The Best Original Songs Written for Movies + Movie Review: Bruised (Netflix) Trailer Park: Licorice Pizza + Red Rocket

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Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome back to movie Mike's Movie podcast, your go to source for all things movies, and I am your host Movie Mike. I'm just a guy who loves movies. So every single week I bring you this podcast and give you my opinions on movies. You don't always have to agree with them, and that's okay. And today, what I'm talking about are the best original songs written for movies, at least according to me. I also asked the question online and pulled some of the songs that you submitted to this topic, so we'll have a big list here. We'll get into a spoiler free movie review and in the trailer park, I have two indie movies I want to take a look at that are coming out in theaters this month. Lots of movie talk to get to you on this week's episode. Appreciate you being subscribed in listening every single week. You're not yet hit that followed button, hit that subscribe button where ever you're listening right now and without any further ado, let's get started. In a world where everyone and their mother has a podcast, one man stands to infiltrate the ears of listeners like never before in a movie podcast a man with so much movie knowledge he's bay seen like a walking Aim David's class from the Nationale Podcast Network Movie Movie Podcast. All right, so let's get into it, the best original songs made for movies, and let's lay some ground rules here at the top of the podcast and talk about what went into making this list. Now. I first of all, am not going to include any Disney songs. I feel like Disney songs are their own category. That's a whole different episode. So you will find no Disney songs on this list today. The other thing, they have to be, like the title says, written for the movie. It can just be a use of another popular song in a movie. They have to be written for the movie on the movie soundtrack. We're not just looking at use of songs and movies here. The other thing is no instrumentals. So you know the Star Wars name, the Jurassic Park theme, you won't. That's probably also an episode of its own. And then the final deciding factor I did in making this list was one the impact that the song had when the movie came out. How big was it? The lasting effect of the song. In some cases, maybe some of these songs are now bigger than the movie, but then you also have to consider how good the movie is. So I ranked how good the song is, how good the movie is, and how both have stood the test of time, and that is what has made it onto the top five songs on my list. I'll also list out at the end the ones you submitted the most. So let's get into this list. At number five, are going way way back to a classic and a song that I just can't deny one how good the song is, to how much it meant to the movie, and the fact that this song came out so long ago and still has an impact on popular culture. There's just such a big lasting effect of this movie and of this song. So I wanted to put a classic on this list. So at number five, I'm going with Somewhere Over the Rainbow from The Wizard of Oz. I just love the warmth of this song like you can hear it in this clip, and the song was written for the movie, which came out in ninety nine. It was sung by actress Judy Garland playing her role of Dorothy Gale in the movie. It went on to win an Academy Award for Best of the Original Song and really just became Julie Garland's original signature song. And the thing about this song at one point wasn't meant to make it into the movie. MGM executives actually wanted this song taken out of the movie because they felt it slowed down the pacing of the movie, which just goes to show you that sometimes executives have no idea what they're talking about. But luckily an associate producer on the movie set listen, it's not going to hurt the movie, and if you take this song out of the project, then I am leaving. So either the song stays or I go. So the song made it into the movie, and without a doubt, The Wizard of Oz has stood the test of time as one of the greatest movies ever made, and this is just one of the best original songs. I feel it's an undeniable track and a song that's still now makes me happy when I listen to it, just that warmth a bit, go back to that again. Now, it's not one that I would like throw on a playlist or anything, but when it comes to songs that I feel like are just a big part of a movie and just instantly recognizable, I think of this one, So this one is at number five. Moving on now to number four. I wanted to include a more modern song into this list because a lot of the time when I do this podcast, I like to talk about movies that are happening now, what's going on now, and sometimes when you focus on list like this, you think about a lot of the stuff from back in the day. But I wanted to include at least one song from the last five years that wasn't shallow, which is one you guys sitting in a lot, and I think that song is fine. A Star Is Born is a little bit overrated. It I think that song is a little bit overrated. So if you're waiting for me to include this on in this list, it's not going to make it. But I will give it an honorable mention here because it almost kind of made the modern category