The movie was OK, but I vastly prefer the original. It has a certain 80s "Gee whiz aren't these newfangled computers the greatest" feeling that you just can't recapture.
Same. Did you know that all the nebulas and other space stuff, pretty much all the cgi, is not cgi? It's images of things taken through a microscope. The bubble around the tree for example is a single cell. So cool.
If Spawn counts as a mediocre movie with good music, then you'd think Flash Gordon would be in the same category. But I don't think either of those movies are mediocre.
I mean, cool, I fucking loved it, but let's be real that outside of John leguizamo, the performances were mid. And it had almost no lasting impact. It's just kind of an "oh yeah that was a movie wasn't it" mid 90s comic book schlock.
But that album was like, actually peak 90s metal/ hardcore.
I might have a strange definition of mediocre, but basically, I think that if I had seen the movie once, and then I decide it's worth watching again, then somehow it must not be mediocre. I've seen Spawn several times.
I think "mediocre" in this context would be mediocre to most people. Rather than you specifically. At least, that's why I added some brackets explaining my Tron: Legacy answer in this post. (I personally don't think it's mediocre but imagine most did.)
I think “mediocre” in this context would be mediocre to most people.
I think you cannot ask about something subjective without getting people's personal opinions. If you ask about an aspect of a mediocre thing, then you can expect at least some debate about what counts as mediocre, and probably none of the people's answers will be correct.
For me, a "mediocre" movie would be something that I would only watch again if a friend wanted to watch it, but if it was just an option and I got to choose, I'd never choose it. But if it was just "on", I might not change the channel. Let's see, like The Rock directed by Michael Bay.
And then there are "bad" movies that I wouldn't watch even if I had a friend who wanted to see it, like any other Michael Bay movie that I've seen. Armageddon had pretty good music, but it wasn't mediocre. It was bad.
I want to mention like three different games, but for each one someone would rightfully come after me for saying the game itself is mediocre. So I'll just say I personally love these games, but I see with pretty clear eyes that aspects of them haven't stood the test of time.
Mirror's Edge, The Neverhood, and Yuri's Revenge all have amazing soundtracks.
And after that disclaimer if you still try to pick a fight about how they're not mediocre games, I'm going to also pretend I'm fighting the person who called them mediocre and then crawl out of our cartoon fight cloud.
According to this list, the annual release count peaked around 2000, but RTSes are still coming out at a decent clip, maybe half the rate as they did then.
The genre as it ran in its heyday was really aimed at keyboard+mouse play. I don't think that it translates incredibly well to mobile or console. I remember trying to play Supreme Commander on a gamepad and not really liking it.
Depending upon how one classifies games (the above list appears to treat real-time tactics games as a subgenre, which I wouldn't), some real-time strategy games might go into a different bucket, the real-time tactics genre.
I think that RTSes gave birth to some child genres, like MOBAs, that to some extent compete for marketshare.
There were a lot of 2D RTSes that came out around 2000. I mean, it was something of a glut. I think that it was just a good match for the game hardware and computer capabilities of the time. But...you'd kind of expect some subsequent decrease if that's the case. Other genres have had similar booms based on being a good match for the hardware of the time. For example, third generation consoles and fourth generation consoles saw a huge number of side-view 2D platformers, because they were a decent match for what the hardware could do. There are still modern side-view platformers that come out, but it's a far smaller percentage of the game market than it was then.
Terry Scott Taylor has an incredibly deep back catalogue on his Bandcamp page - some pretty middle of the road, and some totally weird, worth having a rummage and seeing what you get... For those who don't want to play lucky dip, there's the full soundtrack to Neverhood, plus a couple of related albums (Songs from the Neverhood Vol 2 which was the platformer sequel, and Return to the Neverhood - which was released as a companion to the graphic novel).
Just started another playthrough of catalyst after 5 years, absolutely serene soundtrack. Sure the game has issues but it's for sure one of my favorites
The Neverhood is a flawed gem, one of those fantastic point&click adventure games that have some of that moon-logic malaise so common in Sierra games, up to an absurd point.
Yet every other aspect of the game is polished and fantastic enough I would recommend it with enough warning.
I would definitely not call it mediocre, it is anything but that, it is also in retrospective a worse "game" than some contemporary titles like Broken Sword or ToonStruck.
That's just it - the writing, animation, music, the art direction, the voices - all stunning. But, the gameplay lets it down. What makes a mediocre game for me is, if watching someone else play a thing is a preferable experience, it's not such a good game - speaking strictly of the "gameplay" aspects of the work.
I could catch a lot of flak from this opinion but I wonder if Cyberpunk 2077 could fit in this category: I have probably something around 100 hours in that game just because I like going around in the city and there's some great writing, both for the main questline and even some random side-quests.
But as much freedom I have from choosing how I want to deal with a mission, neither combat nor hacking is fun IMO.
Hacking feels more like an overpowered magic ability that if you put enough points into it, it lets you cheat the game, and fighting is mostly a big mess, be it physical or shooting.
