Soundtracks That Are Better Than the Movie (Part 2)

And now the epic conclusion of the list! (The exclamation point emphasizes how epic the list really is.) 

Blair Witch 2: Book of Shadows – Ugh. This was a notorious train-wreck of a movie. But the soundtrack was bad ass. It featured some great metal songs from Rob Zombie, System of a Down, Godhead, and Marilyn Manson while adding some alternative contributions from Elastica, Death in Vegas, At the Drive-In and a wicked awesome track from Queens of the Stone Age. Skip the movie, but check out the album. I’m sure there are cheap copies out there.

Lost Boys 2: The Tribe – Honestly I don’t even remember the plot to this movie. I just know it had a raspy Corey Feldman trying to pretend he was a bad-ass while dressed as the same character he made famous as a child. The one thing I did remember from the movie was the special ending where Feldman had to confront Corey Haim as the vampire version of his Lost Boys character. Now that’s the movie I wanted to see! Sadly we didn’t get that in the third straight-to-video Lost Boys installment due to Haim’s untimely death (RIP). As for the soundtrack, it was great! I was so impressed I bought it the next day. It features Eagles of Death Metal, Dave Gahan (of Depeche Mode), Blind Melon, The Hold Steady, and Aiden covering “Cry Little Sister” from the first movie. The compilation is a broad mix of songs and I honestly like them all. I am also thankful Corey Feldman doesn’t sing on it.

Singles – Okay, I’m going to confess, I have never seen this movie. So how in good conscience can I declare the soundtrack better than the movie? Because I never hear mention of the movie itself. However, the soundtrack has gone down as this sort of early 90’s grunge alternative milestone (kind of like what the “Saturday Night Fever” soundtrack did for disco). The tracks include songs from Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Smashing Pumpkins and Alice in Chains just before they became staples of 90’s rock. (In fact, Alice in Chain’s contribution “Would?” pretty much rocketed them to stardom.)  Other bands on the soundtrack include other grunge acts like Mother Love Bone, Mudhoney and the Screaming Trees. Clearly the movie was pretty forgettable, but the soundtrack to “Singles” is iconic.

End of Days – I think I know what happened here. The record company decided to throw a bunch of random groups that were either popular or on the darker side of the spectrum to create a generic rap metal soundtrack to a generic horror action movie. Well, in this case the random selection kind of worked. It’s not a great soundtrack, but I think it’s better than the movie it represents “End of Days.” Truthfully, I haven’t seen the movie all the way through. I instead decided to watch the Nostalgia Critic’s review… and that’s all I needed to see. (blah)  As for the soundtrack, it features songs from Korn, Limp Bizkit, Guns N’ Roses, Everlast and Eminem that are not available anywhere else (to my knowledge). Plus it has songs from Powerman 5000, Rob Zombie and The Prodigy. The soundtrack itself doesn’t ‘gel’ but it is a collection of some cool songs. I have far more desire to listen to it than watch the movie that “inspired” it.

Escape from LA – You know, I’ve noticed a trend to this list of below average sequels with cool soundtracks. I didn’t hate this movie, but it was definitely sub-par when compared to the previous one. Where “Escape from New York” was an edgy sci-fi action flick starring the awesome, bad ass anti-hero Snake Plissken, the sequel basically turned him into a cartoon character. (Case in point, the basketball scene. Need another example? He surfs on a wave of sewer water to catch a speeding Cadillac.) While it had a great cast (including Steve Buscemi, Peter Fonda, Stacy Keach, Pam Grier and Bruce Campbell) “Escape from LA” was too over the top and lacked the gritty darkness of the original, that feeling of falling into a viper pit and trying to stay alive. I will say, however, that I got a lot of mileage out of the soundtrack. It featured great tunes from bands like White Zombie, Ministry, The Butthole Surfers, Tool, Stabbing Westward and Tori Amos. I particularly love the exclusive songs from The Toadies and The Deftones.  I definitely prefer the soundtrack to “Escape from LA” over the movie.

Not Another Teen Movie - This movie isn’t that bad. I mean, yeah it’s stupid, it’s really stupid, but it was supposed to be stupid.  It was a parody of all those teen movies rolled into one bad ‘John Hughes didn’t flush the toilet’ train wreck. (RIP John Hughes, this wasn’t your fault.) The movie is dumb but kind of funny so it serves its purpose, following after the horror parody Scary Movie series but before the onslaught of idiotic satires ranging from Date Movie, Meet the Spartans, Superhero Movie and others I would rather forget about. (Leslie Neilson, I will choose to remember you for Police Squad and the Naked Gun. Drake Bell, you can suck it.)  So the soundtrack had a cool concept. Let’s take contemporary bands and have them cover 80’s classics, since the 80’s were the heyday of teen classics. Now the soundtrack features Mest, Goldfinger and Good Charlotte doing their things. If the rest of it had featured other pop-punk acts of their ilk, I wouldn’t have been interested. But the rest of the soundtrack is evened out by amazing contributions ranging from Smashing Pumpkins covering Depeche Mode’s “Never Let Me Down Again” to System of a Down rocking out Berlin’s “The Metro” to Muse powering out The Smith’s “Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want.”  There is real effort with this soundtrack, people. It also has covers by Phantom Planet, Orgy reprising their “Blue Monday” single and Stabbing Westward covering another New Order classic with “Bizarre Love Triangle. Plus I can’t forget the creep-tacular Marilyn Manson cover of Soft Cell’s “Tainted Love.” The movie is now just another in a long line of cheesy parody movies, but the soundtrack is truly worth your time.

Last Action Hero – We have arrived at the black stain on the career of the once seemingly bulletproof Arnold Schwarzenegger, the first of his movies to bomb so hard it became a laughing stock. Man, so much marketing went into this flop that a soundtrack was a given. That being said, the soundtrack isn’t that great, but the bar is really low on this one. Last Action Hero sucks so bad that an ‘okay at best’ soundtrack seems brilliant by comparison. I will put it this way; the Alice in Chains song “What the Hell Have I” is better than the movie itself. That’s all it took. I mean there are some other good songs on the soundtrack, like another Alice in Chains track, “Big Gun” by AC/DC, “Dream On” from Aerosmith and some selections from Cypress Hill, Megadeth, and Anthrax. But there are also some so-so songs and that Def Leppard song that they played the hell out of… ugh. (Not a fan of Def Leppard, sorry to those who are.) But again, this magic ticket induced nightmare featured two awesome and exclusive Alice in Chains songs, thus the soundtrack is better than the movie. Still, I’d rather watch this Schwarzenegger crap fest than the one where he gives birth. Please, never again with Junior… never again. 

So there you have it. Now there may be other candidates to this list but without having seen the movie, I can't really say if it is inferior to the soundtrack. I have a feeling S.F.W. would qualify. (A film starring Stephen Dorff and Jake Busey versus a soundtrack featuring Soundgarden, Radiohead, Marilyn Manson and Babes in Toyland... you tell me.) I probably would have included the Tank Girl soundtrack except it omitted the Sky Cries Mary song, so it fails in my opinion. Anyways, hopefully you enjoyed this read and maybe I've enticed you to check out a few of these soundtracks.  Keep checking back as there will be more reviews, rantings and ravings and if your lucky a psychotic breakdown or two. Stay Tuned!