Kick-Ass as a comic book works on so many different levels as it turns a treasure trove of “What Ifs”; and answers the questions with quipping dialog, violence, and a disregard for one’s private areas. Kick-Ass as a soundtrack looks like it has a steeper hill to climb as the movie’s accompanying album is filled with great beats, but is generally hit & miss.

The two biggest tracks are aptly named “Stand Up,”; from The Prodigy, and “Kick-Ass“; from Mika vs. RedOne with the former being a great instrumental opening to the disc, and the latter hitting you over the head and keeping up the energy.

The first half of the disc generally maintains the high energy framework laid down here with Primal Scream chiming in with some old school guitar riffs in “Can’t Go Back“; and The Prodigy coming back with the catchy, danceable “Omen.”;

However, the big promotional push is for Pretty Reckless’ “Make Me Wanna Die“;. You don’t see many female rockers this side of Lacuna Coil, Flyleaf, and Halestorm so it’s great to hear a female fronted band rocking out. While its touch to say how the band’s freshman release will sound, from what is shown here, it should definitely sell some discs.

Other notable standouts are The Hit Girls’ cover of Joan Jett’s “Bad Reputation“;, and the out-of-place, but still good “Starry Eyed“; by Ellie Goulding.

Then there’s the rest of the album where the tracks aren’t necessarily bad, sans The Dickies’ “Banana Splits“;, but just don’t seem like they fit in with the rest of the album. Tracks from The Sparks, New York Dolls, and even the great Elvis Presley who shows up in the album’s closing live track just range from the obscure to the odd and ask the question, “Thematically, why is this here?”;

Granted the songs may fit in the movie like a glove, but with the album release coinciding with the film’s UK premiere and not is US premiere, its hard to wholly recommend the soundtrack until you’ve had a listen either in the movie or a sampling online.

With the first 3D re-release of Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas in 2006 Disney was so kind to release the soundtrack featuring all of the songs from the film as well as a bonus disc with cover versions of some of the most famous. The highlights being Marilyn Manson’s excellent cover of “This is Halloween“; and Fall Out Boy’s cover of “What’s This?“; Taking the collection to the next level this year sees the release of Nightmare Revisited, an entire album of cover songs with many different artists presenting new interpretations on the classics from the film.

What we’re left with is a mixed back of tracks from the excellent (Manson’s aforementioned “This is Halloween“;) to the excruciating unbearable (Sparklehorse’s cover of “Jack’s Obsession“;) and everything else falls into the permissible but forgettable category. Danny Elfman’s orchestrated opening and closing are the highlights of the album only because we’ve heard Manson’s track before, but everything that made the bonus disc two years ago so memorable has been stripped away.

Special mention is made to “Jack’s Obsession“; due to it being one of the best songs in the entire movie, however Sparklehorse’s murdering of the song is so bad after an initial listen through of the entire album the track has been permanently removed from my iPod, its really that bad. Things don’t get better in the beginning as Flyleaf’s “What’s This?“; rendition pails into comparison to Fall Out Boy.

There’s going to be a lot of debate on just how good some of these tracks are, and depending on which one’s you hold near and dear to your heart you’ll have a different opinion. The artists best suited to these covers are the band’s already provoking dark overtones such as Korn (“Kidnap the Sandy Claws“;) and Amy Lee from Evanescence (“Sally’s Song“). Other standouts include Rise Against’s rendition of “Making Christmas“; and The Polyphonic Spree’s “Town Meeting Song“; one of the longest on the album and a huge part of the film at 9 minutes long.

While thinking outside the box is admirable, messing with classic songs such as this with little regard for quality might overstep the bounds of many fans. Those looking for the originals can share in the excitement as the 2006 soundtrack is still available, but those looking for something different, might want to take a look at buying just the good songs off this album from one of the many digital outlets available.

Is there one thing that makes this album rock? Yes, and it is called track number one. To hear Marilyn Manson’s cover on “Tainted Love” is worth the price of this CD. Sure you could use Kazaa or some other P2P device to download the track, but while the Manson track is what you paid for, the rest of the CD comes along as a bonus, and a worthy one at that.

While most of the tracks have appeared else where, or have been around a while “The Metro” by System of a Down appeared on the Dracula 2000 Soundtrack, and Orgy’s rendition of “Blue Monday” appeared on their excellent Candyass disc, this is the first time all of these tracks have been together, legally.

