The music video promoting a blockbuster movie is a dying art. The 90s was full of this type of thing: big name performers contributing a song to a movie's soundtrack and filming a video to plug it. The song wouldn't necessarily feature in the movie (other than during the end credits) but there is a growing nostalgia for this marriage between musical artists and movie marketing.

Tuesday, April 5, 2011

Bryan Adams, Rod Stewart and Sting: All for Love - The Three Musketeers (1993)



Largely forgotten these days, 1993's The Three Musketeers seemed like an attempt to replicate the success of 1991's Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. Both were swashbuckling historical adventure movies with big casts, music by Michael Kamen (and in fact, both starred Michael Wincott as a wickedly cool evil henchman). And of course, both featured Bryan Adams on the soundtrack.

'All for Love' sung by three musketeers of music: Adams, Stewart and Sting, is a quintessential piece of 90's movie music cheese. Oddly enough the music video did not contain any clips from the film, but it's a pretty good video nonetheless.

Saturday, March 26, 2011

Coolio: Gangsta's Paradise - Dangerous Minds (1995)



Saw this movie on my very first date back in '95. The tulmultuous lives of these tough LA kids was a world away from ours, but the Coolio song was incredibly popular and is probably the only rap song to which I know the lyrics.


Saturday, March 19, 2011

Bryan Adams: Everything I Do (I Do it For You) - Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves (1991)



As well as boasting one of the greatest movie scores of all time (in my humble opinion) thanks to the musical genius of Michael Kamen, the 1991 reimagining of the Robin Hood legend starring Kevin Costner also features one of the most popular movie songs of all time. Bryan Adams was top of the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 for seven weeks and was number one in Britain for sixteen. It was also nominated for an academy award for best original song.

The movie itself is a personal favourite of mine. The trading of the bright green woods and the tights and feathered caps for a more mossy, gritty setting that actually made a fair stab at historical accuracy was long overdue. Sure, Costner's Robin is about as English as baseball and hotdogs, but the film has aged remarkably well. Hard to believe that it is 20 years old this year.

Friday, March 11, 2011

Elton John: Circle of Life - The Lion King (1994)



Remember when Disney was famous for its sweeping animated epics rather than tween-TV? The 90s was really the final decade for this type of thing, and the Mouse House was really on top form with movies like Beauty and the Beast (1991), Aladdin (1992), and of course, The Lion King.

Now we have Pixar of course, but most Pixar movies seem to have a sci-fi setting or are at least set in the modern world. While that's all fine, I kind of miss the way that the old Disney would take some fairytale or literary classic and really make it their own.



Wednesday, March 9, 2011

U2: Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me - Batman Forever (1995 )



For many, this is where the Batman franchise fell apart. It went from the Gothic-noir stylization of Tim Burton's first two to the bloated, campy and neon-lit world of Joel Schumacher.

Personally I can enjoy the Schumacher Batmans. He knew he was making a comic book movie and so he really set out to make a comic book movie. Despite being more remeniscent of the 60s TV series than the darker comic books that fans in the 80s and 90s were used to, this daft, campy bit of colouful fun was enormous back in 1995. And check out that cast!