I decided to watch Space Cowboys last night. Great cast, but there's a scene with Tommy Lee Jones, Clint Eastwood, James Garner, and Donald Sutherland walking into NASA with Space Cowboy by *NSYNC playing. I get the tie in with the title, but having that group walking anywhere to that song just seemed absurd. That got me wondering if there are other absurd songs used elsewhere.



Couldn't find a clip of the scene but part of it is at about the one minute mark in the trailer.

That's gonna be hard to top. Wow.

Was that movie a comedy? I've never seen it, but I didn't think it was until that trailer (which makes it look terrible).

Kick-A$$ had a scene where people are getting killed left and right while the music is from a Saturday morning cartoon show. Funny as heck.

Mostly action, but it's got its share of comic relief. It's not an award winner by any means, but I like all the actors in it so it's enjoyable. Showed up as leaving soon on HBO Max.

Not a song, but the score for Ladyhawke needs to be mentioned - a medieval film w/ a score that sounds like it is from a 1984 Casio keyboard.

That Dune trailer song from last year.

Geriatric Punk said:

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Echoes97 said:

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Reservoir Dogs - Stuck In The Middle With You

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I still think that was genius. The whole super sounds of the 70s bit was gold. QT's soundtracks always add a layer to film for me.

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It was/is genius. I can't imagine that scene without that song now.
I don't think this scene is what the OP had in mind though. That was a very conscious decision by QT. I get the impression that OP meant just really bad choices given the context.

I feel like some shootout in Face/Off goes on while a kid is listening to Somewhere over the Rainbow on his headphones.

Geriatric Punk said:

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Echoes97 said:

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Reservoir Dogs - Stuck In The Middle With You

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I still think that was genius. The whole super sounds of the 70s bit was gold. QT's soundtracks always add a layer to film for me.

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Oh it totally was, and I probably misunderstood the OP's proposition. It was awesome by QT, just completely unexpected for that type of scene. Agree on his soundtracks.

Deadpool 2 used Dolly's 9 to 5 purposefully out of place - was funny but still a bit odd.
The slow jam of Take On Me in that movie was quite good.

Mr Sandman in the original Halloween's...the sweet/innocent 50s vibes juxtaposed against MM shenanigans

A lot of Zach Snyder moments come to mind, but I think the biggest is Hallelujah in the love scene of Watchmen.

SWC Ag said:

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I hate anachronistic music in a movie. A lot of 80s movies did this. Young Guns is a perfect example. Wild West movie with electric guitar and synth blasting the whole time. Ugh.

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This is how I feel about Peaky Blinders. I like the music on its own, but the early 2000s garage band music doesn't fill with a show that takes place in the 1920s.

Another for me is Prince in Batman. Another that I like on its own, but it felt like they just decided they wanted Prince and they were going to shoehorn him in.

Most of the ones that stand out to me are intentional like like just a juxtaposition of a light or pop sound in a scene of glorified violence or death.

Phil Collins Sussudio and Huey Lewis Hip to Be Square from American Psycho come to mind.

Queen's Don't Stop Me Now in Shaun of the Dead when beating the zombies to death.

We'll Meet Again at the end of Dr. Strangelove while the world is destroyed by nuclear bombs.

Orinoco Flow in the torture scene of Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.

Supposedly that song was an ad-lib during filming and they had to scramble to get the song rights.

Hopelessly Devoted to You?

The entire soundtrack of The Untouchables completely takes me out of the movie. It makes it almost unwatchable for me.

Same with Hoosiers for me. Cheesy TV movie synth background to 1950s basketball? Come on...

The end of Major League. They make the playoffs and defy all odds and the ballad Most All of You by Bill Medley comes on.

Ride of the Valkyries in Apocalypse Now.

It's out of place in that it's not what you expect in that particular setting. It's out-of-placedness did make it incredibly iconic and now it doesn't seem like an unusual choice. But Wagner opera and the Vietnam war was not an obvious combination. It's still out of place given the movie (time period, topic, and location), but it works incredibly well.

Of course as that shows Stanley Kubrick was one of the real masters of the use of that type of music as it shows 3 Kubrick films as examples.

Dr. Strangelove
Full Metal Jacket
The Shining

It may not be counterpoint music but he also defined the use of space opera music with 2001.

His influence on pretty much every major film director of the 80s and 90s and today is just amazing.

"Tears in Heaven" by Eric Clapton from the film "Rush"

In the vein of counterpoint music, this remix always stuck out as a good example of how music changes things.

West Point Aggie said:

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Mr Sandman in the original Halloween's...the sweet/innocent 50s vibes juxtaposed against MM shenanigans

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I always loved its use in H2 and H20.

Kinda different but the same.



Judge was dancing to Back in Black, but the studio didn't want that song. They thought "Raised on the Radio" was going to be the big hit from the movie.