I assume your tongue is fairly firmly in your cheek, but I can't think of a better example for "mediocre movie" than Mortal Kombat. Lots of stuff to like about it (Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, Robin Shou's hair, Goro, several of the sets, etc), mixed in with mostly underwhelming martial arts and cinematography, with characters whose depth reflects their origins. Don't get me wrong, I like it, but I'm not crusading to convince people of Paul W.S. Anderson's misunderstood genius lol
Admittedly I don't remember a tremendous amount of it, but my recollection is mildly positive. If the 1995 movie is 2.5 stars outta 5 (in my personal rubric, that equates to 'I like it, but acknowledge it's not good', and also happens to be where all of Paul W.S. Anderson's films live), I'd give the 2021 version 3 stars.
It benefits from making use of the R rating, and having better fight choreography and stunt performances. I think those are much more important to get right than characterization or plot, at least in a Mortal Kombat movie.
For what it's worth, idgaf about the lore of the franchise, so a fan of the games may take issue with that take, but my perspective is one of a fan of martial arts movies, not necessarily an MK fan.
I never met an action movie I didn't like. If it's good it's good, if it's bad it's funny. Plus this is Mortal Kombat we're talking about here so I'm predisposed to like it. I agree it was better than the first, I'd say much better though.
What about Event Horizon? Has to be his best movie. I think it's a pretty damn good film.
I agree, Event Horizon is the best Anderson movie I've seen, with the caveat that I haven't seen his post-Resident Evil stuff, nor Soldier, and I've got a big soft spot for Kurt Russell. However, I am slightly more lukewarm on Event Horizon than a lot of folks. I haven't watched it in some time, but I recall being underwhelmed. To some extent, I think it was over hyped to me, as my dad raved that it was terrifying when he saw it in the theater. I did not find that to be the case, but, in so far as haunted house movies go, it's a decent one of those (IN SPAAAAAACE). My letterboxd says I gave it 3.5 stars and that still feels correct to me.
The thing that holds it back is that I think, in a different director's hands, there is a legitimately terrifying movie to be made using most of the same ingredients. I'm by no means equivocating these movies, but an interesting point of comparison is the Solaris remake that Soderbergh and Clooney did in the early 00s. They share the conceit of "there is a mysterious entity in space which keeps showing one of the characters visions of his dead-by-suicide wife to disastrous effect" (insert weird-that-it-happened-twice.gif).
By all accounts, the Solaris remake is not an exceptional movie (in fact, EH is rated slightly higher with a 3.3 vs Solaris' 3.2, for whatever that's worth). Also, Solaris is very much a character drama first and foremost, but there are a few sequences which I found legitimately unsettling in ways that EH mostly failed to evoke, despite covering similar beats.
In fact, I think I've talked myself into doing this as a double feature. Solaris I saw on television probably close to 20 years ago, and Event Horizon I watched on a laptop in Afghanistan, so I could stand to revisit both of them. I'm curious if watching them together will enhance the experience in any way, or if it will just give me tonal whiplash lol
I thought for a sec you were talking about the game and not the movie. I'm not into fighting games or gore for the sake of gore but the game is a cultural landmark.
Huniepop is a porn game with the barest of stories between the titties, juvenile humor, and honestly the porn itself is just so-so. This is all wrapped around what is admittedly a pretty good match 3 puzzle game, but the soundtrack! For chill atmospheric music, that shit is fucking incredible.
Lazarus, it was an anime written by the same guy that made Cowboy Bepop. It was alright, but they hired Bonobo to do the soundtrack for it and it's just amazing...
(Note, for those not familiar, that both Pictionary and Solstice had music by Tim Follin, who is notable for squeezing a lot of capability out of extremely limited early computer sound hardware.)
A mediocre movie, but the soundtrack featured Smashing Pumpkins, Bone Thugs n' Harmony, Jewel, Goo Goo Dolls, Underworld, and Moloko among others. Incredible collection.
Wore out the CD back in the early 00s. Had some pretty damn big names doing songs for the OST, Kidney Thieves: Before I'm Dead is still something I listen to on occasion to this day.
Might be a bit of nostalgia and bias in this answer though.
Not exactly the soundtrack, it was fine, but nothing special and overall forgettable
But I want to give a small shout-out to Morbius for having really good sound mixing. I definitely expected it to be a "whispers and explosions" kind of movie where you couldn't hear the conversations, and action scenes blew your eardrums out, and the background music was all over the place
But no, everything was at a reasonable volume, I could hear everything crystal clear.
There was just nothing worth hearing unfortunately.
I liked Stealth's soundtrack when it came out. Radio had gotten quite corporate-stale at the time, and the tracks had a upbeat rock personality I did not know I wanted to explore. I'm no audiophile, and it is not something I actually pursued. It was just something I noticed at the time. I rarely take notice of stuff like that.
In terms of movie music in general, anything from John Williams is amazing to me. I think it is because John has a knack for communicating logical empathy and emotions in music that tells a parallel story within the scenes of the movie. He is not creating a simple background soundscape or echoing the emotions the visual storytelling. Instead, he is sneaking in behind you from the shadows and taking on a staring role in your experience without ever announcing himself or allowing you to see how he expands the performing stage. After that initial experience of the film, when you hear any small part of John's score, that entity he conjured comes to life again, reminding you of his unspoken staring role in ways no one else I know of is capable. Some others certainly create beautiful backgrounds and soundscapes, but I have never experienced anyone else that conjures a presence in the same way as John Williams.