on this list, but I decided to give it to another movie that also came out in one of my favorite animated movies of all time, from my favorite superhero of all time, and it is Sunflowers, sung by post Malone and Swali, and the song is called Sunflower. Yeah, the Sunflower every time leaving on you. You don't make it easy. We wish I could bet it boys give me reason. So something you need to know about me. If you're not familiar with my musical taste. Post Malone is my favorite artist of all time. I've listened to his music from the first time you put out a song on SoundCloud, which is White Iverson and I'm just the biggest Post Malone fan. I've seen him in concert, and when this song came out, I remember being super excited because they went on Jimmy Fallon and played a small clip of it and announced that it was going to be in the New Spider Man movie. And it was like both of my world's combining into one my favorite artists with my favorite superhero in the movie. I was very excited to see. But not only that, I loved how instrumental this song was to the movie, from Miles Morales singing along to it being included actually in the movie. Like I think that's a big part of it too, is sometimes you know, they just find some band to write a song, and you know it's maybe thrown into the credits, but when it's actually played in the movie and adds value to what's going on, adds value to the character of you know, mild singing it in his room, like that's a big part of that movie. And then again it playing in the credits. I just love when it's more than just the song written for a movie, but it's incorporated throughout, and I feel like really fits the vibe of Spider Man into the Spider Verse, but not only my own personal love for the movie and the artist. The song itself went on to be huge. It was on the Billboard Hot one hundred for thirty three weeks, was post Malone's biggest streaming song until Like Circles came out afterward. So at number four on the list, I'm going with Sunflower from Spider Man into the Spider Verse. Yeah, the Sunflower every time leaving on you. You don't make it easy. We wish I could beat it boys, all right, Moving on now to number three, Let's go back to the nineties. In the movie, they came out in nineteen six and it's a story about a one hit wonder band in the nineteen sixties called The Wonders a k a. The o Eaters, and the song and the movie title is that thing you do, try to forget you every time? Thing Now it's talk about a song that one you listen to it and it makes you happy. That's the first thing. I just love that song even if it wasn't in that movie, But that entire movie wouldn't have worked if that song wasn't a hit. Like it's a hard thing to do to have an entire movie that's based on a song that's supposed to be a one hit wonder. It's supposed to be an instantly catchy song. But if that song is not that good doesn't meet those requirements, that entire movie wouldn't have worked. And it was written by the bass player from Fountains of Wayne, which you probably know for their song which they're also kind of a one hit wonder. Stacy's mom r I p to Adam, who died last year actually, and it was kind of a big thing again when ever he did pass away, people remember him not only from Fountains of Wayne, but for writing this song by himself for this movie. And also much like in the movie, the song went on to have some commercial success. It went on to chart on the Billboard Charts. It was also nominated for Oscar and Golden Globe back in So I love the story behind the song I love that this entire movie was carried by this song, and much like Sunflower, which also made the list, this is also a song that I would seek out and actually want to listen to if I was finding some music to stream online, Like everything about this song is my vibe. So at number three, I went with that thing you do, from that thing you do, try to get time that al right, work to the top two now, and we have to go for the big ones here, And at number two it maybe wouldn't have ranked this high if I didn't watch this movie fairly recently rewatched it. That is just to kind of get an idea of how big this movie was when it came out, and how much sometimes hate this movie gets for not being that great of a love story. There's just a lot of things surrounding this movie. But when I heard this song again in this movie, I remembered again how much it was connected to that movie when it came out. And still now, from the very first opening note of this song, you immediately know what it is. And I'm not a fan of this artist in any way, but I love this song, but I can't deny it. At number two, I'm going with my heart will go on by Celine Dion for the movie Titanic, where so think about Titanic and think about James Cameron directing this movie, a big epic love story, one of the most cinematic pieces in all of movie history. And when this movie comes out, you need a big song to go with that. And he didn't really want this song. Why because he felt it was going to be too commercial, which is ironic to me knowing that he was making probably what he knew was going to be one of the most profitable movies of all time, spending millions and millions of dollars on making this movie, and he didn't want to use this song because it felt it was too commercial. Now, the composer to this song wrote the song for the movie, and