Bad movies that have great soundtracks

Before his stint in the Army, Elvis Presley had some genuinely good films under his shakin' hips, best highlighted by the 1957 classic "Jailhouse Rock". After his service, the product that was "Elvis" became increasingly homogenized and cinematically bland, with The King starring in a litany of clunkers that critics derided but still made decent box office bank. While Angela Lansbury's presence did little to elevate his 1961 cinematic excursion "Blue Hawaii", its soundtrack became an all-timer all its own. With traditional Hawaiian instrumentation and a lot of slack guitars to help set the mood, "Blue Hawaii" mainly stood apart due to some surprisingly bopping tracks like "Rock-A-Hula Baby", the goofy number about alcoholism "Beach Boy Blues", and a song that not only transcended the film but came to define decades of pop music after the fact: "Can't Help Falling in Love". That single became one of Elvis' all-time best-sellers, with the soundtrack even netting a Grammy nomination in the process. Unfortunately, the whole project was successful enough to convince the Colonel to keep Elvis in Hollywood more and in the recording studio less, leading to an artistic (and later) commercial downfall for the budding all-star.

The 1988 Tom Cruise vehicle "Cocktail", about a wannabe bartender who teams up with his buddy to become a booze-slinging song-and-dance sensation before jettisoning to Jamaica, is considered by many to be one of the worst films of the '80s (and it's got the Razzie to prove it). Yet the film raked in the cash while sending Cruise's star even higher. Of course, when your film has a lot of performance sequences set to music, it's no surprise that the very-'80s "Cocktail" soundtrack would get some buzz, featuring songs by Starship, a still-on-the-rise Georgia Satellites, and a sadly out-of-his-element Ry Cooder. Yet the rocking good times also gave way to some very Westernized island pop moments, and "Cocktail" boasts the rare feat of boasting not one but two #1 singles in its ranks: Bobby McFerrin's star-making "Don't Worry, Be Happy" and the Beach Boys' "Kokomo". Bolstered by these two absolute smashes, the soundtrack sold over four million copies. Barely anyone remembers the film's plot because "Cocktail" as a soundtrack became a surprising party-starter of an album. Many songs sound dated to contemporary ears, but the strength of "Cocktail" is how it perfectly captures that '80s cheese-rock excess. Just like its namesake, it goes down smooth.

The Prince filmography is a dicey beast. While his movies have varied wildly in quality, from the very good (1984's "Purple Rain", the wildly underseen 1987 concert film he helmed "Sign o' the Times") to very bad (1986's "Under the Cherry Moon"). While the soundtrack albums accompanying his motion pictures have often been extraordinary Prince records, the perception was that 1990's "Graffiti Bridge", the long-awaited "Purple Rain" sequel, failed in every department. Now make no mistake: the film itself is irredeemably bad. Cheaply shot on backlots, poorly acted, and with a script and ending that is borderline incomprehensible, "Graffiti Bridge" feels like Prince ransacked his own legacy for some easy money. Yet the music that came from it -- which, with its many non-Prince collaborators, could be considered a true-and-proper soundtrack -- remains an undervalued gem in the oeuvre of His Royal Badness. The upbeat Prince numbers would be smashes in another era (the boppy "Can't Stop This Feeling I Got", the psych-romp "Elephants & Flowers", the sensual "Joy in Repetition", etc.), the contributions from Morris Day & The Time are beautifully dated rump shakers ("Release It", "Shake!"), and the guest spots (which range from George Clinton to Mavis Staples to a breakout Tevin Campbell) all hold their own. While the film is some truly perplexing garbage, the soundtrack is due for a true and proper critical reappraisal.