Williams has a gift for creating a general theme, character motifs, and layers of the music that don't just sing but tell you the story you're seeing. He's our Mozart or Beethoven who was around at the right time to use the vehicle of cinema to paint his pictures.
There's a game for the SNES called Act Raiser, I think it was by Quintet or Taito or Square, one of those. You play Actual God taking back the world from Probably Satan, you do this partly in a side scrolling platforming combat style, and partially in an overhead city building style. Surprisingly good soundtrack for a game as weird as it is.
Lord of the Rings: Vol I for SNES. The game is worse than mediocre. It’s utter trash. I remain convinced they blew the budget on the soundtrack! It does a lot of things you really don’t hear that often on the SNES! Amazing!
This is tricky because I always find thst the best art, no matter the funding or size of a team behind it, is paired with great music. I'll try and get one for each category though.
(Spoiler tags are just to condense the comment)
Movies:
::: spoiler spoiler
Star Wars Sequels like SOLO and The Force Awakens (Rey's theme + the third trailer's medley.)
Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992), might not count as mediocre but i found it hard to follow. The music is done by this brilliant composer Wojciech Kilar who also composed for the perfect and very memorable film, Le roi et Le Oiseau
Probably another controversial suggestion - Pirates of the Caribbean
:::
Games:
::: spoiler spoiler
Sims 4. Its soundtrack is so incredible but the game is just not entertaining to me. Also see: The Sims Medieval and Spore (nice job, EA...)
:::
I've been trying to get into that because I crave juicy legal stuff. Bit tired of the supergenius-assholes trope we see in Sherlock, though, and it seems like Mike is a super genius and his boss Harvey is a genius asshole. Yes I let YouTube shorts dictate what new shows I delve into ✋😔
It’s not a super-genius thing, it’s a perfect memory of thing’s he has read and the super memory trope is rarely used in the show. So you’re safe. Even when it is used, it’s somewhat explained well.
A load of Amiga games I could mention - Shadow of The Beast, Shadow Of The Beast 2, The Killing Gameshow, Turrican 2, Blood Money - mostly Psygnosis. They were known for it at that point.
‘Turrican II’'s most famous music was covered by Ceephax Acid Crew in the dnb style. The guy is known for using oldschool synths and Amiga itself (apart from being Squarepusher's brother).
Didn't like how the plot hooks you in with Gustave & Lune having to deal with a world on the brink of the end, and then it becomes Verso & Maelle having to deal with family drama. Massive disappointment.
Oasis of fear, sexploitation movie, not very good, but cool scenery, the song weirdly slaps and is sung multiple times in the movie in different genres, I was shazaming the song couldn't find it and found out it was sung by the actor for the movie. https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x9g08tc
Dragonslayer Doppelgänger the licenses may be in question and the story may not make any sense but the soundtrack... https://m.imdb.com/title/tt6162266/
It's a walking simulator with a lot of talking and a mechanic I didn't understand. I couldn't get into the actual game. I had found the soundtrack first and gosh it's gorgeous. Great folk music.
I recommend the Vagrant Song, the deep south version
sgu was pretty mediocre and somewhat subpar in the 1st season by scifi standards, and its previous incarnations(shows), but had great sound/music track though.
star trek enterprise , the original opening theme, not the wierd cringe singing they later replaced it with. and the other themes for the rest of the series.
the singing was shoe-horned in and pretty inappropriate for the nature of the show, much like the ending of FF-X2 inappropiate cheerful singing as the "world" was getting annihilated by the unseen realm.
some of the games have been quite mid (though i still enjoy anything sonic for the most part, thankfully i dont look at things very critically and can just enjoy a piece of media) but the soundtracks rarely fail to get me in a good mood!
Depending on who you ask, Tron: Legacy.
(I personally love the movie and rewatch it every couple years but it didn't do well, IIRC.)
I murdered a lot of reapas in Mass Effect 3 Multiplayer to some of those songs.
| Depending on who you ask, Tron: Legacy.
The last real Daft Punk release.
The movie was OK, but I vastly prefer the original. It has a certain 80s "Gee whiz aren't these newfangled computers the greatest" feeling that you just can't recapture.
Weirdest Sheridan and Londo fanfic I've ever seen. 👍
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WY1GpedhVwQ&list=PLLnpN30T9gejL4xOOZtYSzCwRcb31ikjt
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lILHEnz8fTk&list=PLO6S2qKFLclrN-u7V2Wag7-C6rfgpWzG2
Rinzler's my fav, tiny gods it's still so good. Thanks for the share.
End of line 🤌
True, the soundtrack single handedly elevates it - there’s not much without that.
The fountain (2006). The soundtrack was partially produced by the band Mogwai.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n9n_tl0Oi4Q&list=PL46CAACA317EB76FC&index=1
Love the movie and love Clint Mansell scores. Didn't know about Mogwai and that's dope! Only just recently discovered them.
