A documentary that will take you back as the imaginary DeLorean to a time when foreign videos and movies were bought on black exchanges. They were fast dubbed with Czech voices and home video screenings were held en masse. At the time of socialism, only those foreign movies that fit into the propaganda concept of the country's top political leadership and thus the only Czechoslovak broadcasting company were used to screen. Therefore, there was a huge secret illegal movie business Come and see how the then movie pirates, dubbers, distributors and all those who had something to do with this video industry remember that time.
Video Kings is a captivating, passionate, informative and most of all funny documentary. With great insight and humour, it tells not only one fascinating story, but three: the story of videotapes and their Czech amateur fast dubbing, the story of post-revolutionary movie piracy, and finally a story whose protagonist is also the movie itself, the story of the current second life of these bizarre recordings.
Those who know more about this theme may be impressed, and those who don’t may want to learn more, while everyone can laugh. The absurdity of the production conditions, the specific dubbing solution, the obscure ingenuity - and a bit of some of those movies. It is far from just a movie for nostalgics who watched videotapes with amateur fast dubbing as children.
Video Kings is most of all about love for cinema and its absorbing power. After all, Video Kings is so much about love for movies that the creators sometimes forget that the intentions of their heroes were often not impersonal. It just made a damn good money.
5/5
