Films that go "Ouch!" #monday #meme #netflix #blockbuster

As my worst month of the year so far continues, thanks to a sad weekend and the new discovery of not one but two pieces of malfunctioning electronics equipment, I’ve decided to keep in line with the spirit of last week’s “Stick Me” theme that Dale at Smurfin the Web served up. So, this week’s topic is “When It Hurts Too Much.”

Share on your blog or in the comments section, movies that cause pain in one way or another to the main characters and/or movies that are painful to watch. Also, make sure to visit the blogs of fellow Monday Movie Meme participants. Here are my selections for the “When It Hurts Too Much” theme.
*Disclaimer: this post may contain spoiler alerts where noted.

The Bone Collector
Many unsuspecting characters had an up close and personal meeting with physical pain in this movie, which stars Denzel Washington, Angelina Jolie and Queen Latifah. In “The Bone Collector,” a cop teams up with a forensics expert to solve crimes committed by a serial killer who goes around New York city kidnapping people, only to slice and dice them up later.

The Dutchess*
Lots of emotional pain is at the center of Georgiana Spencer’s scandalous home life, where her husband, the Duke of Devonshire is sleeping with her best friend. That isn’t even the tip of the iceberg in this movie, where the Duke refuses to acknowledge their daughters and is livid with Georgiana who has not given birth to a son, for whom he can make his heir.

Georgiana finds solace in the arms of a politician named Charles but their affair is forbidden (gotta love the hypocrisy!) but the Duke. From living in an unwanted threesome at home to being forced to give up the child she had by the man who she truly loved, while still being expected to keep up appearances, Georgiana didn’t have it easy.

The Tombs
The mental anguish that the main character of this short film experiences just builds scene by scene. “The Tombs” is about a man who spends three days in New York’s central booking system for a crime that he may not have even committed.

Underworld: Rise of the Lycans*
A combination of physical and emotional pain plague the main characters of this action/fantasy movie. Their pain is the result of forbidden love between two different species, which causes an elder to go on a personal rampage. Lucien gets beaten and whipped while Sonja is forced to watch, before she is burned alive -- literally and figuratively by the very person who is supposed to protect her. As if that’s not enougg, Lucien is also forced to witness it all, bearing an unbearable burden of losing his family.

Now for the viewers point of view: here are films that while great, have been difficult for me to watch without being angry, depressed or sad....not necessarily in that order.

The Battle of Algiers
Since there is nothing pretty about war, I am aware that the violence and torture in “The Battle of Algiers” is to be expected but watching it still makes me uncomfortable. I read about this movie while doing some research on a filming technique that I want to try, and then rented it from Netflix. The film is another one of those real-life tales, which makes it all the more sad. In this movie, an Algerian revolution is in play as the people of this country fight to gain independence from the French.

Sometimes in April
Idris Elba stars in this movie about two brothers who unfortunately find themselves on opposites sides of the 1994 Rwandan Genocide. I’m glad that I didn’t dismiss “Sometimes in April” when a friend recommended that I watch it but find it to be among the most violently gruesome of films based on real life. Much like the violent acts in “The Battle of Algiers,” people do some disgusting things in “Sometimes in April.” It’s a real shame and insult to our humanity.

While it’s one of those made-for-television movies, many people who are familiar with this HBO flick believe that it provides a much better account of the tragedies that ensued during that time, than “Hotel Rwanda” starring Don Cheadle did. Having watched both films (...and I wasn’t interested in watching “Hotel Rwanda” either but my grandmother insisted that I check it out), I’m partial to the overall consensus of Elba’s film doing a better job than Cheadle’s movie, but are still just as moving and just as painful to watch. They definitely aren’t something that makes you want to pop a bowl of popcorn and get down with on a weekend night.

I Am Sam
My cousin told me that this movie, starring Sean Penn and Dakota Fanning, is so good that it will make me cry. After all, she was a grown 30-something mother who cried AND her eldest son broke down in tears during the film. Still, I didn’t believe her and had little interest in watching “I Am Sam” but low and behold -- there I was at her house one day, where she played this movie on DVD. Needless to say, yes, I did get teary but was not balling my eyes out as much as she predicted.

What are the most painful movies that YOU remember?

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"Stick Me," says the Monday Movie Meme!

It looks like February is not shaping up to be one of my best months. First, I lose all my data on my iPod last week and today (more like an hour and some change ago), I lost the actual device in a New York taxicab...at the worse time ever! Anyway, this week during the Monday Movie Meme, Dale at Smurfin’ the Web put the focus on movies that revolve around the use of needles or injections. With only about 20 minutes to spare with Internet access before I have to run out and try to find a cell phone store that sells chargers, here are my selections for films in some kind of injection mode.