What do you remember about the Emilio Estevez / Cuba Gooding Jr. / Jeremy Piven action drama from 1993 about a bunch of dudes who accidentally witness a murder and get involved in a night of life-or-death criminality? If we had to take a bet, probably not much except for the soundtrack. While the film barely registers as a blip in celluloid history, its soundtrack holds a special place in music history. Capitalizing on the burgeoning "craze" that was rap-rock, the music producers for the film thought it best to pair a rock band with a rapper on every track, thereby making "Judgement Night" a record full of original new tunes that have a legacy that's far outlived the film it backed. How do you even begin to describe the song that has Sir Mix-A-Lot rapping over Mudhoney riffs? Or Slayer providing some wild solos behind ICE-T's gritty flow? Can we maybe talk about how Cypress Hill collaborates with both Sonic Youth and Pearl Jam on separate songs here? While some of the pairings may not work completely, the soundtrack as a whole is a wild concoction that remains astoundingly listenable even to this day. (In a fun bit of trivia, Rage Against the Machine and Tool did manage to create a song together for the film, but neither act was satisfied with the results, leaving the song unofficially released but heavily bootlegged.)

Tupac Shakur's filmography doesn't have even a third of the respect his albums garner, but that didn't stop the rapper from appearing in multiple Hollywood flicks. He was never the best actor, but he still had undeniable charisma. Yet, he truly shined in instances where he got to appear on the soundtrack. Despite an all-star cast, the basketball drama "Above the Rim" never got raves and managed to do moderately well at the box office. Its soundtrack, however, was a pop-culture touchstone all its own. A collaborative effort between Death Row Records and the then-burgeoning Interscope, "Above the Rim" was executive produced by Death Row's Suge Knight but had its biggest champion in supervisor Dr. Dre. Featuring several mid-tempo rap cuts and some classic R&B slow jams, the flow to "Above the Rim" works like a fantastic mixtape than it does the usual "collection of songs" syndrome that plagues many soundtracks. The calling card for "Above the Rim" was a little number by Warren G and Nate Dogg called "Regulate", which became the 1994 song of the summer. Snoop Dogg's Dogg Pound and Jewell appear multiple times on the record, but the more light that can be shined on the empowering "Afro Puffs" by The Lady of Rage (which also served as the record's superb second single), the better.

Following their trailblazing debut with 1993's indelible classic "Menace II Society", the directing team known as The Hughes Brothers wanted to try something different for their next effort. Unfortunately, "Dead Presidents" tried to be a little bit of everything, ending up as a 1970s-set Vietnam vet bank heist thriller that can most favorably be described as "overambitious." Despite middling reviews, the film did OK at the box office, but the era-specific soundtrack was nothing short of a treat. While the names are familiar (Sly & The Family Stone, James Brown, Aretha Franklin), the songs are not, as tracks like Curtis Mayfield's bass-heavy "If There's Hell Below", The Spinners' "I'll Be Around", and Isaac Hayes' "Walk On By" aren't usually the first thing you see listed on hits compilations. There's an emotional richness to those '70s string sections and soulful vocals pouring over snazzy keyboards and wah guitar effects, giving the soundtrack some real bite and gravity. In fact, this soundtrack was so successful that Capitol Records released a "Vol. 2" the following year with different songs from several artists from the first go (including two from James Brown), trying to capture lightning in a bottle a second time. The second volume didn't sell nearly as well as the first, which is now regarded as one of the finest soul compilations of its era.

If you were to look at the reviews, "Batman Forever" was a big flapping Bat-disappointment following the two grim Tim Burton installments with Michael Keaton. "Batman Forever" and its regrettable sequel "Batman & Robin" were certainly campy, but "Batman Forever" has a hyper-stylized charm all its own and ended up being 1995's highest-grossing film in the U.S. While Jim Carrey's showboating take on The Riddler remains divisive, the soundtrack to "Batman Forever" overperformed by every metric. As if capturing what a Gotham City Top 40 station would sound like, this set featured a galaxy of artists from a wide swath of genres. The new U2 contribution "Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me" was a warped delight, and Seal's dynamite ballad "Kiss from a Rose" shot to #1 and quickly became his signature song. Yet "Batman Forever" wasn't mere fluff: this soundtrack had slowcore darlings Mazzy Star, The Offspring covering The Damned, Method Man turning in a song about "The Riddler", and indie legends like Sunny Day Real Estate and the Flaming Lips drop off some sparkling numbers as well. The strength of the "Batman Forever" soundtrack isn't that it adhered to a particular concept so much as it felt like someone's personal mixtape that just so happened to feature some of 1995's hottest new tracks. The film has gone on to achieve cult classic status, but the soundtrack is just a stone-cold classic.

