It begins with a motley of vacationers on a bus headed for a week long vacation at a seaside resort. It is a wide assortment of characters: a single, moderately famous singer; a nerdy, onanistic man; a couple of old ladies reaching senility; a couple of young gals looking for an amorous adventure; a family with a boy unsure about where he fits sexually; a beautiful woman that, besides working as a trip guide, has pretensions of being a music composer; a couple of gay men; and another family where the parents are stuck in a sexual ice age while their twentyish daughter is looking to connect with a man. Since they share the same resort hotel, their lives are constantly intersecting. Some of the humor arises from those intersections, but the comedy relies even more on sexual issues: encounters that fail, shifting partners, erotic confusions, a hilarious bit about condoms, etc. This is not a laugh aloud comedy, but the humor is clever at times. It is an enjoyable light comedy.
5 Reviews
I expected more...
izikic27 December 2006
Warning: Spoilers
...after having read some positive reviews. I watched this movie and was deeply disappointed, as it totally lacks the kind of humor, which makes better (and older) czech comedies so great.
The idea of a group of totally different people, e.g. two old ladies, a famous singer, a redneck family or a gay couple travelling to the same holiday ressort isn't new at all, but still offers numerous opportunities to make a good or -at least- a funny film. The makers of "Ucastnici" didn't take them, but tried to make some sort of an "American Pie"-clone, with a lot of unnecessary sex (the eleven-yr. old son of the redneck is afraid of becoming gay, so one of the female members of the group lets him touch her breasts, in order to convince him that he is "straight".) and drugs (one of the gays brought some weed, everybody's stoned and one of the older guys refers to the "60's" as if there never was a soviet invasion in Czechoslovakia in '68 but just some big Hippie-happening).
To make a long story short, the times of high-quality czech cinema seem to over, due to lack of money but mainly due to the lack of interest. Why should an audience, that for nearly twenty years lives in a post-communist society, still stick to it's old values like excellent actors, subtle humor and a deep humanity, when it's so much easier to copy the most stupid of US and German "comedies"? I'm sad.
The idea of a group of totally different people, e.g. two old ladies, a famous singer, a redneck family or a gay couple travelling to the same holiday ressort isn't new at all, but still offers numerous opportunities to make a good or -at least- a funny film. The makers of "Ucastnici" didn't take them, but tried to make some sort of an "American Pie"-clone, with a lot of unnecessary sex (the eleven-yr. old son of the redneck is afraid of becoming gay, so one of the female members of the group lets him touch her breasts, in order to convince him that he is "straight".) and drugs (one of the gays brought some weed, everybody's stoned and one of the older guys refers to the "60's" as if there never was a soviet invasion in Czechoslovakia in '68 but just some big Hippie-happening).
To make a long story short, the times of high-quality czech cinema seem to over, due to lack of money but mainly due to the lack of interest. Why should an audience, that for nearly twenty years lives in a post-communist society, still stick to it's old values like excellent actors, subtle humor and a deep humanity, when it's so much easier to copy the most stupid of US and German "comedies"? I'm sad.
Typical czech vacation
jedlickova-2029910 May 2020
This is one of the movies that is very funny and enjoyable for czech.
Typical and iconic jokes that people bring up during different occasions and others know exactly what it means and where it comes from.
That's a classic czech vacation in Crotia and the redneck family makes it even more czech than it could be.
All these different people with different behaviours and personalities are a great combination in the movie. (if it makes any sense at all)
I'm not saying it is the best czech movie, not at all, but it has a good point and it makes me laugh every time I watch it. And this is what I expect from this comedy so.... Mission accomplished i guess.
Very good movie
muslim-spam23 May 2006
Just saw this movie. Had no expectations, or better to say, I was expecting this one to be the most boring and stupid movie they have ever made. One night we were boring at home and decided to go to the cinema and watch this movie, just for fun. For our great surprise, this movie is hilarious! Very funny, very nice, and the story is just like it could happen to anyone. Recommendations! The actors are acting, the funny parts are funny, the story is normal, nothing unusual, or anything that you could stop by and say "hey, that ain't real, fool?!". Everything is just as normal as your everyday life. The funny parts are not those of which you go like boom and laughing your heads off your necks, it's just normally funny, I mean it will make you laugh but also think of the situation, think of the characters' "act" and background of their behavior. I was really impressed to see this movie, and I'm really happy that even today, Czech movies can do better than some of the so called "bestsellers" out there.
Very nice and enjoyable movie.
janohaluska28 September 2006
Before going to this movie I heard that it is a sequel of movie "Roman pro zeny" (http://imdb.com/title/tt0432034/) so I expected that it will be again some mild love story without anything that could catch my attention. I went to see it only because of my girlfriend and I am glad that I did that because film was very nice. Full of situations from everyday life which you don't realize until you see them, full of small jokes and little romances that catch you by heart. Makes you realize how strange and normal people can be at same time. I recommend watching this title with your partner as it can contain also some sad parts about partnership :-P
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