You thought it was mediocre? Man, that's one of my favorite movies.
Same. Did you know that all the nebulas and other space stuff, pretty much all the cgi, is not cgi? It's images of things taken through a microscope. The bubble around the tree for example is a single cell. So cool.
I think without the score it would be mediocre. The music is why I love the movie so much.
Spawn movie.
If Spawn counts as a mediocre movie with good music, then you'd think Flash Gordon would be in the same category. But I don't think either of those movies are mediocre.
I mean, cool, I fucking loved it, but let's be real that outside of John leguizamo, the performances were mid. And it had almost no lasting impact. It's just kind of an "oh yeah that was a movie wasn't it" mid 90s comic book schlock.
But that album was like, actually peak 90s metal/ hardcore.
I might have a strange definition of mediocre, but basically, I think that if I had seen the movie once, and then I decide it's worth watching again, then somehow it must not be mediocre. I've seen Spawn several times.
I think "mediocre" in this context would be mediocre to most people. Rather than you specifically. At least, that's why I added some brackets explaining my Tron: Legacy answer in this post. (I personally don't think it's mediocre but imagine most did.)
I think you cannot ask about something subjective without getting people's personal opinions. If you ask about an aspect of a mediocre thing, then you can expect at least some debate about what counts as mediocre, and probably none of the people's answers will be correct.
For me, a "mediocre" movie would be something that I would only watch again if a friend wanted to watch it, but if it was just an option and I got to choose, I'd never choose it. But if it was just "on", I might not change the channel. Let's see, like The Rock directed by Michael Bay.
And then there are "bad" movies that I wouldn't watch even if I had a friend who wanted to see it, like any other Michael Bay movie that I've seen. Armageddon had pretty good music, but it wasn't mediocre. It was bad.
/shrug, you do you. I'm just leading a horse to water. But I cannot fill a cup which is already full.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q7SedYMP-PA&list=PL2ztHm4WvPfseLj_dW0gXACogcfwUXpjV
Tron: legacy
and Tron: Ares
Haven't listened to that one yet. I'll have to check it out.
Imagine slotting
into your SNES in 1993 and hearing THIS. The game kinda sucks but the music keeps you going.
I've never played mystic quest but I heard that song in Super Mario Bros Crossover!
Scott Pilgrim vs. the World has an awesome soundtrack.
The movie itself, has aged towards somewhere between mediocre and good.
We are Sex Bob-Omb and we're here to make You think about death and get sad and stuff
Oh I still like that movie
Movies
Tv Shows
Not again! I refuse to let that get stuck in my head for a week. I REFUSE! runs away screaming
It's been a long road...
If karma truly exists you're going to get it stuck in your head longer than I will.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZyCKVMzrX4&list=PLE0FA3E5E02103254
Playlist is of all Transformers movie soundtracks, but this link will start at Transformers 2.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJNmOd3tWB0&list=PLKsSQjMAbBxjWkTmuCQb9rAiQEEmso4em&index=20
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5m-T4tarPy4&list=PLvDaQTRzMiRoM6RfTOasp2BOxwzrYkf-9
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJVuM-g9Gc8&list=PLuSPz2swq5PEF_6w4nLiwYbbISibLyKER
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cdFp_ifToHU&list=PLtFDQ-QrwVZ3LdIL0fhcoInmVsUbFXpeE
Sucker Punch arguably would have been a better film if they went full Daft Punk and didn't bother with actual dialogue.
I want to mention like three different games, but for each one someone would rightfully come after me for saying the game itself is mediocre. So I'll just say I personally love these games, but I see with pretty clear eyes that aspects of them haven't stood the test of time.
Mirror's Edge, The Neverhood, and Yuri's Revenge all have amazing soundtracks.
And after that disclaimer if you still try to pick a fight about how they're not mediocre games, I'm going to also pretend I'm fighting the person who called them mediocre and then crawl out of our cartoon fight cloud.
Never played Yuri's Revenge, but the first two are certified bangers. I need a Neverhood Remaster.
With C&C, my sense that those games are somehow below par come mainly from a perception that RTS is a largely dead genre.
According to this list, the annual release count peaked around 2000, but RTSes are still coming out at a decent clip, maybe half the rate as they did then.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_real-time_strategy_video_games
Some thoughts:
The genre as it ran in its heyday was really aimed at keyboard+mouse play. I don't think that it translates incredibly well to mobile or console. I remember trying to play Supreme Commander on a gamepad and not really liking it.
Depending upon how one classifies games (the above list appears to treat real-time tactics games as a subgenre, which I wouldn't), some real-time strategy games might go into a different bucket, the real-time tactics genre.
I think that RTSes gave birth to some child genres, like MOBAs, that to some extent compete for marketshare.
There were a lot of 2D RTSes that came out around 2000. I mean, it was something of a glut. I think that it was just a good match for the game hardware and computer capabilities of the time. But...you'd kind of expect some subsequent decrease if that's the case. Other genres have had similar booms based on being a good match for the hardware of the time. For example, third generation consoles and fourth generation consoles saw a huge number of side-view 2D platformers, because they were a decent match for what the hardware could do. There are still modern side-view platformers that come out, but it's a far smaller percentage of the game market than it was then.
