Directed by:
Petr JáklCinematography:
F. A. BrabecComposer:
Václav Noid BártaCast:
Tatiana Dyková, Konstantin Lavronenko, Vladimír Dlouhý, Boguslaw Linda, Michal Dlouhý, Deana Horváthová-Jakubisková, Václav Noid Bárta, Werner Daehn (more)Plots(1)
A crime thriller inspired by the story of Jiří Kajínek, who is considered to be the first hitman in post-communist Czech Republic. He was sentenced to life and is currently serving his term in a high-security Czech jail. Following his escape from Mírov prison in 2000, Jiří Kajínek become an instant legend--as well as the most wanted criminal in Europe. The five weeks during which time he eluded the police are still shrouded in mystery.
The movie Kajínek is the powerful story of the most famous prisoner in the Czech Republic, the story of two murders, the story of a lawyer constantly looking for new evidence, the story of the underworld and of its infiltration into the state administration, and the story of political manipulation. Is Jiří Kajínek the victim of a conspiracy or a cold-blooded assassin? Is he trying to prove his innocence...or deceive the justice system? (official distributor synopsis)
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Reviews (7)
A decently made, but incredibly boring fairy tale, which lacked only a kiss through the bars, which would have made him swoon before the truly hideous song sounding into the closing credits. The direction was helped a lot by Brabec's camera and Vladimír Dlouhý and Michal Dlouhý, but otherwise it was just boring and empty. Even Lavronenko and Vilhelm were not miraculous.__P.S. I don't want to see Václav Bárta and Alice Bendová in any more Czech films, please. One and a half.
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The film version of a tabloid that plays at serious journalism. Exploitation attractions (anal sex!, tears!, blood!), a visual aspect made interesting at any cost and characters that can be described with a single word (with an exclamation point) turn an intimate court/prison drama into something resembling an ancient tragedy. Everything is BIG and IMPORTANT on the surface and definitely doesn’t demand that we look too deeply beneath that surface. The roles are clearly divided, the protagonist is a super-positive guy whose life is ruined by a bunch of assholes (which I would have no trouble believing if I ignored the title “inspired by actual events”). The dramaturgy was handled satisfactorily. The end of one scene arouses curiosity as to what will happen in the next one, the simple visual shortcuts help with orientation in the relationships between the characters and important information is repeated emphatically enough that after a few tens of minutes you figure out what the lawyer is shocked to learn shortly before the ending. Furthermore, the formalistic techniques are so overused that you will know at the beginning of most of the scenes where the director is heading (here someone will get shot, there someone will fly off of the road), thanks to which the film is devoid of any surprises. As a spectacle for those who are oblivious to the incredible naïveté and for those who are amused by that naïveté, Kajínek stands out from Czech genre movies that don’t offer such a “binary” possibility of cultural experience, a certain element of self-assured trashiness. 50%
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The modern visuals of this “shaky”, realistic thriller made in Czech Republic are not tacky. On the contrary, they work well and enhance the experience from a film that doesn’t have much to offer in terms of plot, because it ends at the exact moment when it finally starts to pick up some pace. But that’s not the fault of the screenwriters, but of the Czech police, who were so quick to catch Kajínek and didn’t give him a chance to do more mischief while on the lam :-) The actors are decent and the commercial success that the movie enjoys is admirable. Is it possible that Petr Jákl will make the first truly good Czech action film in the future? If it’s to earn its budget, it would have to use subject matter as attractive as that in Kajínek, which won’t be easy...
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Jákl has seen a lot of films. This film looks "American" more than anything else, and Czech cinema finally has a real "bad-ass" character (Konstantin Lavronenko!), but making movies about people who the media will make saints out of is kind of immoral. We could have almost finally had a proper Czech genre film without a sour taste in our mouths. 3 ½.
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As far as Czech thrillers go, it's quite good, but The Story of a God-Father was still considerably better and grittier in this regard. Jákl drew heavily from American productions and approached some action scenes in a similar style. It's not bad, but compared to what's out there, it just fades into the background. On the other hand, it's an example that a Czech action thriller can work.
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