ThedevilChoose When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

AshUnow This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

Allison Davies The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Ginger Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

mountainstonePT This is just a gem of a little film, the story of a young man who is the pride of his village, sent to Jerusalem to seek wisdom. Boy does he get it! It is a thoroughly modern film, one that documents the plight of the country boy to the city in our warped modern world. As opposed to all the horrible sex and violence films of today, this just tells a great story of our times. While a dark tale, it never falls into depression, and instead James' wonderful point of view and the filmmaker's light touch really makes the story come alive. It is well cast, competently shot, a very strong screenplay, unusual for us in North America as it shows the reality of today's Israel through the eyes of a young African Christian, without becoming religiously preachy. Highly recommended and I would also recommend this for teens.

tropicaldiver2001 My test for any movie, American or foreign, is that early in the film I begin to care about the characters. I did begin very quickly to care about James, although he seems too-naive to be true. He is held up in accomplishing his goal of arriving in Jersusalem through various situations, but never seems to really take the time or make the effort to get there. After all, Tel Aviv and Jerusalem are not that far apart. The movie is an interesting self-criticism of Israeli characteristics.Towards the end James starts to head towards some sort of modest business success in Israel, but the movie seems to stop abruptly. I was disappointed and got no emotional payoff. I wasn't expecting necessarily a happy ending but was unprepared to have it just sort of fizzle out.I can think of better endings, such as the father, Salah continuing to give business advice to James behind his son's back until James achieves real success, or James finally taking time off, arriving in Jersusalem and being disappointed in its commercialization.

Ruby Liang (ruby_fff) Viewing the trailer, it seems to be a simple benign tale of how a young man James sent on a pilgrimage with the mission to see Jerusalem. Hm, it's really a black comedy in parable form, laughing at possible vulnerable morality, social foibles, and almost political non-comments on economy, religion, community, people coping with living. Siyabonga Melongisi Shibe is James (our main hero). Arieh Elias is Sallah (the father of Shimi). Salim Dau is Shimi (the man who got James). Together these three lively talented actors, with a host of supporting characters, gave us 87 mins. of a film from Israel, in Hebrew, Zulu and English. Written and directed by Ra'anan Alexandrowicz, this tale is not unique in Israel, but can very well be any city in the world, where money exchange and transactions exist for the advancement of one's social and living status. It feels (at first) rather like Antoine de Saint Exupéry's "The Little Prince," James is discovering truth of things. Gradually it becomes more of an urban reality tale. It's not glamorous Hollywood fable like "Edward Scissorhands." Rather, it's a good-natured almost genuine in its sincere storytelling - James' innocence is as real as it gets. He wanted to be right, walk right, talk right, do the right thing. However, it seems the Lord has other ideas and plans in helping James to fulfill his mission of "Oh, Jerusalem". The dialog is practical, matter of fact, down to earth translations. In fact, the main story narration is in the form of a choir singing out (echoing) the storyline in a gospel song. Are the characters depicted being amoral? Is living such a chore and Shimi and wife and friends lacking in brightness of the heart? We laugh as we've seen and heard such things happening to others (oh no, not to us.) What a meaningful first debut feature. "James' Journey to Jerusalem" is a worthy and entertaining piece, may even rings true in its reflections of social insensitivity - living got to be more reassuring than that. The warmth that James felt towards Sallah, a grumpy and nostalgic (yet whimsical at times) old man, indicated his respect and recognition of a fellow living human being in spite of mutual weaknesses, and the handshake is reciprocal. Sadness and joy, the yin and yang, James cannot appreciate the view of Jerusalem more without what he's been through. Despite the ending situation, I felt James is much wiser and morally strengthened to continue living and abide by his heart. If you find this light, try Lars von Trier's "Dogville," which is substantively loaded with morality play and human foibles, and may even see the film in the light of how God sent his daughter (Nicole Kidman's Grace) to earth and the passion began, continued, and fulfilled. "Dogville" is not for everyone (NFE) for sure. "James' Journey to Jerusalem" aka Massa'ot James Be'eretz Hakodesh (2003), is ready for anyone with a gleeful heart!

ellavi I really liked this film because it exposed something we Israelis don't like to bring out into the light: the negative consequences of not being a fryer. I think that in Israel, people are just so focused on not being taken advantage of that they often don't think about how they themselves pimp others. I also found it fascinating how James listened to Mr. Salah's bad advice and Mr. Salah listened to James' bad advice, (which led to unhappiness for both) out of trust in one another. It was really interesting that no Israeli/Palestinian politics entered the arena--it's impossible to live life in Israel without being highly sensitive to the political situation, and as such most Israeli films touch upon it in some way or another. I liked how this one didn't, though because I think that beyond Israeli/Palestinian issues, there are a lot of other problems Israeli society faces and often overlooks. Definitely a film with an important statement about being Israeli.