pick would be Matrix Revolutions. Perhaps it's not really THAT bad, but definitely very disappointing and, at times, really cheesy.

And, of course, Attack of the Clones - while the score is perhaps the least good SW score, it's quite good in its own terms. Way better than the movie it was composed for.

EDIT: Whining about QoS reminded me about older Bond movies like Moonraker and Diamonds are Forever- both were quite bad, but had fantastic scores.

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movie about dinosaurs and it was dreadfully boring. All I remember was the dinos walking around and lounging in a cave.

Congo is a guilty pleasure.

I'm your great white hunter for this trip, though I happen to be black.

Congo is a very fun movie to watch. :rolleyes:

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Conan The Barbarian!

Really my dear fellow, you should contemplate this statement on the tree of woe. :rolleyes:

Conan the Barbarian has several corny moments,but irresistable in the way the original Wicker Man is.

No. I say we sell him into slavery or chain him to a wheel of pain for that comment. Conan is a great film with a brilliant score. The only thing I don't like about the movie is the sounds of Conan's pain when in the pit fighting. That's just beyond bad! But I love the movie.

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And most of whom call Final Fantasy: Spirits Within a terrible film are probably people whining that it is not "Final Fantasy" (their complaints are somewhat justified, though).

I never liked the FF franchise much (or what little I know of it - I've seen some trailers etc., but only played one of the early Gameboy RPGs). I didn't like the movie not because it was different (I barely remember it, but I probably liked the concept more than what I usually saw of FF), but because it wasn't good.

Except for possibly Demolition Man (which I haven't seen), I consider Alien³ much better than any of the other films Musica42 listed.

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I actually really like ALIEN 3, especially the extended version. Considering the issues that film had during production, it's a lot better than it really could have been.

Tim Burton's PLANET OF THE APES has a pretty good score for what is a terrible movie. Speaking of apes, whilst not reaching the heights of some of his scores, Barry's KING KONG is a decent score for a miserably bad film. Whilst I like the film, ORCA, KILLER WHALE has a terrible reputation but yet has a stunningly beautiful and ethereal score by Morricone.

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Except for possibly Demolition Man (which I haven't seen), I consider Alien³ much better than any of the other films Musica42 listed.

My ire toward Alien3 stems from the concept more than the execution.

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I've never seen it or heard the score, but the number 1 worst reviewed movie on Rottentomatoes is Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever with a score by Don Davis. Everything I've heard of Davis' has been top notch so I'm going to assume this is a good candidate too.

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