Bet on Friendship

One of the best Czech films (comedy) in recent years. Great characters, mid-life crisis, funny, touching, entertaining and well acted. I recommend it. The film and the premise are on par, and most importantly it features about 50 Czech well-known actors, which was a damn pleasure. Hofmann again is the best. 8/10. (20/12/2021)

In the last two days, besides this movie, I've also seen Sweethearts. And that kinda forces me to give Prvok and Co. an extra star, because the difference is just huge. Okay, sometimes I didn’t quite catch the humor, but otherwise I enjoyed it quite a bit. A good ensemble, the charismatic Hofmann... I'll gladly give it another go and I’m looking forward to seeing Patrik's next film. More than his next book. (27/02/2022)

Patrik Hartl's film tells, in a rather artful way, the story of four friends who arrive in their lives at the Midlife Crisis station, trying to come to terms with this unwanted but almost necessary stop. Each member of the central quartet had a major problem in their life story, and their actors really inhabited their characters well – Hynek Čermák definitely impressed me the most, with Martin Pechlát close behind. Although the film has a comedy genre in its profile, it offers a lot of dramatic scenes in which the four protagonists try to grapple with "adult" problems using childish challenges and "heckling matches". The first challenge didn't quite work for me, but I was happy with the dramatic-comedic construction of the rest of the film. By Czech standards, an eminently believable film with solid performances and a a plot that is not shallow. (31/07/2021)

This is when 4 friends get together at a class reunion; they're all in their 40s but acting like they're 6 years old. And I had the feeling that the time machine had taken me back to the time of the Czech director Poledňáková, when all men - regardless of age - were presented as "cute little guys". Only, there was some development in the females. These were not Poledňáková’s wise and understanding mothers as we know them (although one of them was aspiring to the Gandhi Award), instead they were angry, scared, upset or pushy. The plot doesn't make sense and nor do the background antics; dramatic interludes don't belong in this type of movie and it's further undermined by the performances of the adored actors whose acting in any movie never gets any further than being perpetually pissed. So they didn't come up with anything original here either. IN A NUTSHELL: How to voluntarily make a jerk of yourself to please your high school classmates... Oh, right, of course... Making a jerk of themselves was clearly not too much effort for these protagonists. (23/03/2023)

Je ne me souviens d’aucun autre film tchèque où autant de rôles, des principaux jusqu’aux plus petits, aient été joués par nos acteurs les plus renommés. En plus, la distribution pour le quatuor central est parfaite et c’est certainement ce qui contribue le plus à la qualité de l’ensemble. J’ai bien sûr lu le livre, tout comme le reste de l’œuvre de Patrik Hartl, mais comme ça faisait un certain temps, je n’en avais plus que certains fragments en mémoire. Le fait que l’adaptation cinématographique a été faite par l’auteur lui-même est un gage de qualité et prévient logiquement tout dérapage ou fiasco. Pour moi, ce film correspondait à mon état d’esprit et je trouve que la réalité douce-amère qu’il dépeint concerne beaucoup de gens. (21/12/2021)

I read the book, it entertained me, and I secretly hoped that when the author himself adapted the book into a screenplay and directed it, it could turn out well. And it did. Patrik Hartl did not disappoint Patrik Hartl and finally created a Czech comedy that I can genuinely enjoy. Without any effort. The cast of the four main roles smelled like perfection, Jana Kolesárová is already forty-five, but her sex appeal clearly doesn't care about that, humor and a subtle kind of sadness were present and active (but it wasn't some superficial Troška-esque nonsense) and I enjoyed it effortlessly. The author of the source material, the screenwriter, and the director managed to agree on the necessary (but unforced) shortening of the original text, and according to me, neither of the Hartls needs to be ashamed of the result. It was great, two hours passed like water, and I could easily endure it for a while longer. I'm glad that it succeeded once again in the domestic environment. (04/01/2022)