Over Fingers

I didn't expect anything at all and I got something different than a classic Czech romcom (which is an anti-genre in and of itself). Fortunately, the film doesn't play at being something it’s not. Beach volleyball is a look at girls in bikinis, and there is no shortage of butts (ladies' and men's) or lush breasts. The cast is typical rolling stock, the co-production with Slovakia added a few less familiar faces like Marián Miezga, and Ostrava didn't forget about Štěpán Kozub for a change. Given that it’s full of relationship platitudes in a sports setting, the result is at least less harmful than vulgarities like Theory of Tiger or Patrimony, which beat the target audience over the head with nonsense and stereotypes of unreal proportions. (07/11/2020)

It would have been better without Kolečko. Apart from the attractive scenes connected with the ballgame (cut to a minimum), this has nothing to offer. Langmajer is completely wrong for this film and the fact that he has nothing special to offer in terms of acting makes that even more obvious. As is the habit in Czech films, the characters are just dumb and behave irrationally simply for the purpose of creating supposedly funny situations. (31/10/2020)

Watching this film was like riding on a roller coaster. The beginning was quite entertaining, and I had some good laughs. Moving the tractor was hilarious, so I thought it would turn out to be a success, but... after a while, the story became weirdly silly, the plot was really dumb at times and the attempt at a Czech Big Lebowski just didn't do it for me. (25/02/2020)

For every ten terrible Czech comedies, there is a good one, and that is without a doubt Above Fingers. The story is nothing interesting, but the unusual setting of volleyball and especially the actors, with Jiří Langmajer playing his typical role of a womanizer in a love triangle between Petra Hřebíčková and Denisa Nesvačilová, who are perhaps the hottest girls on the Czech comedy scene. It's nice to watch, especially when the girls are only wearing bikinis, and there are plenty of funny lines as well. 7/10. (23/01/2020)

Petr Kolečko is perfect at taking the superficial, chauvinistic, and sexist elements of contemporary society and pasting them into entertaining scenarios. Yet they must not be filmed by superficial directors, such as himself. The plot about the (non)merger of the beach volleyball duo is built so intricately and complexly that even Nolan looks on enviously. I was really embarrassed to be watching this at all because it's exactly one step ahead of entering the soft-porn genre, with the lure always being a woman's ass in a swimsuit that's supposed to end up in Jiří Langmajer’s bed, whose penis is the hard MacGuffin of Czech cinema. It's the kind of folksy fun that fills movie theaters, but at its core, it's exactly the kind of cheap schlock that has that polished glitz that can be seen through quickly, and you don't even have to have a gender studies degree to see it. I would have found this awkward at the age of 20 at the latest. Let alone now, when I'm three years younger than Kolečko. PS: That brilliant final speech by Vojtěch Dyk about burning wood is miles behind the rest of the film, as is the whole character of Hynek, who is one big running joke. (02/11/2020)