You're probably right. I know there's a open source RTS project for Linux, I've been meaning to check it out.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nkm0G-NTV4w&list=RDnkm0G-NTV4w&start_radio=1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=On_p0JLNIN0&list=PLd1x_hw_n9fot9uq9hlGJFba66I85mJLr
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IgJhaozybz0&list=PLr8pofvqYLizBowgqhiyDDjRUZVTgElfY
Yuri's revenge isn't even close to being mediocre tho, it was an amazing addon for an already amazing game.
Terry Scott Taylor has an incredibly deep back catalogue on his Bandcamp page - some pretty middle of the road, and some totally weird, worth having a rummage and seeing what you get... For those who don't want to play lucky dip, there's the full soundtrack to Neverhood, plus a couple of related albums (Songs from the Neverhood Vol 2 which was the platformer sequel, and Return to the Neverhood - which was released as a companion to the graphic novel).
I was honestly remiss in not mentioning him, his bandcamp is a treasure trove.
Why specifically Yuri's revenge?
The soundtrack! Maybe it's nostalgia goggles, but I love the combo of classic cinema samples, guitar riffs, and mad science beats.
Just started another playthrough of catalyst after 5 years, absolutely serene soundtrack. Sure the game has issues but it's for sure one of my favorites
The Neverhood is a flawed gem, one of those fantastic point&click adventure games that have some of that moon-logic malaise so common in Sierra games, up to an absurd point.
Yet every other aspect of the game is polished and fantastic enough I would recommend it with enough warning.
I would definitely not call it mediocre, it is anything but that, it is also in retrospective a worse "game" than some contemporary titles like Broken Sword or ToonStruck.
That's just it - the writing, animation, music, the art direction, the voices - all stunning. But, the gameplay lets it down. What makes a mediocre game for me is, if watching someone else play a thing is a preferable experience, it's not such a good game - speaking strictly of the "gameplay" aspects of the work.
I could catch a lot of flak from this opinion but I wonder if Cyberpunk 2077 could fit in this category: I have probably something around 100 hours in that game just because I like going around in the city and there's some great writing, both for the main questline and even some random side-quests. But as much freedom I have from choosing how I want to deal with a mission, neither combat nor hacking is fun IMO. Hacking feels more like an overpowered magic ability that if you put enough points into it, it lets you cheat the game, and fighting is mostly a big mess, be it physical or shooting.
I should give it a go sometime, or at least listen to the OST.
Jeez. I must be getting old. Mortal Kombat from 1995.
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL5S7GSgBgqcQzcDaNokY7rvibI_N6hDmQ
Recently got reminded of this (sadly) due to Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa passing.
The first "MORTAL KOOOOMBAT" yell from the song still owns some space in my head.
No no no, they said mediocre.
I assume your tongue is fairly firmly in your cheek, but I can't think of a better example for "mediocre movie" than Mortal Kombat. Lots of stuff to like about it (Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, Robin Shou's hair, Goro, several of the sets, etc), mixed in with mostly underwhelming martial arts and cinematography, with characters whose depth reflects their origins. Don't get me wrong, I like it, but I'm not crusading to convince people of Paul W.S. Anderson's misunderstood genius lol
What did you think of the new one? I thought it was awesome.
Admittedly I don't remember a tremendous amount of it, but my recollection is mildly positive. If the 1995 movie is 2.5 stars outta 5 (in my personal rubric, that equates to 'I like it, but acknowledge it's not good', and also happens to be where all of Paul W.S. Anderson's films live), I'd give the 2021 version 3 stars.
It benefits from making use of the R rating, and having better fight choreography and stunt performances. I think those are much more important to get right than characterization or plot, at least in a Mortal Kombat movie.
For what it's worth, idgaf about the lore of the franchise, so a fan of the games may take issue with that take, but my perspective is one of a fan of martial arts movies, not necessarily an MK fan.
I never met an action movie I didn't like. If it's good it's good, if it's bad it's funny. Plus this is Mortal Kombat we're talking about here so I'm predisposed to like it. I agree it was better than the first, I'd say much better though.
What about Event Horizon? Has to be his best movie. I think it's a pretty damn good film.
I agree, Event Horizon is the best Anderson movie I've seen, with the caveat that I haven't seen his post-Resident Evil stuff, nor Soldier, and I've got a big soft spot for Kurt Russell. However, I am slightly more lukewarm on Event Horizon than a lot of folks. I haven't watched it in some time, but I recall being underwhelmed. To some extent, I think it was over hyped to me, as my dad raved that it was terrifying when he saw it in the theater. I did not find that to be the case, but, in so far as haunted house movies go, it's a decent one of those (IN SPAAAAAACE). My letterboxd says I gave it 3.5 stars and that still feels correct to me.
The thing that holds it back is that I think, in a different director's hands, there is a legitimately terrifying movie to be made using most of the same ingredients. I'm by no means equivocating these movies, but an interesting point of comparison is the Solaris remake that Soderbergh and Clooney did in the early 00s. They share the conceit of "there is a mysterious entity in space which keeps showing one of the characters visions of his dead-by-suicide wife to disastrous effect" (insert weird-that-it-happened-twice.gif).