he wrote it specifically for Selene Dion. Selene Dion didn't really want to record the song, but then it was gonna go to Linda Ronstadt, who at the time was a bigger star had a couple of number one hits in the United States. They played it for her and she agreed to sing it. But then it was Selene Dion's husband, slash manager at the time, who suggested as she recorded demo for this song, and even when the composers of the song told her the significance and how big this song was going to be to the movie, she still didn't want to do it. But she sang the demo anyway, nailed it in one take, and that is actually the version that they ended up using in the movie. So not only is it such a big love song, even even if it wasn't Entitanic, this probably would have been a huge hit for but take that, combine it with the movie, Combine it with the use of the song in the movie, and then also adding the story of her actually not wanting to do the song, that would want to be one of the biggest songs from any movie. And for me, who wouldn't listen to this genre, this type of song if it wasn't for this movie, it's still invokes an emotion out of me. And when I rewatched Titanic, I kind of realized how much work went into making that movie and how it really is a true triumphant piece of cinema. Yes, a big old piece of cinema that hasn't been really done before. Given that James Cameron is also then Avatar, which is another overratted movie, I think. But back to the task at hand. Here at number two, I'm going with a big, old sappy love song, my Heart will go On from Titanic Where and before we get to the number one song, I have a bunch of honorable mentions. When I asked the question online. These are some of the answers you all submitted. A lot of people love The Greatest Showman. But the thing I found was everybody loves a different song from the Greatest Showman. I myself not the biggest fan of that movie. I thought some of the songs were okay, but I think the only song that really kind of resonated with me from that movie was a Million Dreams. But I did see a lot of you asking and saying the Greatest Showman, so honorable mention. Also, going back to the eighties, a bunch of people said the song from the Breakfast Club from The Simple Minds Don't. And then one that was very close to making the list because of how big of a hit this song was from the movie, and a lot of you agreed was Lose Yourself by eminem from eight Miles, which I almost put this song in my list. It almost made the top five, but more so for how much of an impact of that song had and how it kind of really Eminem do a whole new level and it's still like his most recognizable signature song. But honestly, about that song, it does nothing for me. And I like Eminem as a rapper, but I don't like that song. I kind of feel like when I was talking about Titanic, I feel like it's a little bit too commercial for Eminem and and eight Miles a great movie, but that song just doesn't do it for me. So it almost made the list, but not quite there. And the other song that was really close to getting into the number five spot was Errol Smith. I don't want to miss a thing from Armageddon. I remember when this movie came out. I was like maybe seven eight years old, and I thought this was the deepest song ever. I was like, someday I'll feel that way about somebody. Another one I thought almost made the list. Honorable mention here Men in Black from Will Smith Strange that you never quite know where that movies is that great song. And also if you want to go way back, this is Robinson from Simon and Garfuncle from The Graduate. And then one I almost selfishly put on this list because it's one of my favorite movies and it's not necessarily the best song ever. It's kind of a dumb part of the movie. But I almost put Ninja Wrap from Vanilla I's Wrap n from Ninja Turtles, Secret of the Use Done, Don't, Don't Do. So those are some honorable mentions here, but let's get to number one. And it's actually the song that inspired this entire episode. And if you don't know, I'm currently in Central America. I've been living here for almost a month now. And the other day we took a drive to get some coffee and this song actually came on the radio, and I thought it was weird because it was a station that was supposed to kind of be like American hits, and it was a little bit odd to me that this song was included in the playlist. But the more I thought of it, I was like, that song actually works on the radio, even though it's so tied to a movie. When I heard it, I was like, you know what, this song actually makes me feel good. And it is from Ray Parker Jr. From four And the song and the movie is Ghostbusters. Something strange. Who are you Gonna call something weird? And who Are You Gonna Call? And why I think this is the best original song from a movie A couple of reasons. One because it's so dang catchy. And when he actually wrote it, he wrote it in a few days, like from when he started writing it too, when it was finished took a few days. And he was basically inspired by watching TV late at night and he saw a commercial And what this song ended up being was almost like a commercial jingle for a movie that just really worked. It was so catchy, it was so fun. It completely sounds like an eighties song for the perfect most iconic eighties movie, I would say, And I just love the story how