"One Nation" Rallies; U.S. Travel Warnings in Europe
WHITFIELD: And now back to our top story. U.S. officials say discussions are taking place about issuing some kind of advisory to Americans in Europe in light of new terror threat information. I want to bring in our senior international correspondent Nic Robertson into this discussion, who is in Hamburg, Germany. And no warnings have been put out as yet, just discussions because as we heard from our producer with the State Department, there has been chatter about some sort of activity. What kind of chatter?</s>NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, right now Fredricka, I'm standing outside of the mosque in Hamburg that was attended by a man called Ahmed Zadiki (ph). He was captured in Kabul this summer and is in U.S. custody. He's a German. But while he's been in U.S. custody, he's the one that's been talking about the possibility of a Mumbai style plot to attack various cities and countries in Europe, Britain, France, and Germany. He's the one that's been therefore getting this sort of threat, a possibility of an imminent threat in Europe, bringing that sort of up the stakes, if you will. Now, while I've been here I've been talking to sources here and they tell us, Hamburg terrorism sources, they tell us that there is no imminent threat that they see. But despite the fact that Zadiki (ph) is a German, they say that he is in U.S. custody and that they understand he is providing new information to U.S. officials every day. That's what they tell us, new information every day. They also talked earlier on today with Ahmed Zadiki's (ph) sister and she told me that the family had been in touch with him in Afghanistan shortly before he was captured and she said at that stage he was planning to come back in the very near future. What has intelligence officials here concerned and on alert is what happened to the other members of this mosque that traveled with him to Pakistan, where are they? What are their plans? Do they plan to come back sooner? This is feeding in to an atmosphere of a possibility of a threat. But they say no imminent threat here right now.</s>WHITFIELD: All right. Fascinating stuff. Thanks so much. Nic Robertson from Hamburg, Germany.</s>WHITFIELD: All right. Back to this country now. When you think of missionaries, you probably think of people working in poor, far-off countries. With hard times here at home, the need for domestic missionaries is growing. CNN's Soledad O'Brien introduces us to a man whose mission is to rally black Americans to serve in their own communities.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm the Jackie Robinson of missions, you know.</s>SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Leroy Barber is a man with a calling and he's the president of Mission Year.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We do not see through our eyes or hear through our ears.</s>O'BRIEN: It's a year-long ministry and volunteer program for Christian young adults in the United States.</s>LEROY BARBER, MISSION YEAR PRESIDENT: There is a goal for people to know Jesus. There is probably another strong goal of things are not right in the world, and I want to be a part of making them right.</s>O'BRIEN (on camera): How many African-Americans are involved in Mission Year's missionary work?</s>BARBER: About five percent a year or less sometimes.</s>O'BRIEN: What does it matter?</s>BARBER: I don't think it's good for a kid growing up in an urban neighborhood to only see white faces coming to serve.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is where I'm staying right now.</s>O'BRIEN (voice-over): 22-year-old Harold Boyd left his Chicago home to spend the year in Atlanta. He lives on $12,000 but he has to raise that himself.</s>HAROLD BOYD, MISSION YEAR PARTICIPANT: I do believe that with every relationship that I build, that I'll be showing people that I'm in the same struggle as you are.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't have all the answers.</s>O'BRIEN: He's the only minority on his team. It's not surprising when you consider the vast majority of missionaries are white.</s>JIM SUTHERLAND, RECONCILIATION MINISTRIES NETWORK, INC.: In terms of the missionary percentage of African-Americans, it's far less than one percent.</s>O'BRIEN: Jim Sutherland studies missionary work and the black church.</s>SUTHERLAND: Many black churches do a fairly good job of taking care of their own local communities, but the vocation of the missionary in the African-American church is essentially off the radar, it's basically not there.</s>O'BRIEN (on camera): So why are there so few African-Americans who are involved in missionary work?</s>BARBER: I think the way missions is traditionally done is you raise support to do it -</s>O'BRIEN: Money.</s>BARBER: Money, how you work out, taking a year off, which means not working, not earning an income. It's a hard deal.</s>O'BRIEN: For many African-Americans, it's difficult to make this enormous financial sacrifice, especially during a recession. For Harold Boyd, it's worth the sacrifice.</s>BOYD: What really inspired me was the work of missions of being able to see what's out there and se what people need. I don't think I can stab anybody with the gospel. Here, have it. But I'm called to serve here and I'm going to serve.</s>O'BRIEN (voice-over): Reporting for "In America," Soledad O'Brien, Atlanta.</s>WHITFIELD: And be sure to join Soledad O'Brien for her upcoming special about fighting financial crisis from the pulpit. "Almighty Debt" a "Black in America" special coming Thursday, October 21st at 9:00 p.m. Eastern, only on CNN. From simple student to media mogul, meet the face behind Facebook. Movie reviews are next in the</s>CNN NEWSROOM. WHITFIELD: A look at our top stories right now. For the second time in two days, Osama Bin Laden has apparently released an audiotape message. In a 13-minute tape today, the Al Qaeda leader urges Muslims to help flood victims in Pakistan. CNN cannot verify the voice of the tape, and that it is indeed of the terror leader. In the Middle East, Palestinian leaders meeting in the West Bank today reaffirm their stance on Israeli settlements. They support a halt to peace talks with Israel if it does not stop settlement construction. And a deadly train crash in central Indonesia. 36 people were killed when one train rammed another from behind. At least 26 people are hurt. Both trains were headed to Jakarta. The cause of the crash is still under investigation. All right. It's already getting quite the Oscar buzz out there. We're talking movies now and we're talking the movie called "The Social Network," it's hitting theaters this weekend. And we're going to talk about another movie with some big suspense. Jen Yamato is in Los Angeles to break it all down for us. Good to see you again.</s>JEN YAMATO, FILM CRITIC, MOVIES.COM: Good to be back. Thank you.