evanston_dad

"The Gazebo" is a pretty delightful comedy that stars Glenn Ford as a strait-laced family man who, framed for blackmail, kills his blackmailer (he thinks) and then has to keep the murder a secret from the cops, not to mention his wife (Debbie Reynolds).

I've come to be a big Glenn Ford fan. He had tremendous range, and he's a very skilled comedian. He and Reynolds have a lot of chemistry, and the film is fast-paced and playful, full of clever twists and turns. This is one of those pleasant surprise movies, the ones that have middling Internet user ratings and that you think aren't going to amount to much and which you then find yourself thoroughly enjoying.

Helen Rose received an inexplicable Oscar nomination for the film's black and white costume design.

Grade: A-

Wow, this movie is a whole lot of nothing.

I don't know what director John Ford saw in this story. Maybe he just liked the idea of filming something in such an exotic location. But this thing is dead on arrival. Clark Gable and Ava Gardner fall in love literally an hour after meeting each other. Then Clark Gable falls in love with Grace Kelly literally an hour after meeting her. Then he decides he doesn't want Grace Kelly anymore and runs off with Ava Gardner. There, that's your movie.

Gardner and Kelly somehow managed to score Oscar nominations for this stinker.

Grade: D-

"Jurassic World: Rebirth" is a pretty unnecessary addition to the "Jurassic Park" franchise, if any of the sequels to the Steven Spielberg original can be called necessary.

ScarJo and Jonathan Bailey have zero chemistry despite the film's effort to foist a love story on them. There's a Latino family put in constant jeopardy throughout the film that represents "immigrants" in general, one of the film's performative nods to cultural relevancy. The entire story gets kicked off by perhaps one of the dumbest accidents in film history. Snickers should sue for defamation.

There is a fairly well directed scene here and there, but mostly the whole thing evaporates from your head before you've even dropped your 3D glasses in the little recycle bin.

Grade: C+