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davidjcarney
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Portals (2019)
Nothing to see here.
This is a collection of seen-before special Fx in search of a coherent plot. There is no explanation for anything the "portals" do. There is no explanation for who or what is operating the portals. One character speculates about "interdimensional beings." The soundtrack is very irritating.
I waited and waited for this story to resolve itself into something more than a series of unexplained events, some gorey, some pointless. Four directors and not one understands that there's a difference between mystery and hysterical stream of consciousness. Mark Twain said: "Of course truth is stranger than fiction. Fiction has to make sense." Not here, sir. This movie is worthless.
China Cry: A True Story (1990)
Drama Reduced to Melodrama
The plot development is a tad manipulative. Why do we have to have our heart strings tugged in order to feel outrage over the abuses of the Cultural Revolution?
The focus on Christianity is not made clear by the advertising. This requires a little tunnel vision: Mao persecuted everybody with any sort of religious faith, not just Christians. "China Cry" therefore seems more like a Sunday school propaganda film, rather than a serious examination of how the Cultural Revolution destroyed many, many lives. Historic tragedy is reduced to melodrama.
The melodrama is interrupted only by sickeningly brutal scenes, including a woman in third trimester being kicked in the abdomen. Other films have approached survival-during-government-sponsored-terror much more compellingly. Try "The Killing Fields," or "Europa, Europa," also based on true stories.
Under the Rainbow (1981)
Ms.Fisher Was Wrong
I have to disagree with Carrie Fisher's description of this movie as the worst she ever made. Besides, wasn't she drinking and drugging during the early eighties? (Source: Ms. Fishers own "Postcards From The Edge.") Her memory might be sketchy.
Here is lots of low brow, Pythonesque humor combined with relentless political incorrectness and slapstick. If you're a fan of the Wizard of Oz, you will never think about the munchkins the same way again.
Trivia: Pat McCormack, a writer on Johnny Carson's Tonight Show, appears as Tiny. You may remember seeing McCormack appear occasionally on the Tonight Show, where Carson would introduce him as "America's Number One Talent Scout," upon which McCormack would present some of the most howlingly awful acts ever to desecrate the stage.