Saturday Soundtrack Selection #19: Over the Top

Over The Top
Various Artists
(1990)

Oh man, where to begin on this soundtrack? Kenny Loggins, Giorgio Moroder, Frank Stalone? This album " is like a switch, ya kno' ", every time I hear it I want to set up a weight set in my car and pump iron with one arm so I can topple titans of arm wrestling. Also? Best movie poster ever. While not exactly a score, this soundtrack gets me all kinds of pumped. Okay, well maybe only two tracks do, but they are enough to excuse every laughable and terrible part of this film. So with that said, please enjoy the following two tracks. Put them on your mp3 player and you'll have no excuse to start that work out program you've been putting off since new years.

Download - "The Fight" by Giorgio Moroder
-and-
Download - "Over the Top" by Sammy Hagar

Saturday Score Selection #18: Miracle Mile (1988)

Miracle Mile (1988)
Music By
Tangerine Dream
Let me first start by saying...Steve De Jarnatt, get your head out of your ass and back in the sci-fi creative baddassery that you're so freaking good at. This film was one of the two films that De Jarnatt directed (the other being Cherry 2000) before plunging into a career of television that started out awesome, and now resides in episodes of Lizzie McGuire and Flight 29 Down. How can you go from working on two of my favorite (albeit short lived) TV series (Kindred: The Embraced, and American Gothic) and then end up at Lizzie McGuire? ::sigh:: I suppose that's beside the point. THIS film is about a guy that finds out that the world is about to consumed by a nuclear holocaust in a little over an hour...commence film. It stars Anthony Edwards, aka Gilbert from Revenge of the Nerds and Goose from Top Gun, and features a score done by the wonderful Tangerine Dream. Always a pleasure to listen to, Tangerine Dream delivers another melodic and atmospheric score that has all the 80's snyth slap bass you love with the pleasingly droning melodies that make them so great. Capable of being soothing and tense all at the same time, I'd say it wraps up an end of the world scenario nicely. I leave you with two of my favorites from this score. Enjoy!

Download "All of a Dither" by Tangerine Dream
-and-
Download "Running Out Of Time" by Tangerine Dream

Saturday Score Selection #17: Subway (1985)

Subway (1985)
music by:
Eric Serra

Back in the day when Luc Besson was but a fledgling director and Christopher Lambert still claimed to be French, there was a little film called "Subway". This strange film centered around a small group of underground subway dwellers and a suave safe cracker (Lambert) who falls in love with the gal he just robbed. Zip to the end where Lambert's dream is to have a rock group and get married. The journey is oddly worth it... in the company of friends and some alcoholic beverages. Plus there is a guy that always wears roller skates! Film criticisms aside though, this was yet another early step in the solidification of Luc Besson's and Eric Serra's partnership in doing many many films together. I'm a big fan of Serra's ability to always sound dated, but in a timeless way. In this score he uses the fun 80's sythns, tastefully tacky saxaphone, and the occasional squealy guitar riff. I leave you with two of my favorites. Enjoy!

Download "Speedway" by Eric Serra
-and-
Download "Masquerade" by Eric Serra

Charleton Heston's cold dead hands...

Okay, probably not the most tasteful of headlines, but it's true. Anyone that ever opposed the NRA can finally pry the gun out of his cold dead hands, because he finally kicked the bucket today at age 84 after a battle with Alzheimer's. I suppose chiseled good looks and a big gun can't stop Alzheimer's either. Will we ever find a cure? Okay, so they didn't say what he died from, but he's had a case of the where am I's and who are you's for a while now.

Heston was best known as being a stone cold bad ass in tons of projects from the 40's to up until just a few years back. He also took charge of the NRA and ushered in a whole new world of crazy gun toting flag waving hub-a-jub. Some of my favorite Heston joints?
The Naked Jungle, A Touch of Evil, Planet of the Apes, The Omega Man, Soylent Green, and Almost an Angel. Okay so Almost an Angel was a Paul Hogan joint, but Heston was in it for a moment damnit. Plus Paul Hogan deserves to be on any list of anything.

Well Mr. Heston. Thanks for everything...the good, the bad, and the crazy. In fact, especially for the crazy, cause those were my favorite parts. I hope you are guarding those 10 commandments up there somewhere with a giant pistol and a low cut shirt, cause there isn't anyone more qualified.

And for all those people that say you're nuts? Well, it's true, but I don't care...and Damn them, Damn them all to hell!

The Pen is Mightier Than the Cancer.

Well it looks like our old pal Roger Ebert is back in the cinema saddle to churn out more reviews to movies you should go make up your own damned mind about. I've always had a slight beef with people who make their living off telling other people what is good or not. Especially when it comes to movies. Sure, I'm a critic, but go and see it yourself. Anyway, Ebert, despite several bouts with cancer in his throat, is grabbing his pen and churning out more reviews for us to read in the papers. Good for him I say! It's nice to see people continuing to do what they love and not let something silly like having your neck cut open and evil bio-goop blasted out stand in the way.

However, I can't help but wonder if throat cancer was nature's way of saying "Shut the hell up man. We killed your partner and you're next if you don't watch it."