In the eyes of some, "Reality Bites" is a peak-Gen X cinema, filled with a slacker ethos that captures the feelings of disaffected youth culture. In the eyes of others, the setting and tone belay the script's obvious story beats (to say nothing of the deeply problematic AIDS subplot Steve Zahn's gay character must go through). It did well enough at the box office, but Universal Pictures was certainly hoping for their own "Singles". Thankfully, much like that Cameron Crowe classic, the soundtrack to "Reality Bites" was an alt-rock beast. It boasted a rare chart-topping hit from an unsigned artist (Lisa Loeb's "Stay (I Missed You)"), but the album was also decked out in classic rock tracks from U2, alternative-era leanings from The Juliana Hatfield Three, and some surprisingly strong newer cuts from the likes of Lenny Kravitz. Anchored by the unexpected breakout success of "Stay", the soundtrack eventually went double-Platinum, even as the remixed/re-recorded versions of classic songs from Squeeze and The Knack left some listeners a little cold (sometimes reality bites that way, though).

Spike Lee's filmography is arguably more erratic and eccentric than any living director, and "Girl 6" is one of his lesser entries. Featuring the great Theresa Randle as an actress struggling to make it in the industry so reduces herself to working an adult phone line, the great premise and eye-popping number of cameos (Madonna, Halle Berry, Naomi Campbell, Quentin Tarantino) aren't enough to elevate the material, which meant "Girl 6" had a slow and swift death at the box office. Dismissed by critics for its filmed traits, the soundtrack has become somewhat of an infamous collector's item on its own. Featuring a majority of songs by Prince (along with Prince offshoots like The Family and Vanity 6), the record mixes Prince classics ("Girls & Boys", "Adore") with some ace B-sides ("Erotic City", "Pink Cashmere", the legendary "How Come U Don't Call Me Anymore?"), and even some unearthed rarities that never saw release in any other avenue ("She Spoke 2 Me", "Don't Talk 2 Strangers", "Count the Days"). As such, the "Girl 6" soundtrack remains a coveted document, despite both the album and the film remaining sadly out of print.

Danny Boyle's 1996 feature "Trainspotting" is an unsettling and striking film about British drug culture that became an undisputed classic, paired with a daring soundtrack that helped bring U.K. electronica to the masses. His American-set romantic comedy follow-up, "A Life Less Ordinary", wasn't even a quarter as successful as "Trainspotting", as critics savaged the confusing plot where Ewan McGregor and Cameron Diaz play wannabe bank robbers that get caught up in a whole bunch of hijinks. While the soundtrack to "A Life Less Ordinary" couldn't match the legacy of "Trainspotting", it still holds its own, featuring a litany of alternative rock tracks made just for the film. The highlight among highlights is Beck's bossa-nova obscura single "Deadweight" (paired with a wildly inventive music video shot by Michel Gondry). It sits comfortably next to material provided by Luscious Jackson, R.E.M., and the always underrated rockers Ash. A few throwback numbers thrown in for good measure by Elvis Presley and Bobby Darin (there's a whole "Beyond the Sea" sequence in the film itself), but rarely do you find a soundtrack that dares to have The Prodigy rub shoulders with the Squirrel Nut Zippers. Even removed from the context of the film, "A Life Less Ordinary" makes a remarkably fun (and far from ordinary) listen.

The "Bad Judgement" soundtrack became so influential that it's of no surprise other films would try and copy its unique rap-meets-rock formula, albeit rarely to the original's success. With the big-budget superhero film "Spawn", the soundtrack again tried to meld worlds by mixing the world's heaviest rock acts with new, established, and emerging techno artists. The pairings were often wild: Slayer with Atari Teenage Riot; Metallica with DJ Spooky; Korn and the Dust Brothers, etc. While the Crystal Method/Filter and Marilyn Manson/Sneaker Pimps tracks were dropped as singles, the Stabbing Westward/Wink hybrid "Torn Apart" and the Henry Rollins/Goldie collab "T-4 Strain" remain some of the set's biggest highlights. Very much a product of its era and certainly dated-sounding to modern tastes, the "Spawn" soundtrack arguably had more influence than the critically-dismissed film did, introducing crossfaded ears to new genres while eventually getting certified Gold. It may also be the only Gold album to carry a song title as insane as Soul Coughing and Roni Size's "A Plane Scraped Its Belly on a Sooty Yellow Moon".