By all accounts, the Solaris remake is not an exceptional movie (in fact, EH is rated slightly higher with a 3.3 vs Solaris' 3.2, for whatever that's worth). Also, Solaris is very much a character drama first and foremost, but there are a few sequences which I found legitimately unsettling in ways that EH mostly failed to evoke, despite covering similar beats.
In fact, I think I've talked myself into doing this as a double feature. Solaris I saw on television probably close to 20 years ago, and Event Horizon I watched on a laptop in Afghanistan, so I could stand to revisit both of them. I'm curious if watching them together will enhance the experience in any way, or if it will just give me tonal whiplash lol
I thought for a sec you were talking about the game and not the movie. I'm not into fighting games or gore for the sake of gore but the game is a cultural landmark.
Huniepop is a porn game with the barest of stories between the titties, juvenile humor, and honestly the porn itself is just so-so. This is all wrapped around what is admittedly a pretty good match 3 puzzle game, but the soundtrack! For chill atmospheric music, that shit is fucking incredible.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7iDwknpq5Bc&list=PLY9e1OD4yZir4uEcDncrtzyzJYZulr_kh
Lazarus, it was an anime written by the same guy that made Cowboy Bepop. It was alright, but they hired Bonobo to do the soundtrack for it and it's just amazing...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMUysZp-elc&list=PLRW80bBvVD3U776468E0djCu8WTe_wjK1
(☝◞‸◟)☞
The ‘80s Conan the Barbarian film with Arnie.
Utterly awesome soundtrack by Basil Poledouris.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LANHWwEjOAU&list=PL4CA33FD3350985EC
Pictionary
TIM IT WAS JUST PICTIONARY
Solstice
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4_gObHt1uZA&list=RD4_gObHt1uZA&start_radio=1
(Note, for those not familiar, that both Pictionary and Solstice had music by Tim Follin, who is notable for squeezing a lot of capability out of extremely limited early computer sound hardware.)
Tim's brother Geoff was also a game composer, and made e.g. the music for ‘Terminator 2: Judgment Day’ on NES.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJwh3erQlyE&list=RDSJwh3erQlyE&start_radio=1
I wouldn't say mediocre, it was a pretty fun game for its time, but the Sanctum soundtrack by Coffee Stain Studios was fantastic
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_XLb7bwZUI&list=PLCB4DAE7320E75F60
Batman & Robin
A mediocre movie, but the soundtrack featured Smashing Pumpkins, Bone Thugs n' Harmony, Jewel, Goo Goo Dolls, Underworld, and Moloko among others. Incredible collection.
Also, R. Kelly with a great song, but, well...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mYeVyWbHKVo&list=PLC7E29C288C0146D6
I'm not sure the movie was even good enough to be called mediocre, but the soundtrack was amazing.
Or, Alternatively, the original Batman with the soundtrack by Prince and the New Power Generation
Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura
https://youtu.be/vQdr6zmpM8E
Woah that wasn't a mediocre game it was above average at worst.
Just thought of another answer.
Queen of the Damned movie.
Wore out the CD back in the early 00s. Had some pretty damn big names doing songs for the OST, Kidney Thieves: Before I'm Dead is still something I listen to on occasion to this day.
Might be a bit of nostalgia and bias in this answer though.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hpTDlxXg_cs&list=PLshOH-KGpax1mFiI1Rx8oAJ-Nwi_Rws_0
Waterworld for the SNES
Silver Surfer on the NES
Plok (SNES) The boss theme in particular.
I forget the guy's name but he did both OSTs for the above two games and he has a reputation for giving bad games amazing soundtracks.
Mechanicus Not a bad game by any means but the music and sound design punch way above their weight for a game of this scope.
Tunic (Also very good but probably very niche)
EDIT:
Void War Probably not bad but self-admittedly very derivative of both its inspirations (FTL and Warhammer 40K)
Tim and Geoff Follin! Tim is the more famous one but Geoff (RIP) and his contributions to Plok and Silver Surfer and others are great too.
A YouTube comment under the Pictionary video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IVPiwUNtrps&list=PLE2B2D36E13981D26
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQlLl2j5THQ&list=RDZQlLl2j5THQ&start_radio=1
Including the whole game's soundtrack as well:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OTSW4M28XQg&list=PL2A1A350EBB242BDF
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_Follin
Some other people mentioned his game music in other games in this thread as well.
EDIT: Parent poster went back and updated post with hyperlinks to all the music plus more music. I wasn't adding them just to add noise, promise. :-)
Silver Surfer is a perfect answer.
Not exactly the soundtrack, it was fine, but nothing special and overall forgettable
But I want to give a small shout-out to Morbius for having really good sound mixing. I definitely expected it to be a "whispers and explosions" kind of movie where you couldn't hear the conversations, and action scenes blew your eardrums out, and the background music was all over the place
But no, everything was at a reasonable volume, I could hear everything crystal clear.