it was made. Ray Parker Jr. Only Had a few days to create the song. He was told it was a movie starring Bill Murray and Dan Ackroyd. It's a comedy where they play these scientists chasing ghosts, and late one night he came up with that catchy who Are You Gonna Call? And it was just such a big pop culture song in the nineteen eighties. And now, I mean I'm hearing it on the radio in Central America. I feel like every time Halloween rolls around. It's on every Halloween playlist, but I think at the core of it, it's just a good songs, something strange. Who are you gonna call? So I love a good movie theme song, I love the story behind it, and it's just a good song. So there you go. That's my list of the top original songs written for movies. If there's one you think I missed, which I feel, there's probably some Eighties movies. I could have mentioned everything from Top Gun, Dirty Dancing, foot Loose, but I chose not to mention those. That's my list. If there's something else you think I should have included or mentioned, shoot me an email movie Mike D at gmail dot com, or hit me up on Twitter and Instagram at Mike Destro That's Mike D. E E. S t r oh or find the links in this episode description. I want to get into a spoiler free movie review. Now, let's talk about the movie Bruise, which is directed by and starring Halle Berry. She plays an m m A fighter who was the biggest thing in M m A for a while and then completely fell off. A movie that looked interesting to me from the trailer, and upon watching this movie, I had a completely different opinion. But before we get into that, here's just a little bit of that trailer. You know who that is? You are the technique is lacking about five am agos, stronger, faster, younger. I'm sorry, I just don't see it. You used to be Jackie Justice. You've still got something welcome back. So what the movie is about. Halle Berry plays a character named Jackie Justice who was basically the biggest thing in UFC. She was tenan oh and then gets into this fight to where she basically crawls out of the ring, causing her to never fight again. And the movie picks up where she is working cleaning houses, has a dispute where the kid in one of the houses and basically at like the end of her law, kind of down to the dumps at a very low point. And when I first saw the trailer for this movie, I thought it pretty interesting, and I thought it was going to be a very kind of gritty fighting movie. Rise the Road to Redeption, all those kinds of things in this movie, and I was a little bit let down. Now, I love a good fighting movie. I love a good racks richest story, and I would have to say, when it comes to fighting movies. When it comes to movies like this, this was not really the movie I was looking for. And it's also kind of halle berryes a return for her in a way, and also her directing this movie. There's a lot behind it. And what I didn't really love about the movie is it never really felt authentic to me. I thought the dialogue was very cliche, and everything about it felt very superficial and just very like, Okay, everything is kind of falling into place, and this is happening. And when it came to the acting, you know, halle Berry is the biggest star in this movie, I don't feel like she was at her top level of acting and it kind of took me out of the movie. And then she has a supporting cast that I felt like didn't really add much to her. It didn't really add much to the entire movie. So just halle Berry alone, I don't think she was comfortable enough in this role. It almost felt like all the dialogue was written on the script and it was never really brought to life. I just felt like I was watching dialogue and it felt a little bit superficial to me, which I was surprised by, because when you start this movie. It starts out very gritty, very rough. There's a fight scene at the very beginning that's very brutal and you know, details and gruesome that I thought the entire movie was kind of going to focus back on that and have that kind of grit, have that kind of edge that I was looking for in this movie, and it just felt very generic. Now, there were some emotional moments in this movie, and I think where this story kind of adds a little bit more to your typical fighting movie is she but what you find out in this movie that makes a little bit different than your normal average movie when it comes to just a fighting movie. She finds out that the son she had and walked out on six years ago has lost his father and shows up on her doorstep at the time where she's trying to get her fighting career back on track, and it kind of, you know, disrails her entire plan. She's now having to take care of her son but also train while fighting, and she doesn't have a whole lot of money, so she's struggling there. She's an abusive relationship, there's all these things going on that seemed very emotional on paper, but I never really felt that, and not only did I not really feel that emotion and feel those kind of struggles, it didn't really explain or have any kind of like effect of like, Okay, this is a hard moment, this is how she gets out of it. Nothing is really addressed in the movie. They just kind of keep the story moving along without addressing the struggles in her life, which I thought was a little bit disappointing. You have a character here who's going through some really tough things