The Nicolas Cage/Meg Ryan remake of Wim Wenders' "Wings of Desire" was unarguably a movie that was filmed and released, but its soundtrack was an Event. While critics described it as "mawkish" and overly sentimental despite its tragic ending, the soundtrack dominated radio for two years. While there are some cuts from score composer Gabriel Yared, many tracks are added largely because they have the word angel in the title. Thankfully, they are both already-acknowledged great tunes (Sarah McLachlan's "Angel" and U2's "If God Will Send His Angels"). While a couple of blues numbers by the likes of John Lee Hooker, Jimi Hendrix, and Eric Clapton make the cut, the star of "City of Angels" are its two new cuts: the dramatic Alanis Morissette ballad "Uninvited" and the planet-swallowing megahit that is The Goo Goo Dolls' "Iris". Since both songs were only available on the soundtrack and not as CD singles (which would otherwise garner them Hot 100 placement on the Billboard charts), adult contemporary fans flocked to the album, which sold over five million units domestically. McLachlan's contribution was also released as a single, but "Iris" became ubiquitous in the following years, saturating airwaves and netting major Grammy nominations. Everything's made to be broken -- even some records, apparently.

While the glam-rock murder mystery that is "Velvet Goldmine" has gone on to become a cult classic, mixed reviews and a tough sell of a concept meant that the film flatlined at the box office, despite featuring an incredible cast made up of actors like Christian Bale, Toni Collette, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, and Ewan McGregor. Allegedly, David Bowie was not a fan of the script and told writer/director Todd Haynes they couldn't use any of his music. As such, Haynes got a little bit sly with the soundtrack, hiring the band Shudder to Think to write some pretty ace Bowie soundalike songs and even licensing "Satellite of Love" by Lou Reed, a track that Bowie produced. While the soundtrack features a range of tracks from both contemporary and era-specific artists, its real power rests in the "house band" of The Venus in Furs, which features Suede's Bernard Butler, Roxy Music's Andy Mackay, and Radiohead's Thom Yorke, sometimes providing backing for the vocals of the lead actors and, on occasion, tackling covers themselves, which makes for some of the loosest singing we've ever heard Yorke lay to tape. So while the soundtrack to "Velvet Goldmine" remains a tribute to an era, it's become a niche part of pop culture all on its own.

We're not saying that the "Judgment Night" soundtrack was the first attempt to merge artists of different genres together in one purchasable compact disc, but by being so good, it set the bar that any other hybrid soundtrack would have to cross. While Joe Dante's killer toy film "Small Soldiers" has largely been forgotten by history, the soundtrack merged rockers and rappers with the specific dictate of covering an oldies radio classic. The lead single was a cover of "War" by Bone Thugs-n-Harmony with assists from Flea, Tom Morello, and Henry Rollins. Amazingly, it works, as does the laid-back groove of "Love is a Battlefield" with Pat Benatar and Queen Latifah. You may have never thought that you'd ever exist in a universe where Kool Keith is rapping in collaboration with The Pretenders on "My City Was Gone", but you are living at a time where "Small Soldiers" exists. The soundtrack gets played with more than any of the toys featured in the movie.

