Horrible movies with great soundtracks.

Judge Dredd

Featuring:
The Cure - Dredd Song
Cocteau Twins - Need-Fire
The The - Darkness Falls (why I own this)
Leftfield - Release The Pressure

Plus some White Zombie and a bland Alan Silvestri score.

Heheh, good call. I remember watching the very last MST3K, Danger: Diabolik, and gasping (or screaming) when I saw Morricone's name in the credits. The plot summary on the IMDB is great:

Fey super-thief Diabolik runs around stealing jewels, gold, murdering innocent people, and being a nuisance to the government of a generic European country.

I like the made-up song Crow sings over the mod spy theme, going something like, "Gonna go to the store...gonna buy me some bread." (Written down, this doesn't sound funny, but it was...*sheepish grin*)

Of course, Morricone has scored about twenty-thousand films, so 10% is looking pretty good.

Uhm, Purple Rain? (To be fair, I haven't seen it all the way through.)

Re: Jerry McGuire. Strangely enough, His Name Is Alive received a gold record for their song, which was recorded on a 4-track. Warn said in an interview that the soundtrack sold over 900,000 copies...good lord.

Yes, exactly! That 10% includes Sergio Leone's films!

Singles, that Cameron Crowe piece of crap -- best soundtrack, besides Superfly and Saturday Night Fever, I've ever heard. Loved this album as a high schooler.

Actually, Superfly counts big-time, too, doesn't it?

And then there's the Judgement Night, a collection of surprisingly enjoyable throwaways (Ice-T and Slayer? Cool.).

Plus, Jerry Maguire is another great example -- where the hell did Neil Young's "World on a String" come from all of a sudden? Cool, weird placement, as was the acoustic Cortez the Killer at the end of Almost Famous, but that's a GREAT movie and doesn't fit here.

I'm probably in the minority, but I thought it was terribly pretentious, racist crap.

I'm not in the mood to debate it, but look at Marlon Wayan's character -- he wasn't even human, just as assembledge of stereotypes.

The hell it doesn't. That's a very VERY bad, thoughtless, foolish, self-aggrandizing, evil piece of shit movie that betrays its every value and that Lester Bangs wouldn't deem worthy to take a crap on. And it also happens to have two great performances, from Frances McDormand and Phillip Seymore Hoffman.

Lite rock canon soundtrack = eh.

LB was a pretty sentimental dude, he probably would've liked the movie. "xXx would be rolling over in his grave if he could see this" is probably the most bogus argument device ever.

Saturday Night Fever.

Worst movie EVER. Soundtrack, classic, if for anything "Jive Talkin'" and "Calypso Breakdown" (grossly underrated)

Are you nuts? This really isn't that bad of a movie -- it may deal in a couple of obvious tropes, but:

1) it completely avoids a happy ending as such (if anything it is incredibly ambiguous -- the lead character has watched a close friend die, realized [and rejected] some virulent hometown bigotry and dealt with a relationship that didn't go anywhere, among other things)

2) it plays the 'realism' card of the seventies in remarkably unaffected ways -- if it isn't Mean Streets, it's still all shot on location, maintains an air of verisimilitude throughout, there are more awkward or frustrated moments between the characters than smoothly flowing dialogue. Even the disco itself is at once glamorous and incredibly seedy; the fact that it is NOT Studio 54 or an equivalent is a key strength (and John Badham in the commentary notes that a scene he tried to get in was one showing the disco with the house lights up and emptied, making it seem even less appealing in reality and therefore demonstrating why it becomes magical when it does).

3) it demands no automatic sympathy for any of the characters but at the same time tries not to specifically encourage pitying them -- their flaws and their good qualities are specifically intertwined, and Travolta handles his character's increasing frustration with himself and his situation pretty well. Even the older brother -- probably the most sympathetic character as such -- is certainly not forgiving himself over his decisions; while he knows he wants to leave the priesthood he's still extremely aware of what that means to his family and how it's not easy or simply a matter of his own desires first and foremost.

4) Fuck it, it may have taken a hell of a lot of training on Danny Terrio's part but Travolta can dance.

It's the success of the movie and the soundtrack in particular, and how it's associated with its era, that has trapped it in an unfortunately cartoonish vision. In sum, there are FAR worse films out there -- notably Staying Alive.

Of course, the sequels were far worse, but so were the soundtracks. ;)

It's very weird, I wouldn't call it unambitious -- I actually think it is striving, very consciously, for a certain style and approach within the general wishes and constraints of its producer Stigwood, and actually shows it in many ways. Just because the setting seems a bit tawdry and grimy doesn't mean the film is (which might not be your point, granted). I'm not trying to say it is a FANTASTIC film through and through but it deserves a lot of credit, and is an excellent product of its time.

That was the best part! That guy was so annoying.

although to be fair to it, the soundtrack isn't much cop either.