What I Watched in April
With this month I decided to mark where I watched:
- 🍿 - marks movie that I watched in cinema
- 📺 - marks movie or series that I've seen at home
🍿Snow White (2025)
I haven't watched the animation that this movie is based on but it's story is so engraved into our culture that I know the basics. Which makes screening of the new movie quite boring. It looks pretty nice - it's aesthetics seems to be based on the Instagram filters which makes it look bland and good at the same time.
Rachel Zegler is perfect for Snow White, her portrayal is on point - excellent casting. I would love to see her in more interesting retelling, perhaps in the form of a TV series. Her banter with Andrew Burnap as Jonathan in the song „Princess Problems” is my favourite part of the movie - both for great performance and for giving us a hint that more interesting story could be tell with this setup.
Gal Gadot looks perfect for the role and I really like some of her costumes - especially her glass crown that is the most majestic piece of royal attire that I've ever seen.
It's sad to see movie feel dated on premiere - with this one feeling like something released at least 15 years ago. Low-budget Disney's Descendants are miles ahead, even with their all problems and flaws.
🍿 Aliens (1986)
The perfect sequel. I didn't suspect the Alien series to be so interesting, especially when I read how wacky sequels get.
I love the art that is making a good sequel. You can reinforce what was good in the previous work, reinterpret it, improve it or - what is most common - replicate it. James Cameron, David Giler, Walter Hill - director and writers of the Aliens - chose both to retell and continue the previous story while simplifying it making it which made it more accessible. Aliens feels like a guide for Alien. What was previously hidden and in subtext is drawn to the front. In Alien avid watcher notices the forced pregnancy motive and feminist interpretation. In Aliens we get in text argument that removing a chest burster from someone is an abortion.
If I had to choose I prefer Alien to Aliens (to be fair, the choice is obvious). But I see them more as a two sides of the same coin. Which you choose is up to you.
📺 Brooklyn Nine-Nine seasons 1-4 (2013-2017)
Watch „Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Michael Schur, and Incrementalism” and „Police Reform in Brooklyn Nine-Nine's Final Season”.
As for my experience it's nice noise in the background that it's quite funny with characters I absolutely adore - especially Capitan Holt and his boyfriend Kevin. I could watch them all day. Which makes it a perfect background noise that can keep me through harder days. It's what sitcoms are best at.
📺 Alien3 (1992)
David Fincher on Alien 3. Just watch this.
Hollow, purposeless, bleak, apocalyptic. I love how emotions change from movie to movie, how the tone shifts and provides us each time with fresh experience. First one is the definition of cosmic horror with the strange beauty (both tonal and visual). Second one is action movie that allows Ripley to confront her trauma and achieve proper victory. Third one brings us back to the bleak reality, however this time we don't even has the hope of the first movie. Just a brutal reminder of how alone we are.
Not as good as previous ones but still compelling in some weird way.
📺 Alien Ressurection (1997)
The finale of Ellen Ripley tetralogy, movie that I was sceptical of the most. From just reading summary one can get a headache. 200 years after the events of previous movie, military constructed a clone of Ellen Ripley which is part human - part alien which is recognized at the end of the movie as the mother of the newborn alien variant that is strangely human in appearance. And it's written by Joss Whedon! This film could be either a wreck or something quite special.
I didn't want to see Prometheus since the body horror within will probably wreck me. After all this movie I crave for the more Alien movies and I'm interested in more wacky lore - from what I've heard Prometheus gets biblical and I suspect that I will love it.
🍿 A Working Man (2025)
My first David Ayer movie was Suicide Squad (2016) which is probably the worst superhero movie that I know. Then I watched Bright, a bit better but still bad movie. Then I've seen The Beekeeper last year which also starts Jason Statham and I was impressed! It was in many ways your typical action movie but in others it was quite creative and above the norm. The way that it feels like liberal religious movie it's just awesome.
Another source of my excitement was the title (and premise). It feels like a conclusion for a long running motive of Statham films - that the blue collar jobs are just fronts for the serial killers. Transporter series, Mechanic series, the Beekeeper from last year.
So how my mistake of hyping myself for generic yearly Jason Statham flick turned out? As expected, I was disappointed. What I didn't expected is boring movie that is random composition of popular action movies. John Wick does pretty lighting, so we do it. Taken was a hit, so we can grab the story from it (and tortures). Mix it with the filled with cuts editing that makes action scenes confusing.
I can't even tell that this movie missed it's potential since it wasn't interested in doing anything.