"Godzilla", by all financial metrics, was successful. It made well over its budget, did good numbers internationally, and had a marketing blitz the likes that few movies this side of "Pearl Harbor" have ever pulled off. However, this 1998 Americanized re-visioning of the giant lizard wasn't successful enough, as there were certain targets it had to hit for it to be deemed truly profitable in the eyes of the studio, and, when coupled with a negative audience and critical reaction, planned sequels were immediately scrapped. Yet "Godzilla: The Album" is a wild beast, as the late '90s churned out a never-ending cavalcade of blockbuster soundtracks that moved millions of units. For "Godzilla: The Album", the album producers poured buckets of money into its creation, hoping to spin off hit after hit. By golly, the gambit worked, albeit on somewhat retrospectively insane terms. Why yes, Puff Daddy managed to get Jimmy Page to play guitar on what amounted to an orchestral rap cover of Led Zeppelin's "Kashmir", and yes, that's The Wallflowers covering David Bowie's "Heroes". There's a litany of new songs abound (including Jamiroquai's "Deeper Underground", which strangely ended up being their only chart-topper in the U.K.), but with Foo Fighters, Silverchair, and Ben Folds Five all adding in contributions, "Godzilla: The Album" was designed to be the alternative corporate-rock event of the year, and it absolutely was, going Platinum in multiple countries. This monster still had some roar in him.

While "Armageddon" ended up becoming 1998's highest-grossing film, its legacy is nothing compared to its soundtrack. The Diane Warren-penned/Aerosmith-performed "I Don't Want to Miss a Thing" garnered more kudos than the critically reviled "Armageddon" ever did, and, quite amazingly, it ended up being the band's only #1 hit. For those who don't recall, the song is one of four that the band had on the soundtrack (including the other new cut, "What Kind of Love Are You On"), along with two older tracks from the legendary rockers. While "Armageddon: The Album" happily traded in older hits by the likes of ZZ Top, Bob Seger, and Our Lady Peace, it also encouraged older rockers to turn up with new songs, and Jon Bon Jovi and Journey were happy to contribute (the Journey song, "Remember Me", was released as the album's third single and was the group's first with then-new singer Steve Augeri). Yet as nostalgic as the playlist was for some, "I Don't Want to Miss a Thing" became a pop-culture touchstone, powerful enough to propel the soundtrack to 4x Platinum status and even netting an Oscar nomination for Best Original Song. It's probably in your head right now as you're reading this.

Rap music had always had huge crossover appeal, but the late '90s was when it went decadent. Rappers were quickly crossing over into movie roles, and music video directors were increasingly getting big studio backing to make their dream projects. Hype Williams was one of the most famous rap music video directors of his era, known for his sleek style and cinematic scope when it came to hip-hop promo clips. "Belly" was written and directed by Williams, starring Nas and DMX, and backed by a soundtrack from Def Jam Records. The film made the most of its $3 million budget but was savaged by critics, even if it became a cult classic in some circles (and spawned a deeply unfortunate sequel in 2008 that had zero talent transfer over from the first movie). The soundtrack to "Belly" predictably had spots for DMX and Nas themselves (including the lead single "Grand Finale") but featured a litany of artists both established (Ja Rule, Jay-Z, D'Angelo) and on the rise (Sean Paul, The Lox). Moving half a million units is no small feat, and "Belly" showed Def Jam at the height of its popularity: a perfect encapsulation of rap's late-'90s mainstream moment. This "Belly" was a beast.

There's been a lot of contemporary movies set in the '80s and a lot of '80s soundtracks culled from any number of one-hit-wonders. While next to no one remembers the New Year's Eve series of meet-cutes that make up "200 Cıgarettes" (which critic Perry Seibert referred to as "an attempt at 'Nashville' for the MTV generation"), it's amazing how a film with such an incredibly stacked cast (Ben Affleck, Paul Rudd, Kate Hudson, Christina Ricci, Dave Chappelle, Jay Mohr, etc.) was so very unmemorable. Its soundtrack, however, ended up being off-the-beaten-path enough to become a strange collector's item by itself. While a few obvious cuts make appearances here (like Roxy Music's "More Than This", Bow Wow Wow's "I Want Candy", and The Cars' "Just What I Needed"), the film excels by picking some not-as-famous hits from well-known acts, including Blondie's "In the Flesh", Joe Jackson's "It's Different for Girls", and Kool & the Gang's "Ladies Night". Best of all, however, is the new cuts specifically recorded for the soundtrack: Girls Against Boys' weirdly aggro take on "Boogie Wonderland" and, highlight among highlights, brainy alt-rockers Harvey Danger taking The English Beat's "Save It for Later" and giving it a fresh, lively, and damn near joyous contemporary update we didn't know we needed to hear. Even if you can't find the great soundtrack anywhere, that song alone is worth the price of admission. The film may be as easy to forget as your last smoke, but the soundtrack is better than it had any right to be.

