Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion The Water Cooler What bad movie sounded really good to you?

I was home alone tonight, which meant I could break out any movie that I wanted to and play it a little louder than when my family is around (not reference level or anything, but a little louder)....

So tonight I decided on 'xXx: Return of Xander Cage'

The movie was just "ok" in my book, but the sound was really cool. Lots of LFE when needed that you could feel, and a pumping soundtrack through most of the movie. The Atmos effects really put you into the middle of the action for sure.

So the movie sounded actually quite excellent, even if the movie was a bit cheesy for sure.

What about all of you? What kind of "stinker" movie have you watched that sounded really good?

Cool thread idea. I have found myself sitting through garbage movies just to hear certain scenes other people talk about online. Guilty pleasures...

A terrible movie with great LFE is Pacific Rim. Its a standout in your category maybe. Incredible sound for an incredibly hokey movie.

Depending on who you talk to, the new Mad Max is right up there. I use the first five minutes to demo the room for newbies sometimes, great color saturation and enveloping sound, then quickly turn it off. Lol.

Oh yeah! Almost forgot. Doctor Strange. Mediocre movie. Insane audio scene with Dormammu near the end.... Hottest LFE I've yet to experience in a soundtrack.

I love bad movies with excellent soundtracks. Two stand-outs come to mind:

1) Drive - movie is slow and mediocre but the soundtrack is simply amazing. Kavinsky and Sonic Youth tracks really set a mood!

2) Highlander - acting is atrocious but possibly the best soundtrack every recorded. Unfortunately, today's Queen is like a modern battery, 0% Mercury :-(

But for surround sound bliss smiles, Netflix's "Spectral" was pretty cool and I love bad martial arts movies... House of Flying Daggers has really cool scenes for surround sound systems.

Bingo. I literally forced myself to watch this entire movie. Absolutely terrible but great movie to show-off the quality of a system.

Great thread idea Nick!

Watched Arrival with the fam a few weeks ago. Usual family movie level volumes, so it was loud but not crazy loud - the LFE was pressurizing my room way more than usual in certain scenes and it was quite prolonged, not short bursts. Otherwise sound was good as I recall - although I was stuck with regular Dolby/DTS and did not have the hi res track available - dang download/streaming services!

I love Drive as a movie, except for Ron Perlman. Mad Max: Fury Road I liked a lot, though it's definitely about the spectacle and imagination, not really being invested in the characters. I would agree that they both have phenomenal audio.

And I thought Doctor Strange was fun, but I haven't watched it at home yet. I should do that this weekend.

Pacific Rim. Yeah, I wanted that movie to be a lot better than it was. My brother-in-law loved it, but it was too cheesy for me without offering any interesting angles on characters/ideas.

If you want mediocre movies with good audio, there are plenty of animated movies to fit the bill.

I will have to pick up Drive.

Thinking of car action movies, 2008's Death Race with Jason Statham sounded really good. A stinker too! But a fun one. Frankenstein!

The great wall sounded pretty good in parts. Terrible movie.

I cant agree with the AVS review of 100/100/100. There are dialogue sequences where there is definite audible distortion during pauses between words and some choices the sound designer made were iffy to say the least. Bass while everything. Suprised they didnt have lfe while the hero chewed food. I often wonder if the guys doing the reviews on "reference" systems are really up to snuff..... I can think of much better audio in recent movies that didnt score as high.

I dont think Ralph Potts' room is worthy of disseminating a "whats best" rating on this stuff. I should find a few key scenes where the dialogue is borked. Betcha Nick can hear it too in his space,

The accountant on bluray has short and dynamic LFE bursts to go along with some cool sniper rifle scenes and machine gun fire. As per the movie itself, worth watching, but meh.

This flick is a good one to see how well your subs and mains are integrated and if your subs are quick and concussive or slow and farty. The .50cal sniper rifle blasts rippled my room. Super fun. Phase align those subs people!

I thought that was a really good movie (The Accontant) , but then again i am a bit older than you . I come from an entirely different generation, we were easily entertained by a YOYO .