There was just nothing worth hearing unfortunately.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Znf9KLG8Lc&list=PLim3m5NnkYFdILUg-GCQIepiRHBcdlzxX
Crysis 2. I don’t think the game would’ve been much without the bombastic Hans Zimmer theme.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hIAB3e47vZU&list=PLFXgGT6loyW9kZCJgYrmBF0TE4CIom6u4
Specifically the intro that I assume that you are referring to:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6nHDT5nrjCY&start_radio=1
Remember Me. See for yourself:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLYXfIgywXknHjMdirPIkDaEOM4cCyceDE
https://tidal.com/browse/album/41708231?u
If I remember correctly, they blew too much budget on the orchestra and it affected the game quality.
I liked Stealth's soundtrack when it came out. Radio had gotten quite corporate-stale at the time, and the tracks had a upbeat rock personality I did not know I wanted to explore. I'm no audiophile, and it is not something I actually pursued. It was just something I noticed at the time. I rarely take notice of stuff like that.
In terms of movie music in general, anything from John Williams is amazing to me. I think it is because John has a knack for communicating logical empathy and emotions in music that tells a parallel story within the scenes of the movie. He is not creating a simple background soundscape or echoing the emotions the visual storytelling. Instead, he is sneaking in behind you from the shadows and taking on a staring role in your experience without ever announcing himself or allowing you to see how he expands the performing stage. After that initial experience of the film, when you hear any small part of John's score, that entity he conjured comes to life again, reminding you of his unspoken staring role in ways no one else I know of is capable. Some others certainly create beautiful backgrounds and soundscapes, but I have never experienced anyone else that conjures a presence in the same way as John Williams.
Williams has a gift for creating a general theme, character motifs, and layers of the music that don't just sing but tell you the story you're seeing. He's our Mozart or Beethoven who was around at the right time to use the vehicle of cinema to paint his pictures.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2xb-uxU6HqM&list=PL_vuAt0lzRbC-IACRMRgkgfV3mKztRAKL
I mean I'm seeing a lot of Tron legacy, but Tron Ares has a fantastic soundtrack and I'm in no rush to actually watch the film
I'd pay money for someone to deepfake jared leto out of it.
There's a game for the SNES called Act Raiser, I think it was by Quintet or Taito or Square, one of those. You play Actual God taking back the world from Probably Satan, you do this partly in a side scrolling platforming combat style, and partially in an overhead city building style. Surprisingly good soundtrack for a game as weird as it is.
Actraiser is one of my all time favorite games; I replay it every couple of years.
The combination of Sim & Platformer always kind of apealed to me because I play a variety of genres and weird combos like that are always interesting.
Actraiser 2 dropped the city building and I lost interest.
Lord of the Rings: Vol I for SNES. The game is worse than mediocre. It’s utter trash. I remain convinced they blew the budget on the soundtrack! It does a lot of things you really don’t hear that often on the SNES! Amazing!
Homeworld 1, and to a lesser extent Homeworld
CataclysmEmergencehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dTKakINXjl8&list=PLD0D2EBCAC686A04A
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L4JiPBEvAHY&list=PLBSJGuLhR_uHO9AmCmpLBxz4BgarPZpRU
Homeworld could have done so much more with its 3D premise, yeah, but man, that tutorial music is haunting!
I don't know if it's actually mediocre because I never played it, but Monty on the Run's (C64 game) main theme seems hard to live up to.
Also Yor - The Hunter from the Future (1983) has the greatest intro song ever put on film.
...YOR'S! WORLD! HE'S! THE! MAN!
Willow for the NES has some songs that will still randomly take over the ol' jukebox of the brain to this day.
Not a mediocre game but the opening track of Civilization IV, The Lord's Prayer, is magnificent. It won a Grammy.
IIRC it was the first song from a video game to do so.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJiHDmyhE1A&list=RDIJiHDmyhE1A&start_radio=1
I counter your Soweto Gospel Choir with Maytree. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hRDn4s5RCN8
Shatter. Got the OST alongisde the game from one of the early Humble Indie Bundles, spent far more time listening to that OST than playing it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MrmpK1NQ5Do&list=PL2qVxkZOvsX4EVYJo8BHKSbUfuorAmV4f
It's also Module's best work in my opinion, he peaked with that game OST.
I've been following him on Bandcamp and bought the Shatter vinyl record long ago. Haven't like any of his more recent albums 😅
This is tricky because I always find thst the best art, no matter the funding or size of a team behind it, is paired with great music. I'll try and get one for each category though.
(Spoiler tags are just to condense the comment)
Movies:
::: spoiler spoiler
Games:
::: spoiler spoiler
Shows:
The TV show Suits has a great soundtrack, but I’d argue that it’s not mediocre though.
I've been trying to get into that because I crave juicy legal stuff. Bit tired of the supergenius-assholes trope we see in Sherlock, though, and it seems like Mike is a super genius and his boss Harvey is a genius asshole. Yes I let YouTube shorts dictate what new shows I delve into ✋😔
It’s not a super-genius thing, it’s a perfect memory of thing’s he has read and the super memory trope is rarely used in the show. So you’re safe. Even when it is used, it’s somewhat explained well.
Okay, looking forward to having a new show to binge then! Thank you
Definitely binge-worthy. And Luis is amazing. I envy a first-time watcher.