Don't Remake "Heathers". It seems like a simple enough rule, but the 2018 Paramount TV series didn't get the memo, and neither did writer-director Darren Stein. His 1999 film "Jawbreaker" was ravaged for taking the entirety of its high-school murderer concept from "Heathers" but failed to do anything unique or new with it. Shame too, because its largely female-fronted alternative rock soundtrack kicks way harder than the movie it belongs to. Letters to Cleo, Shampoo, The Donnas, and lesser-known acts like Grand Mal and The Friggs get prime time to shine in this underrated alternative-rock hallmark. It's all just a shade too corporate to be called riot-grrrl, but having so many non-male voices compiled together in one place gives "Jawbreaker" an edge that few other soundtracks have. Add in a track by Ednaswap that isn't "Torn" (aka the song that Natalie Imbruglia covered to massive success) and a new single by Imperial Teen that might be one of the best they've ever done ("Yoo-Hoo"). Yes, this soundtrack goes harder than an actual Jawbreaker candy.

Danny Boyle makes his second appearance on this list, as after breaking through with 1996's dynamic feature "Trainspotting", he wouldn't garner significant acclaim again until 2002's "28 Days Later" revitalized his career. "The Beach" came at quite a unique inflection point for Boyle. It was the first major project Leonardo DiCaprio picked following the supernova success of 1997's "Titanic", meaning people would buy tickets just to see the oft-shirtless heartthrob regardless of the film itself. While the R-rated "The Beach" made money, critics largely dismissed it for its confusing, contradictory script. Yet its soundtrack found Boyle again returning to his love of electronica, and "The Beach" featured a large swath of sounds, ranging from pure pop songs (All Saints' "Pure Shores") to moody textural pieces (Moby's signature "Porcelain") to moody electro (U.N.K.L.E.'s masterpiece "Lonely Soul" featuring The Verve's Richard Ashcroft) to punky Britpop remixes (William Orbit completely converting Blur's "On Your Own" into an almost unrecognizable shape). Given this was a movie about a young man doing an internet search for "paradise" and getting mixed up in criminal trouble on an island, the electronic bent made sense, sounding tropical but modern in equal beats. Even Underworld, the breakout stars from the "Trainspotting" soundtrack, show up here with the surprisingly gentle "8 Ball", proving that when it comes to Danny Boyle's electro soundtracks, it doesn't need fixin' if it ain't broken.

While Napster was a disruptive element to the music industry, it still took years before the availability of MP3s completely decimated traditional CD sales. In late 2000, The Beatles scored a surprise megahit album with the simply-titled "1", containing all of their chart-topping hits from both the U.S. and the U.K. The record sold over 31 million copies worldwide, revitalizing interest in the band's already-legendary catalog. The following year, the Oscar-bait drama "I Am Sam" dropped and was savaged by critics for having a neurotypical actor ( Sean Penn) playing someone with an intellectual disability. His character Sam tries to keep custody of his daughter Lucy, named such due to his favorite Beatles song. Sam loves The Beatles, and the producers tried to secure the rights to the band's master tracks for the soundtrack but were unable to. So they did the next best thing, which was to hire several musicians to record new covers (while keeping them in the same tempo as the film was already edited to the Fab Four originals that they couldn't use anymore).

The result was having a cavalcade of established acts tackle the band's catalog, resulting in major hits with Rufus Wainwright's take on "Across the Universe" and Sarah McLachlan's respectful rendition of "Blackbird". Sure, a few tracks were forgettable (apologies to Heather Nova's breathy rendition of "We Can Work It Out"), but Eddie Vedder's "You've Got to Hide Your Love Away" and Ben Folds' "Golden Slumbers" felt like songs they were long-fated to perform. The soundtrack was certified Gold in the U.S., received a Grammy nomination, and is thought of more fondly than the film ever was.

