AC/DC remain reluctant to anthologize their music in anything resembling a greatest-hits collection, but they’re perfectly willing to repackage those old tunes as soundtracks, whether it’s in the form of
Who Made Who for Stephen King’s sleazo exploitation Maximum Overdrive or in the mega-blockbuster Iron Man 2.
Who Made Who had an appealing, low-rent quality but
Iron Man 2 is jacked up and juiced up, with all the airbrushed abs disguising what is a pretty anemic collection of oft-played
AC/DC staples. A bunch of biggies are here -- “Back in Black,” “If You Want Blood (You've Got It),” “Let There Be Rock,” “Highway to Hell,” “T.N.T.” -- but just as many are missing, replaced by aggro album tracks. Macho is the name of the game here, with all the band’s cheerfully dirty ditties -- “Big Balls,” “Whole Lotta Rosie,” “You Shook Me All Night Long,” etc. -- being kept by the wayside, which does make sense for a soundtrack for a film that favors explosions over
Scarlett Johansson in form-fitting leather. And so be it -- this is good guts-and-guitar music, its only flaw being that it plays it totally safe…unless you stop to consider that it might be a bit of a risk to pitch a collection of 30-year-old music to the teenage audience of Iron Man 2. [The soundtrack also got a vinyl release in 2010.] ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine