Signál

Muddy neo-normalizing satire, in which the disgusting rural touch of Grapes mixes with the taste of Gogol, in which an idiot is really just an idiot and stinking boots from Láda Stroupežnický (we really went a long way from the loudmouths, but unfortunately ass first). I would slap people for the character of the "true Czech genius", who already knows that there is nothing that can be done but to piss on the monument to the builders... With every further thought, this film awakens in me a deep feeling of moral disgust and contempt (I don't know why I give it so many stars, probably because it is solidly shot and even the acting is a millimeter above the level of local sewage). (02.02.2012)

Short version of my comment: Imagine something that you think is the most disgusting thing in the whole world. And imagine watching it for two hours. That's what you get with Signál.____Longer version of my comment: I should warn you in advance that I will try to use as few bad words as possible. Well, I could actually end there, but then you wouldn't get the main point. Signál is crap. I was sorry to have to say this at first, but it's the plain truth. The main architect of this stinking disaster is the screenwriter Marek Epstein, and the director Tomáš Řehořek is its finisher. They have created an absolutely unfunny, repulsive "comedy" masquerading as a poor imitation that offended me first and foremost by the way the filmmakers imagine the rural population - men in particular as stupid idiots, and as uncivilized morons for whom the word "city" is an unreal concept, and women as easy victims to strangers. The second tragedy is the story. There is none. It was supposed to show human stupidity, but it showed again and again only the incompetence of the filmmakers, who perhaps didn't even know what they were making and for whom. The characters? More shit. Is there a sympathetic character in this film at all? Certainly not from the central pair Dyk and Hádek, certainly not from the inhabitants of Zálesí. I don't know, maybe I just misunderstood the whole thing, but I think Signál is just full of assholes (who people should probably cheer for, since one of them is played by that young and popular singer) and morons, and the only person who could break out of those two boxes, being Jiří Menzel, I didn't care about. By the way, while I'm on the subject of Jiří Menzel... Tomáš Řehořek is probably a fan of his. However, he should realize that by alternating boring "plot" scenes and details of spiders, flies, earthworms, dewy grass and other natural phenomena that surely fascinate him, he will not achieve any "Menzel-like" poetics. Signál is a terribly long and terribly stupid film, and anyone who asks me about it I will discourage from going to the movie theatre, I swear.__P.S. Nightwork's hideous song almost made me leave during the closing credits. But then I'd miss that fabulous conversation with the director and producer. Both were even more futile than their film. And I thought it wasn't even possible anymore. (10.02.2012)

Two scammers go to the countryside. Not to earn money from stupid bumpkins, but to have fun with their daughters or wives. Actually, they're not even that big of scammers, although their tricks are quite clever. They will gradually realize that they can get much more out of it than just casual sex. At first, the villagers are portrayed as real bumpkins, but over time it turns out that they can defend themselves when it comes down to it, although it takes about ten minutes in the whole movie, which is initially a scammer's film, a boring romance, then almost hixploitation (village massacre), and finally a bit of sci-fi. It becomes a bit too much at the end, what the film turns into, and it's slightly unsatisfying, just like what preceded it. Vojta Dyk acts like an uncompromising jerk from the beginning, only to not support this role, perhaps so as not to ruin his image as a nice, kind boy who is interested in older women. Kryštof Hádek is supposed to be a sensitive guy, but there is no room for romance here, it's quite well hidden. Then I wonder, what should one actually take away from the movie? That people in the countryside are idiots, but they can really get pissed off? That townspeople are also idiots, but they can escape with the help of a kind villager in time? I don't know, such a miracle doesn't happen, and Marek Epstein's script definitely didn't surprise with anything, except maybe that he managed to lure Jiří Menzel as an actor. More: http://www.filmovy-denik.cz/2012/09/rebelka-perfect-sense-sprosty-holky.html (27.02.2013)

I don’t understand why people hate this movie. I do admit that there could have been a little less of Dyk. Maybe at least the Nightwork music didn’t have to play in the pub all the time, and the ending didn’t have to be accompanied by the disgusting song he sang, and which had nothing to do with the atmosphere of the film. Other than that, however, in terms of story it was an interesting Czech film, which in my opinion was not completely badly made. I’m used to such a camera and it was possible to get over the shaking. Even the actors surprised me, Jiří Menzel the most, but Karel Roden was also great. All in all, I have to say that the acting repertoire was like from another world, and I really enjoyed the village. When we talk about the village, it seems located in the third world, and I’d say the authors went too far with the ruralness, and the same goes for the way they portrayed people from Prague. You can find crooks like that in every corner of our country, not just in Prague, so we shouldn’t discriminate like that. On the other hand, this movie remains an interesting affair from which I expected a far worse quality than what I actually got. (29.12.2012)