A remake of the French 1996 thriller "L'Appartement", "Wicker Park" came and went without much leaving as much as a whisper on film history. Sadly, Josh Hartnett is no Vincent Cassel, and poor reviews and a less-than-modest marketing push sunk any chance of the movie recouping its budget. Its saving grace, however, was its excellently-curated soundtrack. Prior to "Wicker Park" coming out, the soundtracks to the teen soap drama "The O.C." were getting praise for some picking the latest and greatest indie rock and delivering it in a sleek package, which "Wicker Park" desperately tried to imitate. However, the desperation worked in this case, as "Wicker Park" is far more entertaining than it has any right to be. Snagging an acoustic cut of a Death Cab for Cutie classic and getting The Postal Service to cover Phil Collins? Providing beautiful covers of Coldplay's "The Scientist" and Nico's "These Days" (the latter provided by the brilliant electro duo Mates of State)? Mixing in lush tracks by the likes of Snow Patrol, Mazzy Star, Mogwai, and múm? The music for "Wicker Park" didn't need to go as hard as it did, but if time has any justice, this remarkable compilation of rising indie-pop stars will get its due.

Following his heralded 2000 film "Almost Famous", the non-documentary films of Cameron Crowe had diminishing returns, and by the time Bradley Cooper uses the power of rock music to overload a satellite in 2015's "Aloha", it seemed that Crowe had become a parody of himself. 2005's deeply underdeveloped "Elizabethtown" came and went without much commotion, barely recouping its $45 million budget. As Orlando Bloom's character Drew must revisit his Kentucky family, who he had largely distanced himself from, the "Elizabethtown" soundtrack cranks up the alt-country charm, snagging songs from Lindsey Buckingham, Tom Petty, My Morning Jacket, and even Wheat. At this time, Crowe still had an uncanny knack for a great needle drop, and Elton John's "My Father's Gun" arguably does more emotional lifting for the characters than the script itself (Patty Griffin's "Long Ride Home" comes a close second in this department). A "Vol. 2" soundtrack was also released, featuring even wilder song selections (Pinback? Ambient icon Ulrich Schnauss!?), but even without that additional volume, the "Elizabethtown" is a sonic destination worth seeking out.

"Southland Tales" is a bit of a miracle movie. Richard Kelly's follow-up to "Donnie Darko" gets more insane with each passing word: a satire that somehow manages to think of itself far too highly, it tells the story of an action hero with amnesia (Dwayne Johnson) who gets involved with adult film star Krysta Now (Sarah Michelle Gellar) to help prevent (or cause) the end of the world. It's needlessly confusing, packed with too many actors and too many ideas, and is considered one of the worst films ever made. It's also a must-see event, as words fail to describe how sequences where Justin Timberlake lipsyncs to a song by The Killers just materializes out of thin air. That Killers song doesn't appear on the soundtrack, but the rest of the music is surprisingly engaging despite the borderline-nonsensical film it is attached to.

While the original score by Moby holds its own, excellent rock cuts from the likes of Elbow, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Pixies, and (surprisingly) Big Head Todd & the Monsters feel right at home next to ironic numbers like Roger Webb's "Lucky Me". Going with the 11-minute live rendition of Jane's Addiction's "Three Days" is a bold but satisfying choice, but our hats are off to the film's original tunes: Gellar's deliberately-horrid dance-pop number "Teen Horniness is Not a Crime" and a stunning cover of "The Star-Spangled Banner" by the Kronos Quartet and "Mulholland Drive" breakout singer Rebekah del Rio. You can enjoy this great collection even without seeing the film, but trust us: your listening experience simply won't be the same.

With a true cavalcade of stars (Ben Affleck, Ryan Reynolds, Andy Garcia, Common, Taraji P. Henson) and a modest budget, the frenetic action of Joe Carnahan's hitman thriller "Smokin' Aces" made its box office bank and even snagged a direct-to-video sequel despite critics lambasting the film's lightning-quick editing and stereotypical characters. It was a fun film but hardly a cult classic, so it's easy to see why people might skip over its soundtrack. Real shame, though, because "Smokin' Aces" is remarkably stacked. It swerves between hard rock (Motörhead, Trivium), rap (GZA, the no-brainer inclusion of Common), retro-soul (Bernard "Pretty" Purdie), and even an Ennio Morricone orchestral cut with remarkable ease. While some tracks have an even greater punch in the context of the film (including the included climatic orchestral piece by Clint Mansell), "Smokin' Aces" pulls off that rare trick of being a soundtrack album that can be enjoyed due to its deep cuts even if you haven't seen the movie in question.

