Films that Zap your Comfort Zone #atozchallenge #Monday #movie #meme

"There's no need to compromise, or settle for another outside of my love, the thing to do when you get through, heed the message, seek the comfort of my zone -- When you need to be loved like you need to be, welcome to the comfort zone. Do whatever feels right and turns you on."

“The Comfort Zone” by Vanessa Williams continues to be one of my favorite songs to listen to ever since I was just a kid. I never paid much attention to what the song was about until writing this post. It appears that she’s offering up pleasure of some sort, whether that be in the form of a massage or extra, extra curricular activities! As we wrap up the A to Z Challenge today, nothing says comfort like the movie "Ferris Bueller's Day Off," the Sunday dinner table spread in "Soul Food" and the fun of Gloria's birthday party scene in "Waiting to Exhale."

Since most of us probably won't be taking a friend's Ferrari for an afternoon joy ride any time soon, however, you can find comfort in being able to still kick off your shoes and relax with another installment of the Monday Movie Meme.

At the moment, Dale at Smurfin’ the Web is taking a step back from hosting the Monday Movie Meme, so I’m heading this thing up each week from here on out. He’s covered many bands during the A to Z Challenge and will continue to blog his movie reviews as well as with happenings in the music world for all of your reading pleasure.

For the sake of this post, I’m flipping the script on being comfortable -- Today’s theme for the Monday Movie Meme is: Out of My Comfort Zone!

Share on your blog or in the comments section, the most disturbing movies that you’ve ever watched. These movies make viewers uncomfortable due to either their subject matter or the manner in which a subject is portrayed onscreen. Be sure to visit the blogs of other participants. Here are my selections for the Out of My Comfort Zone! Monday Movie Meme topic.

“Shortbus”
Just when I thought “Kissing on the Mouth” was a little extreme for my patience, “Shortbus” takes the cake. Many of the scenes could either make you nauseous or have you wondering “is this necessary?” To this day, I don’t understand why someone would record himself masturbating and then ingest his own semen. More importantly, what does audiences get from watching the scene? The thing is, that’s not even the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the most uncomfortable elements in “Shortbus,” for the rest is covered in my movie review at Writercize for this film. 

Strangely enough, while it’s not a movie that I would want to watch again, I do like the soundtrack as well as the editing and I find the movie to be surprisingly humorous at times. 

“Watch Out”
Based on a novel, this movie is about a guy who is so obsessed with himself that he alienates others and well, may give a whole new meaning to the term narcissistic. “Watch Out” director Steve Balderson even said himself that the story is so bizarre, it’s hard to compare to any other film. Despite its critical acclaim and favor among viewers, “Watch Out” also took some audiences so far out of their comfort zone that they got up, threw things at the screen while yelling expletives and then walked out of the movie theater.

“A Clockwork Orange”
My former store manager once lent me her “A Clockwork Orange” DVD after learning that I never heard of this movie. It’s among, if not her favorite cult films and she was sure that it would scare the daylights out of me.

Later, when I mentioned having plans to watch this movie, during a telephone conversation with my supervisor at JAW Studios, he yelled "WHAT?!!!” and told me that it’s one sick, crazy ass movie and that he wouldn’t recommend watching it at night. Well, after watching it on that borrowed DVD that one time, I now understand why they said what they said and I can also understand why the film initially received an X Rating.

“I Am a Sex Addict”
I don’t know what about “I Am a Sex Addict” is most disturbing -- the fact that women were still willing to be in a relationship with, and even marry a guy knowing that he’s still sleeping with other women, or the fact that this movie is a true story.

Still, for some reason -- maybe because some of the scenes are very funny, I would probably watch this movie again. The story does not directly follow a linear three-act structure, it bounces around -- sometimes too much, but the animated scenes in between those where he gets his fix are put together well. More tidbits are covered in my “I Am a Sex Addict” movie review.

*Honorable Mention: “Requiem for a Dream” - Just say no to drugs! I still haven’t figured out why I bought this movie on DVD -- because, I haven’t watched it again. Maybe it’s in my movie collection just in case I want to introduce it to someone who never saw it, just like my store manager introduced me to “A Clockwork Orange.” Maybe.

What movies have YOU watched that took YOU out of your comfort zone?

You Got Me with Loyal Movie Quotes #atozchallenge

“If you don’t worry about where I been or who I saw or, what club I went to with my homies, baby don’t worry, you know that you got me”

“You Got Me” by The Roots is a Grammy winning song that I’ve enjoyed listening to on many occasions. Although the hook to “You Got Me” is performed by singer Erykah Badu, this entire tune was written by R&B/ Neo Soul singer Jill Scott, who often performs with The Roots at their concerts, in place of Badu. Both The Roots and Jill Scott are from Philadelphia, PA -- where I currently am.

From my understanding, “You Got Me” is about a couple, particularly the lead performer of The Roots band and an unnamed female -- and how his traveling on the road and her schedule causes insecurities or jealously and/or other conflict in their relationship. The main point of “You Got Me,” however, is that this woman is trying to get him to understand that she is always in his corner and will not will not seek comfort or attention in the arms of another man.

So basically, this particular song by The Roots is all about loyalty, at least as far as I’m concerned with it. That also got me thinking about loyalty among friends, families, partners, lovers, co-workers, communities, etc. as portrayed in film. -- or the lack thereof.

After FINALLY watching Spike Lee’s directorial debut “She’s Gotta Have It” for the first time recently, it is nice to know that there are people out in the world who are loyal to one another -- even if those people do not include Nola Darling, her three boyfriends and her one lesbian suitor.

In honor of the principles laid out in “You Got Me,” here are some movie quotes that appear to describe loyalty among the main characters in film -- something that Nola, Jamie, Greer, Mars and Opal know nothing about (Still their disloyal behavior toward each other doesn't change the fact that "She's Gotta Have It" is a good and funny movie).

Movie Quotes that Say YOU-GOT-ME in one way or another:

"We ride together, we die together. Bad boys for life!" - Detective Mike Lowery (played by Will Smith) in "Bad Boys II"

“I made a promise, Mr Frodo. A promise. ‘Don't you leave him Samwise Gamgee.’ And I don't mean to. I don't mean to.” - Sam (played by Sean Astin), the Hobbit, in “Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring”

“I know all of the people you would hire to come after me. They like me better than you” - Danny Ocean (played by George Clooney) in “Ocean’s Thirteen”

“I need your help. I can't tell you what it is, you can never ask me about it later, and we're gonna hurt some people.” -- Doug MacRay (played by Ben Affleck) to his friend Jem in “The Town” / “Whose car are we gonna' take?” -- Jem’s (played by Jeremy Renner) response to Doug in “The Town”

“This is Maddy’s card, you call her when you get to Conakry, alright?...And don’t trust that pilot for a second. You point this at his head if he fucks around! Take your boy home.” -- Danny Archer (played by Leonardo DiCaprio) in “Blood Diamond”

Can YOU name any movie quotes showing some form of loyalty among the main characters?

What does loyalty mean to YOU?           

How Xscape Expanded My Netflix Queue to Include a Sports Drama with one Tell-It-All Synopsis #atozchallenge

“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?