netflixed "flushed away" and "no end in sight". "flushed away" is another of the cartoons released recently that i was not interested in initially but decided to watch in order to know what's been going on in such films. though not great, i liked it a lot more than i thought i would. the little treat in this film about a pet rat who ends up among wild rats in the sewers of london are the slugs whom also dwell in the sewer and make a brief appearance now and then. the sight gag of slugs trying to run away from danger is hilarious as they are slugs afterall and cannot move fast. on top of that, they sing. their songs are amusing little bits. i can't help but constantly hear in my head, "roddy flushed down his own potty". the evil overlord character is a toad voiced wonderfully by ian mckellan. his cousin is from paris and those french frogs are hilarious as well. those would be the winning three factors of the film. they shine so bright in fact that i've forgotten the rest of the film.

"no end in sight" is about america's involvement in iraq and how they've done a botched up job of it. the documentary shows how even though there are people who wanted to do a good job, they were unable to do so for lack of tools, resources, and time. the film shows how the invasion of iraq was rushed and not thought out by the highest levels. of course hindsight is always 20/20 but this film shows you how insiders gave recommendations from experienced people on how to handle occupations and that they were ignored and inexperienced people hired all over the board. the main topic explored is how we went from being liberators to being hated by iraqis. it is our mistakes that caused this and the key mistakes are discussed. some people in the film are very pissed off about the job they tried to do but must hold back that frustration in order to be diplomatic and convey clearly the rational explanation and not be a blithering bundle of emotions. i just thought it was a very good presentation and am glad that the filmmakers were able to interview key people and put this film together. but the downside is how the evidence is presented that there is no end in sight by this administration to clean up this mess. i must add that whenever i see footage or read about some of the mistakes made, particularly the complete loss of iraq's recorded history and culture with the looting of the national library and museum, i am so saddened and pissed that this was allowed to happen. during ww2, a lot of cultural items were lost from my mother's native land and it's upsetting but there's nothing i can do because that was before even my mother was born. they were not utterly devastated like iraq is and if you are a citizen of the country that allowed this to happen, then you feel guilt and so i do though again i feel like there's nothing i can do because these items are gone forever. what we do as a country from here forward will speak much of us. i can only hope that we do the right thing. of course, what that is heavily debated upon. anyway, watch the film.