Gia
Angelina Jolie plays the lead character in this made-for-television biopic about the famous model Gia Carangi who became addicted to drugs. In this film, Gia goes from using cocaine to shooting up heroine and later gets HIV from an infected needle.As to be expected, the scenes in the movie are gross and sad as the story progresses. I much prefer the beginning to maybe early middle of the movie, during her fashion shows and magazine cover days.

Ray
While the movie may be centered on music, it also does tell a story about the famed musician’s dark side, which includes his drug abuse. I recall the bathroom (or was it a bedroom or hotel room? I forget that detail) scene where one of his background singers found him prepping for his routine shoot-up of heroine (...or something).

I mean, do we really need to even mention “Requiem for a Dream” here? I think not, since it would be an obvious choice on everyone’s list. It’s the first movie that came to mind this morning, when Dale chose the needles and injections topic.

I’ve watched some drug smuggling movies but many of them involved pills such as “Bad Boys II” and “Minority Report” while other movies that I saw at least once involved cocaine use such as “New Jack City.”

Dude, Where’s My Photos, Videos and Related Media? #movies #amblogging

Welcome to the latest edition of the Monday Movie Meme, hosted by yours truly. Last week, Dale at Smurfin the Web had us discussing movies that won an Oscar for Best Picture during his time to host, which was a fun way to take notice of the 2012 awards season that is upon us.

I’m not going to lie, this week is starting off on a pretty sour note for me, as I just lost everything....I mean, EVERYTHING including media and notes with work for my job and upcoming blog posts that I planned on publishing, including four guest posts for a fellow blogger. After being on the phone with Apple for longer than expecting and being told that I’m at a loss and there is no way to get my content and media back, I have no energy nor patience to write another extensive post like the one on Rupert Grint's $50 socks that I did over the weekend. Needless to say, the topic for this week’s meme is: Lost and Found.

Share on your blog movies about people trying to retrieve something or someone that they once had. Remember to visit fellow Monday Movie Meme participants and leave a comment with your thoughts on the films covered in this topic. Here are my selections for the Lost and Found films. All of them may not represent the best in cinema but hey, the titles are what I can come up with in a short amount of time, among movies that may not have already been mentioned in a previous Monday Movie Meme week.

Overnight Delivery
Reese Witherspoon and Paul Rudd star in this romantic comedy about a guy who sends a breakup letter -- complete with a used condom and half-naked photos of him and another woman to his girlfriend when he suspects her of cheating. After learning that his suspicions were false, the guy goes on a road trip to try to stop the letter from arriving in his girlfriend’s mail but encounters some shady people and wild antics along the way. I watched this movie when it came on television many years ago and while I thought it had some humorous scenes, I’m not surprised that it was a direct-to-video release.

Blood Diamond
After being captured to work in a mining field for diamonds, man loses son to a group of rebels manned by child soldiers. He then makes a deal with a gun smuggler, risking his life to try to find and save his son from being caught up in the Sierra Leone Civil War. I watched “Blood Diamond” at my Grandmother’s house and was moved enough to add it to my DVD collection, despite the fact that she totally ruined that first-time viewing experience for me by mentioning the fate of one of the main characters, as soon as the movie started playing.

All About the Benjamins
Comedian Mike Epps, rapper Ice Cube and actress Eva Mendes star in this comedy about a bounty hunter who pairs up with a con artist to capture a group of diamond thieves. The con man is only concerned about finding a winning lottery ticket that he lost, to redeem it and get back in the good graces of his girlfriend. The only problem is -- the con artist skipped bail, so the bounty hunter is supposed to arrest him as well. These two men have to learn to work together to get the people and items that they are after.

and lastly....

Dude Where's My Car?
Two stoners named Jesse and Chester wake up with a hangover and cannot remember what they did in the hours leading up to them being at Jesse's house. After realizing that Jesse's car is missing along with their girlfriends' anniversary gifts, the two friends start retrace their steps to figure out where they parked the car.

Yes, I am fully aware that this movie is no Best Picture Oscar contender but to be fair, I was a fan of "That 70's Show" on Fox, back in the day and figured that Ashton Kutcher would be just as funny in "Dude Where's My Car" as he is on the show -- so I bought the DVD. Yes, I have it in my movie collection. No, I don't watch it and haven't played it in years, but I have a cousin who finds this movie to be quite hilarious -- and he's like 35 years of age or something like that.

So that’s it. What are some Lost and Found style movies that come to YOUR mind?

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