A load of Amiga games I could mention - Shadow of The Beast, Shadow Of The Beast 2, The Killing Gameshow, Turrican 2, Blood Money - mostly Psygnosis. They were known for it at that point.
‘Turrican II’'s most famous music was covered by Ceephax Acid Crew in the dnb style. The guy is known for using oldschool synths and Amiga itself (apart from being Squarepusher's brother).
Agony's main theme was so fantastic it got stolen by a major metal band.
starfield's soundtrack is absolutely jaw dropping, probably zur's best work yet
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aICTLaYteF0&list=PL4Ix12X_p7j4xtzl80sClS4RF6A1jfTCO
i forgot to mention, the death metal was insanely good too
band is called Starfield
To Live and Die in LA soundtrack by Wang Chung is arguably better than the movie.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0lLQ3bNz0mI&list=PLqnnuEVGcRQz8lPQUcB4P9WLW16CIySh3
Expedition 33
What about it was mediocre?!
Didn't like how the plot hooks you in with Gustave & Lune having to deal with a world on the brink of the end, and then it becomes Verso & Maelle having to deal with family drama. Massive disappointment.
Interesting, I hadn't thought of it that way... fair!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Hv8mOIuhWg&list=PLI0_h8FqQIs3pcDzzO8AOdVLN-FqCA4sO
I feel like the entire, boring indie game Regions of Ruin was carried by its epic music.
Pretty obscure, but a 1994 PC game based on the Lawnmower Man movie called Cyberwar. Came with the OST on CDROM. It was my jam in middle school.
https://youtu.be/G6PdHUeHm5w
Turok 2 for GBC. Mediocre game, but man, the OST is a banger.
I personally love Killer7, but I won't pretend that most people would enjoy it. However the soundtrack is great.
Whale's Voyage had a banger soundtrack: https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=mWfM_tamSjU
Sonny 2017, the game wasn't as good as the two flash games but the OST was just as good (granted, it was just remixes of music from the flash games).
someone said E33 so I'm pretty sure I won't get crucified for this: Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann.
Oasis of fear, sexploitation movie, not very good, but cool scenery, the song weirdly slaps and is sung multiple times in the movie in different genres, I was shazaming the song couldn't find it and found out it was sung by the actor for the movie. https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x9g08tc
I like the version at 7:00, it starts with another one
How has nobody said 2006 RuneScape?
I've been absolutely loving the new EUV soundtrack. They absolutely did justice to EUIV (also incredible soundtracks)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OLdEOqfEouw&list=RDOLdEOqfEouw&start_radio=1
Idk about later installations, but ‘Europa Universalis II’ straight up had medieval music recreated by modern ensemble Joculatores Upsaliensis.
Games: Speder2 - Veranda (2013)
Shows: Shinpei Nakayama, Sumako Matsui - Katyusha's Song (1914)
Movies: Akira Ifukube - Godzilla (1953)
Judgment Night
Dragonslayer Doppelgänger the licenses may be in question and the story may not make any sense but the soundtrack... https://m.imdb.com/title/tt6162266/
The Legend of 1900
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4jLY_d2Iyg&list=PL69329B8A15857EEF
yugioh the movie
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7tq7dmnTh0&list=PLrDsA21C-aTUI3uTbY5OQn3x47TIuI4MO
Pearl Harbor
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=49p2kRB4Zf8&list=PLF_YkLE71wx6aw7COUHJUOOpOEOFmIWR-
Where the Water Tastes Like Wine
It's a walking simulator with a lot of talking and a mechanic I didn't understand. I couldn't get into the actual game. I had found the soundtrack first and gosh it's gorgeous. Great folk music.
I recommend the Vagrant Song, the deep south version
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1mH2r6Zct0s&list=PLeivzRdz7xcm2NargAnk6PJ3G5Ten4RYU
Specifically this song:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aTGRMpVg_-s&list=PLeivzRdz7xcm2NargAnk6PJ3G5Ten4RYU&index=3
sgu was pretty mediocre and somewhat subpar in the 1st season by scifi standards, and its previous incarnations(shows), but had great sound/music track though.
star trek enterprise , the original opening theme, not the wierd cringe singing they later replaced it with. and the other themes for the rest of the series. the singing was shoe-horned in and pretty inappropriate for the nature of the show, much like the ending of FF-X2 inappropiate cheerful singing as the "world" was getting annihilated by the unseen realm.
I really like the tunes in Pacific Rim. Mediocre acting, decent action.
Skyroads: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LPYMwtjTC0c
California Crisis
https://youtu.be/x1g3aKWosxg
A Rose in the Twilight. Pretty unexciting and quiet puzzle platformer with a main character that’s slow and hard to control and dies easily.
Then past the main credits, it pulls out a secret final boss fight with this banger.
Tron, any of them. Would hesitate to even call them mediocre though lol
quite a few modern Sonic the Hedgehog games
some of the games have been quite mid (though i still enjoy anything sonic for the most part, thankfully i dont look at things very critically and can just enjoy a piece of media) but the soundtracks rarely fail to get me in a good mood!