The Enchanted Cave

The Cursed Cave mixes beautiful natural scenery (snowy landscapes, a deep lake, distant green hills, stalactite caves) with an enchanting fairy tale story (good vs evil, harmony with nature vs greed) and a somewhat flimsy script and strange casting. The production design and costumes are of a high standard (perhaps only Predrag Bjelac looked more buffoonish than the magician with gunpowder), and the story, though not innovative but purely fairy-tale and educational, had its charm. In the first third, the sequence of scenes with the seasons was quite lame. However, the biggest stumbling block was (for me) the cast: some actors and actresses seemed to me rather stiff in their roles, and Tanya Pauhofová was not a happy choice for the villain, while the demonic Karel Dobrý overacted in a role that suited him at first sight. In the end, though, this is still a good co-production tale for just one viewing. (06/02/2022)

How Solar Daughters cultivated the noble duo of Andrew Tate’s followers. Just as when a princess is enchanted in the Czech lands, it looks and sounds fairly decent in the moment, but the story and its characters desperately lack any plasticity and the ability to captivate. The exception is, of course, the excessively theatrical Karel Dobrý, who has a knack for roles of similar villains (left-handed). (04/11/2023)