Music plays a key part in many movies. Some films have great soundtracks that help elevate the storytelling and add to the excellence of an already strong film. Take most of Martin Scorsese’s efforts, for example. Goodfellas is fantastic, and then you add songs like “Layla” and “Then He Kissed Me” to the mix and it’s even better. However, the ability to create a well-appointed soundscape does not always make a film, or even salvage it. There are movies that simply are not good, even though the music is top-notch. Here is a collection of movies that you may want to avoid watching, but pick up the soundtrack if you can find it. Documentaries weren’t considered, as that is a different kettle of fish. The same goes for integrated musicals wherein people burst into song.
Valley Girl
Valley Girl is a wisp of a movie that barely justifies itself. It’s a particularly uninspired riff on Romeo & Juliet, the tale of a valley girl and the least believable punk guy in the history of film, and it’s only notable for being Nicolas Cage’s first major film role. The music, on the other hand, is a strong collection of early ’80s rock and pop, bolstered by “I Melt With You” by Modern English, a great song that was not yet the cliché it has become in the passing years. Valley Girl also presupposes a world wherein Josie Cotton performs “Johnny Are You Queer?” at a high school prom.
Purple Rain
Is Purple Rain the best Prince movie? Yes, by a fair margin. Nobody’s stumping for Under the Cherry Moon or Graffiti Bridge. That doesn’t mean it’s a good movie, though. The film is populated with ladies and gentleman who aren’t particularly good at acting. What Prince is good at, though, is making music, so Purple Rain is loaded with some of his best songs, and the soundtrack may be his best album. You don’t need the context of the movie to enjoy the music. In fact, you’re better off without it.
Juno
There are two kinds of people: Those who find Juno to be a grating movie with dialogue so obnoxiously devoted to made up, precious slang that it becomes quickly unbearable, and those who are wrong. We jest, of course. A movie as idiosyncratic as Juno is bound to create intense feelings one way or another, but even if you don’t like the film, the music in it can still give haters something to enjoy. Yes, it relies a little too heavily on the more precious, simpering songs of Kimya Dawson and her project The Moldy Peaches, as opposed to trotting out something like “Who’s Got The Crack?” However, the movie does feature songs by The Kinks, The Velvet Underground, Hole, and Sonic Youth.
Magical Mystery Tour
The Beatles made a few movies. A Hard Day’s Night is good. Help! is not without its charms. Magical Mystery Tour, though, is a short movie made for the BBC, and yet it still can’t sustain itself. The music, though, is still The Beatles. There’s also a song by the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band called “Death Cab for Cutie.” So there’s a little history for you.
Pretty in Pink
This is a statement that is going to rub a lot of people the wrong way: John Hughes never made a good movie, be it as a director or, as in the case of Pretty in Pink, merely as a writer. He, time and again, showed a complete inability to generate characters who acted and interacted like real human beings. Music plays a pretty big part in the world of Pretty in Pink, so it should perhaps not surprise that its soundtrack is very good. It you like ’80s era new wave, or The Smiths, or people lip-syncing Otis Redding songs, there’s something here for you.
Tron: Legacy
It may not have made sense to make a sequel to the very dated Tron almost 30 years after the original, but the sequel’s producers did make a smart move handing the music over Daft Punk. Not only is it fitting to have a band with robotic, futuristic iconography make music for a movie like Tron: Legacy, but Daft Punk also created a sound that was ideal for this world with their score. It didn’t make the movie successful, but they could only do so much.
The Bling Ring
In truth, you could use any Sophia Coppola movie on this list, though there are those who would disagree. Her movies are generally dull in my opinion, but, much to her credit, her music choices are impeccable. As The Bling Ring is probably her least-liked film, it’s the choice for the list, with a soundtrack that includes songs such as “Power” by Kanye West and “Crown on the Ground” by Sleigh Bells. Those are just two examples out of several, but still not enough to make the movie a real worthwhile watch.
Detroit Rock City
You see a movie called Detroit Rock City, and you assume KISS is prominently involved, and this is not necessarily a good thing. While the movie is about some teens trying to get to a KISS show, the movie also includes songs from The Runaways, Cheap Trick, and David Bowie. Plus, yes, KISS. So if you like KISS, so much the better.
Tank Girl
You’d think a movie starring Lori Petty as Tank Girl, Naomi Watts as Jet Girl, and Iggy Pop as somebody called Rat Face would be delightful. You would be wrong, unfortunately. The filmmakers also decided to hand soundtrack coordination over to Courtney Love, which could have gone poorly, but fortunately it didn’t. Fittingly for a “girl power” movie such as this, the film includes songs from the likes of Bjork, Hole, L7, Portishead, Veruca Salt, and Joan Jett. Also, the theme from Shaft.
Roll Bounce
A movie about a ’70s roller disco starring Bow Wow? What could go wrong? Plenty, but they didn’t go wrong with the music. All they had to do was pick out some songs that would have been played at a ’70s roller disco in Chicago. Funk and R&B bands such as Parliament-Funkadelic, The Commodores, and Chic dot the soundtrack. Use it to soundtrack your own roller disco, but steer clear of Roll Bounce.
American Hot Wax
American Hot Wax is a middling movie about revolutionary DJ Alan Freed that has Jay Leno playing a character named “Mookie.” However, being that Freed was at the forefront of the birth of rock ‘n’ roll, even going as far as to popularize the term, naturally the movie features a lot of the popular early rock songs. If there is a song from the early days of rock music that you like, it’s probably in American Hot Wax, but so are Leno and Fran Drescher, so, you know, keep that in mind.
Judgment Night
While Judgment Night isn’t a very interesting movie, its soundtrack is both fascinating and good. Back before “rap rock” was a musical boogeyman spoken about in hushed tones, this movie paired up rappers and rock bands to create songs for the soundtrack. There’s Teenage Fanclub and De La Soul, Dinosaur Jr. and Del the Funky Homosapien, Sonic Youth and Cypress Hill, and more.
Cocktail
People have tried to reclaim Cocktail as secretly being a pretty good movie recently. Good luck to them, but it’s not going to happen. That doesn’t mean the movie doesn’t have some catchy songs, though. Granted, this probably depends on how you feel about “Kokomo” by The Beach Boys. Lots of people don’t like “Kokomo.” It’s a really good song, though. The soundtrack also has a song from the artist then known as John Cougar Mellencamp. It was a little bit of a throwback soundtrack at the time, and it has become ever more of a throwback now, but it still sounds good.
Ski Party
Beach party movies are known for their soundtracks, and for their hit-or-miss quality. Ski Party leaves the beach for the slopes, but it brings along with them Lesley Gore and James Brown. Yes, the James Brown, who plays “I Feel Good.” On another note, this movie stars Frankie Avalon and Dwayne Hickman, as did the later film Dr. Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine. In that latter film, the characters had the same name as their Ski Party characters, but with the names flipped between the two actors. That’s the kind of stuff you’re dealing with in these films, for better or worse, but you usually got some good music along the way.