At this point, you should probably learn who Alexandra Patsavas is. While she's worked in the music department for an untold number of projects, Patsavas and her company Chop Shop Music gained recognition following their work on the television show "The O.C.", commissioning new songs and hunting down rare tracks from largely unheard-of acts that just so happened to make a perfect song for a scripted moment. Snow Patrol and The Fray should thank Patsavas for breaking them through via "Grey's Anatomy", but the "Twilight" soundtracks are her crowning achievement. While the films are regularly laughed at for being some of the worst teen dramas ever made, the soundtracks were largely incredible collections of bleeding-edge indie cool. Muse's "Supermassive Black Hole" has become synonymous with the first film, but signature songs like "Decode" by Paramore, "It Will Rain" by Bruno Mars, and "A Thousand Years" by Christina Perri were all exclusives to "Twilight". There are even fans who listen to the soundtracks religiously without having seen the films, the proof of how strong the "Twilight soundtrack" brand is. It's hard to pick a favorite across all five expertly-curated discs, but if we're forced to, Radiohead's Thom Yorke gave us a daring and weird solo creation with "Hearing Damage" off of 2009's "New Moon" set. These soundtracks sparkled brighter than the vampires in the films.

Jason Reitman had an incredible hot streak in the 2000s, with "Thank You For Smoking", "Juno", and "Up in the Air" establishing him as one of the most promising directors of his generation. Then, the 2010s came and he never reached that critical apex again. Often cited as his worst film, the overwrought and self-important "Men, Women & Children" gathers great actors together to give people little more than a "dangers of social media" polemic that was at that was laughed out of theaters, making back less than a seventh of its $16 million budget. The film's soundtrack still managed to see release, and it might very well be the movie's one saving grace. While it does mix up a couple of classic hits (Hall & Oates' "She's Gone") with some soundtrack staples (Bob Dylan's cinematic "Wigwam"), the pull of the film is the ambient, instrumental sections drawn almost entirely from the discography English acoustic/electronic artist Bibio. His lush mix of finger-plucked acoustic guitars with carefully-picked synths has always been emotional, but he dominates this soundtrack with six out of 15 cuts, all gorgeous and tone-setting. Throw in two songs by Bibio's musical kindred spirit Kid Koala, and you have a chilled-out, sometimes melancholic collection of songs that can be enjoyed in just about any context.

E.L. James' "Fifty Shades" novels were a literary phenomenon, but anyone who read anything about the making of the films knew that the production was fraught with disaster. While the film was truly critic-proof (and needed to be, because boy did film reviewers want to take some pain out on those reels), the soundtrack was a surprising success. Using the same exclusives and rarities formula that helped make the "Twilight" soundtracks cultural events, the use of standards by the likes of Frank Sinatra and the Rolling Stones paled in comparison to the first film's set of frisky originals. "Love Me Like You Do" by Ellie Goulding became a radio staple, while The Weeknd's "Earned It" got a Best Original Song nomination at the Oscars. "Fifty Shades Darker" largely disposed of those "older" artists in favor of some of music's bigger stars, but great cuts from the likes of Tove Lo, Halsey, and an impassioned cover of Coldplay's "The Scientist" by Corinne Bailey Rae maintained the quality of the trilogy's first audio entry. Yet when the first trailer for "Fifty Shades of Grey" dropped, featuring a dramatic remix of "Crazy in Love" by Beyoncé, some fans didn't realize how big a theatrical event this would be. (2018's "Fifty Shades Freed" iteration, unfortunately, lost the plot, as Liam Payne and supporting player Rita Ora could not match the sheer star power of a Zayn/Taylor Swift pairing, to say nothing of Jessie J's rancid cover of a James Brown classic.)