Is there a movie you love with a score you hate?

[WampaRat 1,105]

There are movies that I think are complete garbage with scores that I truly love (see any number of Jerry Goldsmith scores for example) But I’m wracking my brain over a film that I love with a score that I can’t stand. 
 

In general, if I love a film enough, I tend to come around on its score. Even if it isn’t my favorite, I tend to find things to appreciate about it. But I can’t think of an instance where I loved a film but couldn’t/still can’t  stand its score.

 

Is there a film you love with a score you can’t abide?

[Bespin 8,480]

Planet of the apes, the original movie.

[Edmilson 7,436]

Every Roland Emmerich movie after The Patriot.

[WampaRat 1,105]

2 hours ago, Bespin said:

Planet of the apes, the original movie.

You know what? I can kinda see on album how hard it would be to listen to. Classic or no.

[Indianagirl 298]

There was a day when I would of said LadyHawke. However over the years that score has grown on me. 

[A24 4,331]

I don't think I could love a movie if I hate its music. After all, music is such an important part of film. 

[GerateWohl 4,357]

If TV shows are allowed here:

 

The Mandalorian & The Book of Boba Fett

 

I am far from loving the shows, but no Star Wars content, how imperfect it may be, deserves such a score. 

[Drawgoon 100]

Gravity.

 

There was some talk of a "Silent Space Version" of the film that was supposedly the same cut and everything but with the score taken out. Don't know if that version ever landed.

[Raiders of the SoundtrArk 2,433]

For TV Show I would say that I personnally love Mando season 1 but can't stand its music

As for movies there are plenty exemples where I really liked the movie but the score mostly annoys me:

• Slumdog Millionaire
• Iron Man 1 & 2
• Snowpiercer
• Edge of Tomorrow
• Creed
• Birdman
• Mad Max: Fury Road
• The Revenant
• Arrival
• Moonlight
• Dunkirk
• Kong Skull Island
• Logan
• Green Book
• Dune (2021)....

[Thor 7,495]

Several Giacchino-scored movies. ROGUE ONE, TOMORROWLAND, JURASSIC WORLD, PLANET OF THE APES....films I enjoy despite the dreadful music.

 

Same for a lot of Despat and Göransson.

[publicist 4,643]

Certainly Ladyhawke and Moonlight.

[Richard Penna 3,686]

Whiplash

Parasite (I don't hate the score, but I remembered nothing after seeing the film and had no desire to hear it)

[Naïve Old Fart 9,516]

6 hours ago, AC1 said:

I don't think I could love a movie if I hate its music. After all, music is such an important part of film. 

Agreed. If I like the film, I'm likely to like the score.

[Edmilson 7,436]

3 hours ago, May the Force be with You said:

Mad Max: Fury Road

That's a good choice. Great movie, but terrible Junkie XL score. 

[GerateWohl 4,357]

1 hour ago, Naïve Old Fart said:

Agreed. If I like the film, I'm likely to like the score.

Yes, but then it is especially annoying, If the score is not good.

 

I had such an experience with The Hours. The film was so great and, I didn't hate Philipp Glass' score, but I didn't like it, so it almost limited my pleasure of the movie, because If I love the movie, I wish I could love the score as well.

[Edmilson 7,436]

Since we're also talking about TV shows...

 

I love Ozark, for me it's the best Netflix original series. But I really don't care about the score. It's mostly synth drones that do nothing for the show. I don't know how the score got nominated for an Emmy.

[Disco Stu 15,495]

Rogue One

[Jay 37,352]

7 hours ago, Drawgoon said:

Gravity.

 

There was some talk of a "Silent Space Version" of the film that was supposedly the same cut and everything but with the score taken out. Don't know if that version ever landed.

 

It came out in 2015 and I finally watched it last year and posted my thoughts on it here and here.

[Gurkensalat 340]

Princess Bride: Great movie, lousy electronic score. The guitar pieces are ok, but that's it.

[Bespin 8,480]

11 hours ago, WampaRat said:

You know what? I can kinda see on album how hard it would be to listen to. Classic or no.

 

We are talking about Planet of the apes, the original movie.

 

It's nothing against Jerry Goldsmith, it's against a whole tradition of dissonant scores for fiction/horror/psychological movies in the 60s and the 70s.

 

For me, it's a genre that aged very badly.

[bored 309]

Godzilla vs. Kong. Not an objectively good movie by any means, but I loved it on entertainment value (even if I hated a lot of the subplots), and the score is one of the most boring monster movie scores I've ever had the displeasure of hearing in-film. So many great themes over the years for Godzilla and Kong, and the score does nothing to explore them in a satisfying way. 

