Good Movie, Great Soundtrack

There are many things I could choose to do with my free time in Korea:

I could read classic, world literature, write a novel, become fluent in Korean, take steroids/lift at the gym and come back to the U.S. breaking skulls, learn how to use chopsticks correctly, cook a real, filling meal or learn how to play the tuba.

But instead, I choose to read once in a while and, most of the time, watch endless hours of American movies online. Thank you OV-Guide.

I've watched classics like "Almost Famous," "American Beauty" and "The Never Ending Story."

I've also caught up on popular films I'd told people I'd seen to carry-on with a conversation and avoid explanations why I hadn't seen them. "Pulp Fiction," "The Usual Suspects," and "Being John Malchovich."

But what I love more than anything are great movies with even better soundtracks. "The Shawshank Redemption" is a prime example of a film with an amazing soundtrack.

The sharp rises and falls of Thomas Newman's orchestra flow perfectly with Morgan Freeman's poetic narrations throughout Redemption. Can there be hope? Should there be hope? The right soundtrack can sometimes make an entire movie for me. Here are a few recent examples I came across:

Groove Armada- Hands of Time (Collateral)

Awesome song to listen to at night. It's played in the movie when Jamie Foxx's character is driving Jada-Pinkett Smith's character along the LA Freeway at night. Most people I talk to hate LA. It's trash. It's so polluted. It smells like a porta-potty in a sewage dump.

But when you watch this scene in the movie, with Groove Armada in the background and Michael Mann's creative outlining of a warm, tempting LA night, the city looks magical.

La Vie en Rose- Louis Armstrong (Wall-E)

Doesn't seem like a good song for a Pixar-animated film about a robot? It's not good. It is perfect. The song is so simple and innocent, just like Wall-E's love for his foreign robot. Listening to him wheeling around to this slow, soft melody really captured the simplicity and uniqueness with which this film was made.

This song has also turned me on to listening to more Jazz music. DLin' a lot of Louie Armstrong.

Also: Other soundtracks done by Thomas Newman- (American Beauty, Road to Perdition, Most Sam Mendes movies)

Beauty: