Maidgethma Wonderfully offbeat film!

StunnaKrypto Self-important, over-dramatic, uninspired.

Afouotos Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

Haven Kaycee It is encouraging that the film ends so strongly.Otherwise, it wouldn't have been a particularly memorable film

jeannebakker Watched this once and was touched then watched it with my 10 year old daughter,heavy maybe but that is why I wanted to watch it with her. Having a dialogue with her I learned so much more than when I watched by myself. Having to answer questions like "why would this happen" and "why can't it be fixed" made this a richer experience, though I struggled for answers. I saw how unaware I am and wanted to change that. Children can sure put a mirror on you. As she watched the struggles 'The Lost Boys' I saw her tear up, laugh and my favorite- understand. One event where the Ritz crackers and milk go in the blender, I thought was strange and then realized why it would happen,but it took me aback for a moment. Child-matter of fact- "they must be doing that so it is more like things they have eaten before" She loved when they had the celebration outside of the apartment and course when John was reunited with his mother. She hated the way that much of the community treated the newcomers(scared when in a group for example,though wouldn't you want to be around those you know) and felt uncomfortable with the first scenes in the grocery store.I wish we could all take a lesson from children and those featured in the film and be curious,empathetic, and appreciative , because I think we forget sometimes.

lastliberal Lost your job? House in foreclosure? Wife/husband left? None of these things can come close to what happened to thousands of young boys in Sudan after the Muslim North started to eliminate the Christian South.Darfur is not an imaginary place. It is where millions have been killed and raped and driven from their homes in the interests of oil and minerals.Children see their parents killed before them and their whole families wiped out. They are really too young to understand what is happening, but it will come back to haunt them later.Thousands of young boys from 5-13 marched a thousand miles, mostly without food and water to escape. The 13-year-olds had to lead and bury the dead. Imagine burying your friends at 13.12,000 finally settled in a camp where they were basically just awaiting death. After 10 years, some of the boys got a chance to go the the U.S. This is their story. Imagine Africans transported to New York and Pennsylvania and other places without the basic knowledge of how to turn a light on and off, or how to use a shower. Imagine their astonishment on their first trip to a supermarket.We follow three of these men as they settle in, get jobs to help their families and friends back in Africa and to repay the U.S. for their care until they got work visas. It is touching, funny at times, and a sad reminder that this war is still going on and nothing is being done.Anytime you feel sad about your life, just pop this in the DVD player.

Hollywood_Yoda In the 1950s, Britain abandons what was to be their last colonization, which left a split of Muslim and Christian faiths behind. A Muslim and Christian feud ignites, later causing a Civil War. The Sudanese Civil War began in the mid 80s, 1985 to be more precise. The Sudanese people were forced to leave the home they had loved for many generations. The living and some wounded bodies went north to Ethiopia during and after the Civil War.The journey for these people was long and treacherous, many of them died along the thousand mile trek. The news media, following the story in the late 1980s, dubbed the men and boys, "The Lost Boys," for they were without a country or a home. The group of Sudanese refugees stayed in Ethiopia until the government crumbled in 1991. Again, the "Lost Boys" had to make a decision, where to go next.This time, they would head back south through war ravaged country, when they finally ended up in Kenya. They were refugees according to many people, and the United Nations decided to step in and help the "Lost Boys." Beginning around the end of the twentieth century, many "Lost Boys" were being relocated to the states, New York, Pennsylvania, and some as far west as Arizona.This is when the "Lost Boys" grew up, and they became men. Learning to be more Americanized and civilized was harder for some of them than for others. The transition from a homeland culture to an adopted culture is sometimes traumatic, as seen in some of these men, one in particular that could not handle the pressure, ended up in a psychiatric ward. Some would say that the tax money is squandered on the likes of people like this, but I say, "Even if we only help one of them succeed, we are doing our job." If ethics is the study of right and wrong, were we right or wrong to change these people's complete existence on Earth? Or should that be in the hands of God? Maybe it is in the hands of God, and he is working through good people to make his will better for everyone on Earth. If to look at some of these men today, they are more successful and free than they could have ever have been before because of what they went through.Each of them personally struggled, leaving their families and life behind while they came to America to make things better for themselves. As many of them stated, they wanted to bring happiness and freedom to their families. They even sent money to their families back in Africa, but only some of what they sent made it. Did someone steal from these honest, hardworking men? They were unsuspecting and innocents."Life, liberty and the Pursuit of happiness" is guaranteed to all men and women residing in the United States. Why not to the rest of the world? As can be seen in this film, some of the people of Sudan wanted freedom. The entire world should want freedom, but maybe I am making an assumption. No one can truly want freedom until they have had a taste of what is like to be free.

D A Effective though tiring documentary captures some amazing moments traveling with three Sudanese gentlemen as they are transported to the United States in programs designated to uplift their living experience. The irony these filmmakers expose in their work by showing the contrasting happiness found by these impoverished men in more dire circumstances runs deep. The multiple, gently condescending cultural errors we witness and laugh at (though hopefully with) are done with a warm heart. Eventually though, this initially promising odyssey looses steam thematically and narratively, ending up taking the exciting and fun concept (practically a real life "Coming To America") and overextending into more generic, though equally uplifting terrain that has become kind of prevalent in our rich-white-Hollywood world colliding with the humanitarian efforts throughout Africa- results often feel compassionate, yet still feel slightly exploitive and pandering.