Movies for April 2011

My movie watching came to an abrupt halt at the end of the month when the tornadoes charged through Alabama and left us without power for four days. Wandering around a darkened city, we had a lot of surreal moments that seemed to come straight out of post-apocalyptic films. Luckily, the residents of Huntsville were remarkably well-behaved, so we never had any Mad Max throngs take over the highways or the local Target. I'm grateful that we now have power and things are returning to normal in our neighborhood, but I'm really behind on my movie watching and writing!

Here are all 20 movies watched in April, with links for the reviews that I posted:

On the Town (1949) - with my LearningQUEST class
Susannah of the Mounties (1939) - a Kid pick with Shirley Temple
The Whales of August (1987) - really nice, if slow, with Bette Davis and Lillian Gish
Wee Willie Winkie (1937) - Kid pick, although she found this one pretty traumatic because of the death scene
The Muppets Take Manhattan (1984) - with the Kid, but as the author of a book on the Muppets I take my Jim Henson movies seriously
Belle of the Yukon (1944) - lightweight but fun Western with Gary Cooper and Gypsy Rose Lee
The Curse of Frankenstein (1957) - Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee "hammer" Mary Shelley's novel
Take Me Out to the Ballgame (1949) - A reunion of sorts for the On the Town cast, although not really as good
The Road to Bali (1952) - The Kid is crazy for Bob Hope.
My Favorite Brunette (1947) - Bob Hope again!
Ugetsu (1953) - Lyrical ghost story set in war-torn Japan
Amazing Grace (2006) - showed this one to my 18th century lit. students as an end of term treat, and they really liked it overall
The Road to Hong Kong (1962) -The Kid continues her obsession with Hope and Crosby road pictures
The Fall (2006) - visually stunning fantasy told by a paralyzed stuntman injured while making an early silent film
Rio (2011) - Gorgeous and fun animated film, although we did NOT pay to see it in 3D
The Mirror Crack'd (1980) - A good if not great Agatha Christie film, with Angela Lansbury as Miss Marple
Alias Jesse James (1959) - I mentioned that the Kid is crazy for Bob Hope, right?
Gone with the Wind (1939) - It was on Netflix Instant, and I couldn't resist, although it took two nights to finish the whole thing
Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief (2010) - Kid pick because she got the DVD in her Easter basket
The Forbidden Kingdom (2008) - Jackie Chan and Jet Li do their thing in this fun homage to martial arts films