in their life, and they're trying to depict this in the story, but it never really gets there and you never really get invested in it. And when it comes to the emotional moments in this movie, I did feel him a little bit, but it was only because of this kid and he had to go through something very traumatic, and the entire movie, the kid doesn't speak, and it's him having to kind of bond with you know, this person now taking care of him, halle Berry, his mom, who he doesn't really know it all, and she has no support system and she's you know, just training, trying to be this fighter. But I just felt like all the plot lines, it all happened a little bit too conveniently. The acting wasn't there for me, And just by the trailer alone, you think, man, how could this movie be bad? But watching it, I just was never emotionally invested in it. The story was nothing new. It felt a little bit too Hollywood, like they just cleaned this movie up to kind of hit all the marks, to make all the right things without really getting us as viewers invested into this. So if I had to rate this movie, it was nowhere near one of my favorite halle Berry movies, nowhere near one of the best movies I've seen this year. Also not the worst. Some of the fighting parts were entertaining. I think my favorite character was their son in the movie. I actually felt for him and some scenes that I felt a little bit of power to them. But overall, the story just wasn't doing it for me. And for a movie that's over two hours long, I felt there was a lot of wasted space. So if I had to rate Bruised on Netflix, I would give it two and a half out of five octagons. Unless halle Berry is your favorite actress or you're super into UFC and m M A, I don't think this is the movie for you. Probably a lot of other things you can watch on Netflix instead, So when it comes to Bruised two point five out of five octagons. And now it's time for the part of the podcast where we take a look at movie trailers coming to theaters very soon. I'll break them down, let you know what I think and why you should or shouldn't see these movies. Let's get into it. It's time to head down the movie La Paul. So today we're looking at a couple of indie movies that I'm excited about. I did this whole post on my Twitter about movies come out in December, which there's a lot of them, and I feel like I've covered almost all the trailers of movies coming out in December, from Spider Man, Don't Look Up, being The Ricardo's, the Matrix four. And there are a couple of indie movies that I wanted to include. And the first one up is called Liquorice Pizza. It stars a Lana high Um, who is from the rock band high Um, which you may be familiar with their song Want You Back. So this is her making her acting debut, which I thought was pretty cool. And it's a movie set in the nineties seventies in Los Angeles and what I like about this movie it kind of feels like a modern take on the seventies to where you know, the movie set in the seventies, it looks like the seventies, but it's not the main thing about the movie. It just seems like a pretty cool coming of age story that just happens to take place in the seventies without all the same stereotypes. So I'll get into more about what this movie is about and why I'm excited for it, but first let's take a listen to the trailer. Yeah, do you know who my girlfriend is? Webishi send barbera stray sand Sam Sand. You like sands, like the ocean, like Pubisize sand. No stray sand sand Our Rhodes took us here. They're not my corrector do you really want to see my boobs? See tomorrow? So, not only do you have a Lana high On making her acting debut, you also have Sean Penn in this movie. At the very start of that trailer, you heard Bradley Cooper. So what I love about it it's an indie movie with these big actors kind of taking on a smaller role, and it's from director Paul Thomas Anderson, who also did movies like The Master, Punch, Drug Love, Boogie Nights, and it's his first movie in four years. And what the movie is about. There's this fifteen year old boy in the movie played by Cooper Hoffman who meets a Lana Hyams character in the movie, and she is ten years older than him. So it's a story about them running around Los Angeles and the seventies and falling in love in the San Fernando Valley. So it's an interesting plot. I love the look at this movie. I love the feel of the trailer. I'm really into them casting just people that look like everyday normal people, you know, given that Sean Penn and Bradley Cooper in the movie, but it feels like a realistic cast. I like seeing normal people in movies. The soundtrack also sounds legit, just from hearing a little bit in that trailer. I love a good coming of age movie, and I love movies set in Los Angeles, especially in the seventies. I'm also a fan of the band High Um, so I think that adds another level of me wanting to see this movie. And the other two sisters from the band and their actual parents have a role in this movie, so I'm hopeful this will be a pretty good comedy. There was a part of the trailer that actually made me laugh out loud, so I have some hopes there. Bradley Cooper looks ridiculous in this, so I hope that would be funny. And that's intellect theaters now, but it will release widely on December twenty on Christmas, so I'll definitely be catching that over the hall day break. Next up in