 

Also honorable mention for Spider-Man 2 in-film. Danny Elfman's wonderful new score was hacked to pieces for lazy, uninspired, nonsensical temp tracks of the first film. Christopher Young and Debney's material was good, but I still cannot watch that film without an edit that replaces the temp tracks with the original music to this day. 

[LSH 968]

I’m a mad Horner fan but I find his score for  Enemy At The Gates completely overbearing.

 

I’m with Thor on a few of these, particularly Giacchino. Just never connected with his music whatsoever.

[Bespin 8,480]

I must admit Giacchino didn't go through my heart of stone yet...

[GerateWohl 4,357]

Batman vs. Superman had a bland score that really pulled down the movie.

No Time to Die as well. 

Most Zimmer scores to Nolan movies.

Most MCU scores are terrible. A handful is good.

[Bespin 8,480]

Some actual movies are VERY LUCKY to be scored by an old stager like Alan Silvestri, can I just say that?

[Remco 685]

Rogue one, 100%. Although I'd say I very much like the movie, not really love it. 

[Jurassic Shark 12,067]

5 hours ago, GerateWohl said:

 

I had such an experience with The Hours. The film was so great and, I didn't hate Philipp Glass' score, but I didn't like it, so it almost limited my pleasure of the movie, because If I love the movie, I wish I could love the score as well.

 

Such a great score, among Glass' top two scores.

[bruce marshall 1,315]

4 hours ago, Edmilson said:

Since we're also talking about TV shows...

 

I love Ozark, for me it's the best Netflix original series. But I really don't care about the score. It's mostly synth drones that do nothing for the show. I don't know how the score got nominated for an Emmy.

Most t.v. is drones😰

 

[Marian Schedenig 8,192]

Good question, and I thought I couldn't think of any. There are many films I love that have unremarkable scores, but I usually find they work at least reasonably well in the film even if I wouldn't listen to them on album. With Zimmer's recent Nolan scores, I have my doubts that they're worthy of *music* awards, but they usually work well enough as sound design (although in the case of Dune I thought he went overboard at least a few times. There might be other potential scores for those films that I would like better musically, and that might even elevate the films better, but mostly they work just fine. It's conceivable that outright bad scores would sour up most films to a point where we wouldn't like it, or at least wouldn't like all that much.

 

But then I remembered Mission Impossible: Fallout. Very good film (one of the best in the series), one of the lousiest scores I've heard. It mostly works by simply being there, so I guess it does its job. As such, I suppose I accept it as part of the film, but I really have a strong dislike from it as a piece of music, given the possibilities the film provided for actually good music.

[Edmilson 7,436]

Yeah, M: I - Fallout is a pretty great candidate for this thread. The movie is good, but Balfe's score is generic, bland and insipid, the music sounds like demo versions of cues Zimmer wrote for Inception or The Dark Knight Rises.

[Naïve Old Fart 9,516]

There are quite a few films where I have found myself saying "For the love of everything sacred, holy, and profound, stop this fucking score, now!", but those are the types of scores that I don't remember, anyway, so, in the end, it doesn't bother me. I just move on, having forgotten about both film, and score. It is true that my favourite scores almost always coincide with my favourite films. In fact, I can't think of one that doesn't. Funny, that 

[Koray Savas 2,251]

4 hours ago, Edmilson said:

Yeah, M: I - Fallout is a pretty great candidate for this thread. The movie is good, but Balfe's score is generic, bland and insipid, the music sounds like demo versions of cues Zimmer Balfe wrote for Inception or The Dark Knight Rises.

Fixed

 

[karelm 2,913]

I like 2010: The Year We Make Contact but find the music deeply uninspired especially considering its legacy with 2001.   It sounded like tv sci-fi synths.  I do like the brief orchestral moments but not the 80's synth stuff.

 

[Datameister 2,042]

Hard to think of a god-awful score to an incredible film. Not so hard to think of unimpressive scores to enjoyable films. A lot of Marvel stuff sits in that category for me. But yeah, if a film is truly excellent, it does tend to soften any bad feelings I have about the music, much like how an excellent score can be a significant redeeming quality in a not-so-great film.

 

One score that might fit the bill would be The Prestige. I will never listen to that score outside of the film. But I like the film enough not to care.

[WampaRat 1,105]

1 hour ago, Datameister said:One score that might fit the bill would be The Prestige. I will never listen to that score outside of the film. But I like the film enough not to care.