</s>WHITFIELD: All right. Let's begin with "The Social Network." We're talking about, you know, the discovery of this social network or the discussion among friends, one runs away with the idea, and now there is a little bit of fallout as a result. Let's take a quick peek at the clip.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What are you doing?</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Checking into see how it's going in Bosnia.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Bosnia? They don't have roads but they have Facebook. You must really hate the Winklevosses.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't hate anybody. The Winklevi aren't suing me for intellectual property theft, they're suing me because for the first time in their lives things didn't work out the way they were supposed to for them.</s>WHITFIELD: OK. Jen, what do you think? Did you like this movie? Because there has been a lot of buzz, but we only care about what you think.</s>YAMATO: As it should be. Well, "The Social Network" is certainly a compelling portrait of ambition in the digital age. It's about Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, who the film would like you to believe back stabbed his way to the top. I would say it's a good movie. I didn't love it as much as a lot of people seem to have loved it so far. Part of my problem with "The Social Network" is that the vilification of Zuckerberg feels a little too constructed. It could very well be a serial killer movie, only instead of murdering people, Zuckerberg is a computer programming sociopath. That vilification didn't quite work for me. It feels a little too constructed and a little too conveniently contrived for the sake of drama. And on top of that, the female characters overall are really shortchanged. The performances for me -</s>WHITFIELD: What do you mean? Meaning they don't have real characters that have been developed or shortchanged in what way?</s>YAMATO: Right. Well, I would say the only interesting female character here disappears after two scenes. The other female characters are really boring throwaway characters or are reduced to stereotypical promiscuous characters to serve the main character and didn't get to do much on their own. This is a very male-driven movie. I felt that the female presence wasn't as strong as it should have been.</s>WHITFIELD: So overall, what is your grade? Sorry about that.</s>YAMATO: I give it a B plus. It's solid, but I didn't love it though. But it is still one to keep an eye out come award season.</s>WHITFIELD: OK. Now let's talk about "Let Me In." An alienated and bullied 12-year-old builds a friendship with a mysterious new neighbor who would only socialize apparently at night. Let's take a look at this little peek.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are you a vampire?</s>WHITFIELD: Hence the night part.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I need blood to live.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How old are you? Really?</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: 12. But I've been 12 for a very long time.</s>WHITFIELD: Oh, no, I don't care if you give it an "A," I don't do freaky movies with evil children. That just scares me too much. And a vampire movie can't have a happy ending. So what's your</s>YAMATO: It's a really lovely story.</s>WHITFIELD: Really?</s>YAMATO: Yes, this is based on a Swedish novel, called "The Right One In," which was previously adapted in 2008 into an excellent Swedish language film called "Let the Right One In." This is "Let Me In." The story has been transported to New Mexico in the 1980s. It's about a little boy who befriends, like you said, a girl vampire. It's at times really, really hauntingly beautiful. Very handsomely made and well acted, especially by the kid actors, Chloe Moretz and Kodi Smit-McPhee. I will say that the score is a little bombastic, a little too bombastic and distracting. CG effects that director Matt Reeves includes are also distracting. And the overall, my biggest problem here is that if you've seen the original film, the 2008 Swedish film, this version, the Americanized version does not differentiate itself enough to justify its own existence. I say go with the original film. It's excellent. I'm in the camp that subtitles do not deter me. But I know a lot of people need the English language story told.</s>WHITFIELD: OK.</s>YAMATO: I would recommend it. I give it a B. I would definitely recommend the original more, if you're daring enough to try subtitles.</s>WHITFIELD: Yes. I think that kind of movie works if you don't have a kid but as soon as you have a kid, I'm sorry, you just can't see these little, you know, scary, freaky stuff going on with kids. OK. Let's move on. "Case 39." I'm sure it's a lovely movie, I'm just not seeing it. "Case 39." Let's talk about this one, a social worker taking a 10-year-old girl out of her apparently abusive home, and while she shelters the little girl, and searches for a foster family, she realizes that her new case is protected by a dark, threatening force. This too is also a little eerie. All right. What do you think about this one? We're not going to look at it. You just have to tell me about it.</s>YAMATO: Well, I got to say if you don't like scary kid movies, you're not going to like "Case 39." Because it's the latest in the sub-genre of evil little kid movies and in horror. Renee Zellweger -</s>WHITFIELD: Renee Zellweger, you know, we haven't seen her in a while.</s>YAMATO: Yes. Haven't seen her in a while. This movie was actually filmed in 2006 and it's been shelved and reshuffled and moved around for years. I would have to say with good reason. It's not particularly good. It's the kind of horror movie that relies a lot on loud jump scares, but here the jump scares aren't even scary. And overall, the premise is so silly that it's not even frightening. I will say that Jodelle Ferland, who plays the little scary girl is excellent and gives a really incredibly eerie performance for having been 11 years old at the time. But again for certain folks like you and honestly myself, who are scared of evil children, avoid. Avoid this movie.</s>WHITFIELD: Yes, something tells me you don't want to see a movie with me, because I think your eardrums would be blasting. I will be screaming. You don't think that was scary but the trailer right there. It made me kind of shrill a little bit. So I'll pass on the scary stuff with the kids. All right. Jen Yamato, good to see you. Thanks so much.</s>YAMATO: Thank you.</s>WHITFIELD: OK, so speaking of kids, anyone with teenage boys knows that they will eat you out of house and home if you let them. Even if you don't let them, they will keep consuming and eating. So how do you fill them up without straining your budget or their waistlines? Keep it right here for our family food makeover.