the trailer park is another indie movie called Red Rocket, and it's from A four, which puts out a bunch of great independent movies. If you're a fan of movies like Ladybird, Midsummer Uncut, Gems, Eighth Grade, Minari, The Disaster Artists, those are all A twenty four movies, so they already have kind of an instant fan base building to people who watch their movies, myself included. I'm not a total fanboy, but I'll definitely give a movie a chance if it's a movie like right out of the Gate, and this one seems pretty interesting to me. It stars Simon Rex. You would probably know from Scary Movie three and four he played the brother in that he plays a character named Mikey, who was a watched up adult film star, goes back to his small hometown in Texas and no one there really gives a crap about him. And here's just a little bit of the trailer from Red Rocket. We said, you're never going to step up front in Texas to gain I know this is unexpected to use unexpected. If your last charm it's over seven teen years ago, that's quite a gap. Well, you know, I've worked almost every day for the last seventeen years, and I moved back in with my wife last week. Look, I'm gonna be straight with you. I'm an adult film actor. Excuse me, I'm doing this tonight. You're probably gonna start so at the end of the trailer right there. It's funny. They did that thing again. They had a slowed down pop song. This time it was Bye Bye Bye from n Sync, which actually one of the biggest expenses for this movie was securing the rights of the song because all five members of in Sync had to approve its use, and they originally didn't put that into the original budget. They made this whole movie for only a million bucks, which is not bad. And it was also made during the pandemic back in October, and it was all shot in Texas and the entire crew only had ten people on it. They didn't rehearse for this movie, and they used a lot of non actors, which I thought was very interesting and you can kind of tell from watching the trailer is it looks just like normal, everyday people who aren't really trying to be actors. And I really like it when directors do that because I think it adds a very high level of authenticity, especially when you're doing a movie about a small town in Texas, which I am from Texas. I know these small towns in Texas. You can't really cast people who are trained actors to play that specific role. I know people like the Coen Brothers who when they go do movies, they hire locals for that same reason, to get the feeling of the town they're filming. In movies like No Country for Old Men, they hired locals to play some of those smaller parts in the movie, and it does add that layer of authenticity. So I love that this movie also incorporated that it's supposed to be this dark, funny, kind of human portrait of the quote unquote American dream Hustler lifestyle and it's kind of cool to see Simon Rex in a movie like this. And that movie actually comes out this week if you're listening on release date to this podcast Friday, December ten, So I will be checking out that movie soon and that will wrap it up here for the trailer park. This makes a dis pore bar. That'll do it for this week's episode. Well before I go, every single week, I give a shout out to one of you guys who listen and send me a tweet at Mike de Stro, send me a d M on Instagram, or write me an email movie Mike d at gmail dot com. And actually what I was reposting on my Instagram at the start of last week was I love it when you take a picture of like your car dashboard if you're listening like on Apple car Play or just like your phone. I love the screenshots at the dashboard. And I just asked people where you're listening from. So I have two Kansas shoutouts to give. One from Lane listening in Mulvane, Kansas and also to Leah listening in Wichita, Kansas. There was a Kansas connection there, so double shout out there and then I also want to shout out to everybody who posted your Spotify wrapped last week into where this podcast was included in your top five. That really meant a lot to me that you'd spend a good chunk of your listening time listening to this podcast. I've really been able to feel the love from everybody listening to the podcast this year and seeing that they made my day. So appreciate everybody who tagged me in your Instagram story if I was in your top five, your top three. A special shout out to Matt what was your top podcast that you listen to this year? Over minutes of this podcast is what you listen to. So that's a lot of movie reviews. That's a lot of me going on and on with my dumb opinions on movie So appreciate that. Appreciate everybody for listening to this podcast. Next week, since it is December, I'm talking about Christmas movies, I will give my mount rushmore of Christmas movies. I'm working on that list now. I'll say right now, I'm probably gonna make a lot of people mad on that list. And then the week after that will be Spider Man No Way Home Week and I've also been rewatching every single Spider Man movie that's ever come out. At the moment, I'm about to start The Amazing Spider Man Too, and I'm moving on to the Tom Holland movie. So I'm gonna give my new reranked list of every single Spider Man movie and then a review of Spider Man No Way Home. So all that to look forward to coming up on the podcast. But until next time Later m.