"Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice" (2026) - I have a strange complaint about this movie... [NO SPOILERS]

I went in not expecting much, I'd also just finished watching "Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie" (which also has a time machine element, with Symon coincidentally looking like Jay from the other movie). Immediately when the movie started, I was kind of thrown off. It got off on the wrong foot right away with me as I didn't like the uhhh... "dance number" the movie opened with. While I knew it had an all-star cast, I didn't know much else about the movie. As it went along, it proved that the pacing and story were all great - the script, the acting (of course), the general "everything" about the movie really comes together. It draws you in, keeps you guessing, and runs with the awkward premise a great distance. However... what was wrong with the first scene ended up being a recurring theme: while the soundtrack itself isn't half bad, the song selection of external music is just... off. The apex of this is "Ants Marching" by the Dave Matthews Band playing in a strip club scene, and while they time the crescendo to money falling in a very artistic and synchronized fashion - it just felt like the wrong track for the wrong moment. By the time they hit "Block Rockin' Beats" by The Chemical Brothers for an action scene, it is too little, too late. Throwing on Papa Roach's Last resort, and Pump Panel's remix of "Confusion" by New Order almost made me forget the earlier mistakes, but it also was like rubbing salt in a still open wound and served to just highlight how bad some of the earlier choices were. This is just a personal taste and opinion thing, and I can't recall the last time I had a similar complaint about a movie. It isn't something I normally even pay much attention to (despite being a DJ professionally for a few years when I was younger, including as stint as a DJ at strip clubs and managing venues). So maybe that is why the Dave Matthews Band scene felt so awkward to me. Rather than hitting close to home, it felt alien and awkward. Here is my honest take on what I think went wrong: the tracks selected were likely supposed to illicit some kind of nostalgia among a certain group or target audience - except for it is all over the map and feels like it misses the mark catastrophically in some scenes and ends up feeling incoherent. Even when you are part of the target group getting the nod during that moment (like the few that were aimed at my generation/tastes), it feels more forced or like a lucky random hit. There is a recurring theme of musical cognitive dissonance. Instead of being impactful, many of the "better" choices (imo) come off more cliché. Here is the good news: everything else about the whole film really comes together. And, like I said, the other music is generally on point when the movie needs it. My low expectations were eventually exceeded and as the storyline progressed, everything (mostly) kept getting better, including the track selection. It is awkward in the beginning, and that intro scene does the movie a huge disservice. It took some time for me to get "sold" on the movie. Even the dialogue and script at first seems "off". There was a solid 20 minutes or so where I was convinced I'd made a mistake and my low expectations were going to be justified. Despite those early missteps, everything works out and the cast coming together later to sing an Oasis song during a pivotal scene is executed perfectly. So, once again: they \*do\* know how to choose the right song for the right moment on occasion. The juxtaposition of that scene, immedatiely followed by Anamanaguchi cover of "Valerie" (originally by Steve Winwood), or the movie starting off with "Why Should I Worry?" by Billy Joel is rough for me and gives me strange feelings. Maybe I'm just not a Billy Joel fan, I don't know. Even as I type this, I realize... it is kind of ridicuous. A strange complaint. I'd say the movie is definitely worth watching if you're a fan of Vince Vaughn or James Marsden or any of the rest of the cast. I'm not a huge fan of any of them, by a long shot, but they are all wonderful in this movie. Even in the earlier scenes where I feel like the script was failing them (there is a predictable kind of repeating dialogue pattern that fortunately evaporates as everything progresses) - they don't let the lines betray them. It is a fun flick that takes a ridiculous premise and keeps it grounded and entertaining. It has plenty of twists that I'm sure you'll predict, and others that you probably wont. Is it the best movie of the year? No. Would I randomly recommend it to a stranger? Probably not. Is it good for a re-watch? Eh, probably not. But, if you watch a lot of movies and want something that hits most of the right notes and only occasionally strays off key while still being packaged and presented in an A+ fashion, you could watch a lot worse movies this year. Even "Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie" pulls off the ridiculous time-machine plot contrivance in enjoyable manner. Time machines are all the rage right now, I suppose. Neither entry really plays too heavy into the sci-fi aspect, they keep it very lighthearted and fun, only surface-level. Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice, if anything, utilizes the time machine and consequences/paradoxes in a more coherent fashion, more clearly defining the contrivance and utilizing the concept in an overall "cleaner" fashion. I wouldn't walk into either movie expecting some mind f*** or critical thinking sci-fi, obviously. The composer (Joseph Trapanese, what an awesome name), did a great job ... I think all of the OST was on point - I'd also assume maybe the choices of the external tracks, the Music Supervisor (in this case, Gabe Hilfer) would be more to blame for the differences I had with the movie. Hopefully he doesn't hunt me down and come kill me over our difference in music tastes.... Maybe they couldn't get the licenses or whatever for the songs they actually wanted (I hope). Maybe they threw darts at a board selecting some of the songs. I don't know. It is clear they were trying to please a certain audience, but maybe cast the net too wide. Maybe they asked an AI for popular songs from certain periods and just ran with whatever it said. I'm not a psychic, nor was I a fly on the wall when some of these choices were made. It didn't ruin the movie. Almost. It could have, if I didn't last the first \~20 minutes though that Billy Joel intro and the rocky start everything got off to. So, if you're like me, and you sit down and almost stand back up... trust me, just stay put, you'll be rewarded by the second act and then paid out dividends by the third. It ends up feeling like a solid "Hollywood" big-budget action comedy movie with a slight sci-fi twist/flavor that runs more as background noise for most of the duration. I give it a solid 7/10. The track selection, even if it had been "perfect" somehow to me (or I noticed it less) would not really tip the scales in either direction for me, at the end of the day. Just for reference (can't say this is 100% accurate, but, seems to be mostly so), here is a list of tracks that play through the movie, so you can decide for yourselves: Ants Marching – Dave Matthews Band (1993) Don't Look Back In Anger – Oasis (1995) Crazy – Seal (1990) Last Resort (2020) – Papa Roach (Original track from 2000) Confusion (Pump Panel Reconstruction Mix) – New Order (1995 remix, famous from Blade) Block Rockin' Beats – The Chemical Brothers (1997) Control (Juno Reactor Instrumental Mix) – Traci Lords (1995) Blow (Digital Kid Remix) – Future Funk Squad 1993 Acid Flashbacks – Adam X A Trip Into The Past – Adam X Freak Flag – DJ? Acucrack Yo Soy – Andre VII Genesis – Nordine Bekhtari & Pascal Garcin Why Should I Worry? – Billy Joel (from Oliver & Company) Valerie – Steve Winwood (Original version) Valerie – Anamanaguchi (Cover version) Morning Train (Nine To Five) – Sheena Easton Where You Lead (I Will Follow) – Carole King & Louise Goffin Cool As Ice (Everybody Get Loose) – Vanilla Ice ft. Naomi Campbell The Boys Are Back In Town – Thin Lizzy She Is Beautiful – Andrew W.K. Bela Lugosi's Dead – Bauhaus Silly Summer Love – Bill Hurd For anybody who made it this far - do you have any movies from your recollection where either the track selection felt "off" most of the time, or where the track selection was so amazing you'd recommend a movie purely based on the sound track?