Children's Movie Review: INSIDE OUT (2015) C

The critics and viewers just loved this movie (as reported by Rotten Tomatoes).  PIXAR has done some fine work . . . Toy Story, Finding Nemo . . .but this one, as far as I was concerned, was a dud.  I have no idea who the script was designed to attract. Young preteens?, psychologists?.  I just didn't get it.

It tried to define the brain and the emotions of a young girl but I thought it fell flat on it's face.  Here is the story.

Growing up can be a bumpy road, and it's no exception for Riley, who is uprooted from her Midwest life when her father starts a new job in San Francisco. In this animated film, Riley is guided by animated characters that depict her emotions - Joy , Fear, Anger, Disgust  and Sadness . These emotions live in Headquarters, the control center inside Riley's mind, where they help advise her through everyday life. As Riley and her emotions struggle to adjust to a new life in San Francisco, turmoil ensues in Headquarters. Although Joy, Riley's main and most important emotion, tries to keep things positive, the emotions conflict on how best to navigate a new city, house and school. 

From another Reviewer:  I have to say I am not the target audience for this at all, so my review should probably be taken with a grain of salt if you like kids movies. I personally can't stand them and find them cloying and irritating. This was no exception. Goofball island? Family island? Oh please...
(Needless to say, I watched under protest).
It looks great and I could handle the disgust character. That's probably the best I can say for it.

Movie Review: AMEN (2002) AA

Very special movie about an EXTREMELY controversial Issue. It raises questions about the Catholic Church's failure to speak out against the Holocaust even though they knew exactly what was happening. I gave it an AA rating mainly because of the seriousness of the issues discussed.  The story, taken from actual events, is based on the 1963 play "The Deputy" by Rolf Hochhuth.

By the way, the British . . . Churchill, the Americans . . . Roosevelt, and US State Department plus the press, such as the NY Times . . . did very little to save the Jews in Europe from destruction by either military action or through the media. 
Edited From Promotional Material:
In the movie two systems are engaged in a monumental struggle: the Natzi killing machine versus an almost non-existent Vatican and Allied diplomacy effort to diminish the killing.

In the movie, two men are struggling from the inside: On one side, Kurt Gerstein, a real-life chemist and SS officer who supplies the death camps with zyklon B. He tirelessly denounces the genocide against the Jews and attempts to alert the Allies as well as the Pope, German people and their churches of their murderous policy. Kurt does this at his own risk, and at the risk his family's welfare and safety. 
 On the other side is Ricardo Fontana, a young Jesuit, a fictitious character who represents all the priests who were determined to struggle against Nazi savagery, many of them paying for their courage with their lives.  Countless priests, some known, others anonymous, were simply not content to live with the silence of their church's hierarchy regarding the Natzi killing machine.

What the film does best, is point out the moral deficiencies of both the church and the political leaders to do anything to halt the Holocaust. It shows with certainty that both Pius XII and the American's both knew the Holocaust was taking place.. The Pope feared the Communists more than he did Hitler's regime, and his prayers without actions seemed to make him out to be the ultimate religious hypocrite. The movie brings nothing new to the table about the Holocaust, but puts another nail down in the argument that the world could have acted but didn't because of indifference. It is sad to say that the reason so many died during the Holocaust is because as the film claims, there were so few who tried to do anything. The lessons are there for both the Church and America to learn something about themselves that still hasn't changed. The church is still in denial about its covering up of pedophile priests and America continues it's own form of empire building that conveniently ignores human rights whenever it wants to. 

From Wikipedia:
The Deputy,  is a controversial 1963 play by Rolf Hochhuth  which portrayed Pope Pius XII as having failed to take action or speak out against the Holocaust. It has been translated into more than twenty languages.The play's implicit censure of a venerable controversial  pope has led to numerous counterattacks, of which one of the latest is the 2007 allegation that Hochhuth was the dupe of a KGB disinformation campaign . The Encyclopedia Britannica  assesses the play as "a drama that presented a critical, unhistorical picture of Pius XII"^[ and Hochhuth's depiction of the pope having been indifferent to the Natzi genocide as "lacking credible substantiation".