Excellent example. That film is one of my top 10 favorites of all time. And I never once think about the score or have felt the need to listen to the ost. And the film is Nolan’s best. I said it;)

[Naïve Old Fart 9,516]

6 hours ago, karelm said:

I like 2010: The Year We Make Contact but find the music deeply uninspired especially considering its legacy with 2001.   It sounded like tv sci-fi synths.  I do like the brief orchestral moments but not the 80's synth stuff.

 

It's interesting that, as an example, you have picked a cue that was unused, in the film. I get your point, however.

Personally, I like Shire's 2010. It's my favourite Shire score (equal with THE HINDENBURG).

Of course there's no way that it can compare with the music of 2001, but that's not the point. I'm guessing that Hyams wanted a score such as this to distance the film, musically, from 2001.

I like the score, and I certainly like the film.

[A24 4,331]

Peter Hyams made a sequel to 2001: ASO but visually he was clearly influenced by Alien.

[Naïve Old Fart 9,516]

2 hours ago, AC1 said:

Peter Hyams made a sequel to 2001: ASO but visually he was clearly influenced by Alien.

...and OUTLAND. Can't remember who directed that one 

[A24 4,331]

1 hour ago, Naïve Old Fart said:

...and OUTLAND. 

 

But ... Outland was also obviously influenced by Alien, although he loves to deny that.

[Positivatee 327]

13 hours ago, Datameister said:

Hard to think of a god-awful score to an incredible film.

 

I wouldn't consider Ladyhawke to satisfy either condition. It's a... Unique... Score to an unremarkable film. 

[1977 1,743]

23 hours ago, Gurkensalat said:

Princess Bride: Great movie, lousy electronic score.

I was going to say just this. Except I would say dreadful instead of lousy. It's not really even a score as far as I am concerned. It amazes me that A-list composers like John Barry, Elmer Bernstein and Jerry Goldsmith could have entire scores rejected (and really brilliant ones at that), but this "music" somehow got a pass.

 

HONOURABLE MENTION:

 

Goldeneye - probably the best Brosnan Bond marred by a completely inappropriate score

[Naïve Old Fart 9,516]

1 hour ago, AC1 said:

 

But ... Outland was also obviously influenced by Alien, although he loves to deny that.

Of course it was! It even had the same composer, and costume designer! 

[WampaRat 1,105]

2 hours ago, JTWfan77 said:

 

 

HONOURABLE MENTION:

 

Goldeneye - probably the best Brosnan Bond marred by a completely inappropriate score

Ooh. Another good example. I’d love for someone to do a “fan edit” that just tracks some of David Arnold’s Bond scores. What an odd odd score for 007 😆

[Richard Penna 3,686]

Someone mentioning TV above reminded me of A Series of Unfortunate Events. I enjoyed the whole show but only in a few bits of season 1 was the music even noticeable. Once Jim Dooley was doing it for the last season it was just wallpaper and I felt like a typical viewer who barely notices there's music there at all.

 

The 'great scores for terrible films' was easier than this  

[Naïve Old Fart 9,516]

6 hours ago, JTWfan77 said:

Goldeneye - probably the best Brosnan Bond marred by a completely inappropriate score

 

4 hours ago, WampaRat said:

Ooh. Another good example. I’d love for someone to do a “fan edit” that just tracks some of David Arnold’s Bond scores. What an odd odd score for 007 😆

Are you guys 'avin' a Turkish, or what?

GoldenEye is a fantastic score, both in, and away from, the film!

[WampaRat 1,105]

2 hours ago, Naïve Old Fart said:

 

Are you guys 'avin' a Turkish, or what?

GoldenEye is a fantastic score, both in, and away from, the film!

Not my cup of tea (or Vodka Martini;)

[Tallguy 3,385]

I can think of quite a few movies I love where I might be indifferent to the score. (The Prestige. Yes, Nolan's best!)

 

I quite enjoy the scores of Ladyhawke, The Princess Bride, and Goldeneye. I'm pretty sure Goldeneye is my favorite non-Barry/Arnold Bond score. (Checks.) Yup. I also like Star Trek IV.

 

And I freaking love Rogue One.

 

But I can't think of a film that I love with a score that I hate.

[1977 1,743]

2 hours ago, Tallguy said:

I also like Star Trek IV.

 

And I freaking love Rogue One.

 

Agree on both these points

[Datameister 2,042]

Ah, Trek IV...that's a decent contender for me. I might not hate the score but I definitely wish everything about it were different, haha.

 

I'll give some love to The Princess Bride's score. Compositionally it ain't bad. The synths are super cheesy and dated, but I've come to accept them as part of the vibe of the film, which I adore. If you were to properly record that score with a great orchestra, I think a lot of opinions would change.

[Naïve Old Fart 9,516]

STAR TREK IV works very well, within the film, but not so good when separated from it.