While the Smashing Pumpkin’s cover of “Never Let Me Down Again” comes up strangely disappointing, the rest of the tracks on the disc stand out as well known 80s songs, covered and re-mastered by some of today’s hottest names in rock.

The disc never really fails to disappoint, and the 4 out of 5 [Editor’s Note: Under our old rating system] rating is only because a great many of these tracks have appeared elsewhere, are aren’t dramatically new. It seems as though the producers of this album would have rather used old recordings from these bands, than have some new ones recorded. While Mest does make the cut on the CD, I would have liked to seen some more punk bands (since we know they do the best covers) of the likes of New Found Glory, Offspring, and maybe sprinkle in some Green Day for added flavor.

All in all, superior disc, and one of the best soundtracks in years.

Orange County’s soundtrack, as mentioned in our movie review, has an elective mix from a number of high profile bands lending new music to the movie. Headlining the effort is a brand-spanking new track from fellow Californians The Offspring. Their new track “Defy You” does just that. It is an anti-establishment sediment that literally gives the finger to the man, stating that “I am alive.”

While The Offspring’s new track is leading the CD, don’t you think it will stop there. The new Foo Fighter’s track “The One” has been getting massive airplay as we await their new disc this summer.

Crazy Town is also featured on the soundtrack with their past hit (read: old) “Butterfly.” Also making an appearance is the generally poppy Cake with “Shadow Stabbing” and punksters Bad Ronald with “1st Time.” The ladder track feature some generally funny lyrics about a man’s first time.

Brian Wilson’s new track “Lay Down Burden” is a very mellow track that seems to fit nicely in the middle of the CD. While I was disappointed with the poor quality of Social Distortions live rendition of “Story of my Life,” it is always nice to hear from Social D.

Most of the tracks featured on this soundtrack are actually in the film (a rare occurrence these days) so if you see the movie and like the music, you can bet it will be on here. Over all a very good, if not average, soundtrack.

Resident Evil is one of the very first games you think about that would work great on the big screen. For the most part bits and pieces of the game, have been inspired by movies, so the jump seems more than logical. Finally, after more than four years of waiting, we are getting Resident Evil on the big screen. While I hope the movie satisfies the legacy of the games, the soundtrack left me strangely disappointed.

Let me just go on a small rant here. Why must you edit songs on soundtracks? I mean, come on, the movie is obviously rated R, meaning that no one under 17 should be in there without a parent (in the perfect world), so why butcher half-way decent songs on the soundtrack to make you feel like you are listening to a mid-day radio show? I mean radio stations around the country have the balls to say “shit,” “fu*k,” and various other words on the air, albeit, late a night when everyone from the FCC is sleeping, but why on a CD such as this one.

I think I was somewhat lenient in my score, I originally wanted to give the album a 2.0 for the fact that I don’t appreciate being sold an edited album to appease corporate suits who just want to be able to market something with the Resident Evil name to children. You market the games, that’s bad, you market the R rated movie, that’s worse, so make the CD clean and make everyone happy? No, it doesn’t work that way.

As for the material itself, the CD still manages to make up some ground, but not much. Marilyn Manson’s “Fight Song” has been remixed, although it doesn’t sound as great as the original version, Manson’s lyrics are so washed up and faint in this Slipknot remix, it is almost impossible to hear anything but the banging of drums and guitars. To their own credit, Slipknot’s original song, “My Plague (New Abuse Remix)” is a great lead off track. The rest of the CD features regurgitated songs from Static-X, Adema, and The Crystal Method. While all great songs, nothing I don’t already own.

The Mudvayne song “Dig” is remixed here also, and comes up sounding great, the song is very strong to begin with, but the remix adds to the intense feeling of the sound. Next up in the “What the Hell” category is what the hell is Method Man doing on this CD? I would just love an option to scratch that part of the disc off, the song is horrible, who even employs this “artist?”

Rather than releasing a separate score and soundtrack, Sony opted to have them both included on one record, a nice bonus to the end of the CD is the four track score produced by Marilyn Manson. If only the entire CD was composed of great stuff like this, it might be a higher score up there.

In any event, I am hoping that the movie doesn’t let me down like the soundtrack did, but if you are really a fan of the series, and have to have all the RE merchandise (like me), then pick up the CD today, it may not be the best, but it sure isn’t Glitter.