Foreign Movie Review : FAUDA (2015- ) AAA+

Netfix Original Streaming;

Subtitles: Israeli, 12 episodes

"Fauda" the movie series (Arabic for 'Chaos') depicts the (most horrible aspects) of the two-sided story of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The quote another person who reviewed this painfully difficult to watch series, it is a "Gripping drama so real that it hurts".  It definitely SHOULD NOT BE WATCHED FOR THE WEAK AT HEART.  Unending violence a hatred.  I only hope that the situation in the real Israel is a lot less violent and intense than shown in this series.  However, The amazing thing is that past leaders of the Israeli 'mista'ar'vim' have said that the reality is even more astounding than that which is portrayed in this series. If so, it boggles the mind . As an aside I'm not sure a follow up series was created.

Purchased and broadcast by Netflix, this is the best series to come from Israel TV film-makers, who are rapidly becoming masters of the genre --and all this on strictly limited budgets.

These Comments Are Excerpts From Other Reviewers:
Doron, a commander of undercover Israeli unit, the Israeli Special Forces, operating inside Palestinian territories, and his team, are hunting down Hamas terrorist Abu-Ahmed. On the other side of the fence, the life of Abu-Ahmed and his family, who has thus far murdered 143 Israelis, will never accept the State of Israel, and will continue Jihad for as long as it takes.

Why is Fauda different? Well, for a start, there is the fact that it reeks of authenticity about the cat and mouse tactics Israel is forced to employ when hunting down highly motivated Palestinian terrorists. This drama has everything. It is played out in Arabic and Hebrew by superb actors who have bilingual command of the languages.

It is never condescending to the Arabs, so even the most fervent of Palestinian supporters will find it hard to find bias. The eternal struggle is seen from both sides and does not moralize. Love and betrayal are exposed, not only between human beings but also between ideologies. This, indeed, is a fight to the death.

The Israeli Arab actors, too, deserve credit for portraying their characters with such humanity. Betrayal is an integral part of Arab society in the West Bank (and Gaza for that matter). Israel would not have been able to succeed as often as it has if not for the myriad informants and stool pigeons willing to 'shop' the terrorists among them, whether for money or for political reasons. Everyone, it seems, has his price. The enmity between Fatah, which runs the West Bank, and Hamas, dominant in Gaza, is palpable. Israel uses this to its advantage.

The reason why this series must be seen on TV throughout the Western world, and even further afield, is that it shows in depth how Israel combats terrorism. All we usually see on the news channels are the results of hits via video from drones and guided missiles. We never see the story behind the assassination of terrorists.

The suspense of the story reminded me that life under constant threat of terrorism is a brutal and hardening existence. I was on edge, despite knowing what the eventual outcomes were likely to be. The lesson I took from this story was how sad it is that two sets of human beings with amazing fortitude and commitment cannot channel those qualities to make a mutually progressive existence.

Knowing little of the Israeli - Palestine conflicts and issues I watched this series initially only because of a review I read somewhere. Not really into watching something with subtitles I was gripped from the beginning and couldn't stop watching it.

Intense and Engaging
This is super addictive so watch out! I watched 6 episodes in a row and I definitely don't regret it one bit. Definitely recommend this show, you wont regret it. The acting, the filming, the effects-its all truly amazing. Unfortunately , I think this show only has one season, which is really upsetting to me. Hopefully the series will continue for as long a possible. 10/10

Very realistic (although many of the things depicted in the show are out of date, like tracking techniques used by Israelis - they use much faster and slicker technology now and Hamas too - I can't believe that they didn't sweep the place & the visitors for bugs), but somehow it is very depressing: you realize that there can never be any peace - one side just has to ex

terminate the other. And that is the bitter truth.