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How Xscape Expanded My Netflix Queue to Include a Sports Drama with one Tell-It-All Synopsis #atozchallenge
Friday, April 27, 2012 at 10:30PM 
“As I stand here contemplating on the right thing to decide, will I take the wrong direction, all my life, where will I go? What lies ahead of me? -- And my mind is so confusing. Who would be that special one? Everyday I’m trying to find you all around, I’ve got to know, is there a place for me?”
“Who Can I Run To” by Xscape is a smooth love song that gets frequent plays when I’m listening to Pandora radio or my Xscape playlists in other music services. Although it’s not my favorite song from this 90s group, I will usually jam to it whenever it comes on because I currently do not own a copy of their “Off the Hook” CD. “Who Can I Run To” is about searching for love or being open and ready for the possibility of it -- I think.
Singer Kandi Burruss, who also stars in Bravo’s “Real Housewives of Atlanta,” was among the members of Xscape before this quartet disbanded. Since we’ve already covered love during the A to Z Challenge, in an earlier post for Letter L, let’s instead take a look at one movie that Xscape got me interested in -- “Sunset Park.”
“Sunset Park” is a sports drama about a basketball team led by an inexperienced female coach. Rhea Perlman (the lady from “Cheers”) plays the coach in this movie and I also read somewhere that Terrance Howard is in it as well. It wasn’t until writing todays ‘X’ post that I remembered wanting to see this movie when it came out and never did.
Fast forward to today and I still haven’t watched it, despite the fact that there are more movie rental options available now compared to 1996. Netflix, iTunes, Blockbuster, Redbox, Amazon VOD, YouTube rentals -- hell, even Hulu has movies, so you’d think I would have seen it by now! Nope.
You know what the real kicker is though? When “Sunset Park” was released, I was only interested in seeing it after learning about it from a music video for MC Lyte’s song “Keep on, Keepin’ On” featuring none other than, Xscape! I loved that music video, which features clips from the movie. Of all the millions of dollars that studios spend on movie trailers and all of the energy they put into doing press interviews and such, it was the soundtrack that introduced me to this particular film, about a sport that I don’t play and starring actors that weren’t on my radar much -- go figure!
As I prepare to add “Sunset Park” to my movie rental queue while reading up on it, I noticed that some websites have a funny way of describing this film.
Synopsis from IMDB:
A white school teacher takes over a talented, but undisciplined black high school basketball team and turns them into a winning team.
Well hmmm....when you put it like that, it sounds like we’ve all heard this story before. Maybe in a different setting or sport or line of work (James Belushi in “The Principle,” anyone?), but still.
Description from Amazon:
Just when things can't get any worse for the Sunset Park basketball team, they get a new coach who's short, white, totally inexperienced...and female.
Urrr Uhh...so, let’s hear it for the sexists! Go team! All jokes aside, I actually like Amazon’s description better because it actually makes me want to rent the film because it peaks the curiosity of the reader -- making you to ask questions like “Well, what went wrong with the Sunset Park basketball team in the first place” and “What is going to happen surrounding their new female leadership?” Amazon’s description tells you what the story is about without letting you know whether they’ll win or lose.
Which synopsis of “Sunset Park” would make YOU want to watch this movie?
Do YOU care whether the description of a movie sums up its entire storyline?
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