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Movies / On DVD / I Served the King of England
I Served the King of England

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I Served the King of England (2008)

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80 %
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Reviews Counted: 80

Fresh: 64

Rotten:16

Average Rating: 7.2/10

Consensus: With charm and an eye for life's bittersweet moments, Czech New Wave master Jiri Menzel paints a picaresque story with whimsy and intellect.

Rated: R [See Full Rating] for sexual content and nudity.

Runtime: 2 hrs

Genre: Foreign Films

Theatrical Release:Aug 22, 2008 Limited

Box Office: $345,126

Synopsis: Czech director Jiri Menzel has worked only sporadically since making a splash in the 1960s with lauded features such as CLOSELY WATCHED TRAINS. I SERVED THE KING OF ENGLAND is another welcome... Czech director Jiri Menzel has worked only sporadically since making a splash in the 1960s with lauded features such as CLOSELY WATCHED TRAINS. I SERVED THE KING OF ENGLAND is another welcome invitation to witness Menzel's singular vision, which is liberally sprinkled with homage to silent features, vaudeville, and slapstick. The film tells the story of Jan Dite, an ordinary Czech citizen who reflects on life after being released from jail. Much of the film is told in flashback, with Menzel transporting his audience back to Dite's younger days in Prague, both before and during World War II, where the young restaurant worker does whatever it takes to fulfill his dreams of becoming a millionaire. His reckless and frequently hilarious path to achieving his goal becomes the backbone of the movie, and Menzel deftly edits back and forth between the older and younger versions of Dite as his history is revealed. The younger version of Dite is played to excellent effect by Ivan Barnev, who manages to make the character extremely compelling. Barnev and Menzel even conspire to find humor in Dite's darkest hours, such as his marriage to a Nazi (played by Julia Jentsch) and his job in a Czech "breeding center" set up to produce Hitler youth. Food and sex become important parts of the storyline as Dite demonstrates his passion for both, and the rampant urges of his younger self are neatly tempered by Menzel's flash-forwards to the older version of the character (played by Oldrich Kaiser). Like CLOSELY WATCHED TRAINS, this feature is an adaptation of a novel by Czech writer Bohumil Hrabel, and it's another hugely entertaining and utterly peerless piece of work from an inspired director. [More]

Starring: Ivan Barnev, Oldøich Kaiser, Julia Jentsch, Marian Labuda

Starring: Ivan Barnev, Oldøich Kaiser, Julia Jentsch, Marian Labuda, Milan Lasica, Zuzana Fialová, Martin Huba, Josef Abrham

Director: Jirí Menzel

Director: Jirí Menzel
Screenwriter: Jirí Menzel
Producer: Robert Schaffer, Andrea Metcalfe
Composer: Ales Brezina
Studio: Sony Pictures Classics

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Release:

Feb 17, 2009

[DVD Details]
 
 

DVD Features:

  • Region 1
  • Keep Case
  • Full Frame - 1.33
  • Widescreen - 1.85

Audio:

  • Dolby Digital 5.1 - Czech
  • Subtitles - English, French - Optional
 
 
 
 

Reviews for I Served the King of England

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1 - 20 (sorted by date)
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Click to read the article

Full Review Source: Orlando Sentinel | comment Comment
05/13/09
Roger Moore
Orlando Sentinel
N/R

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: Boston Phoenix | comment Comment
04/23/09
Gerald Peary
Boston Phoenix

The world it depicts is too dangerous and too lovely to classify.

Full Review Source: Christian Science Monitor | comment Comment
11/21/08
Peter Rainer
Christian Science Monitor

The movie is filled with wonderful moments, set pieces of absurdity, and a richness of humor. But underneath, Menzel and Hraba have a wry and sometimes painful story to tell of the history of their country in the 20th century.

Full Review Source: Film.com | comment Comment
11/10/08
Jonathan F. Richards
Film.com
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

I Served the King of England plays like a combination of Life Is Beautiful and Forrest Gump.

Full Review Source: San Antonio Express-News | comment Comment
10/24/08
Larry Ratliff
San Antonio Express-News
N/R

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: St. Louis Post-Dispatch | comment Comment
10/18/08
St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Tasty enough but inoffensive even when it should offend, provoke, startle.

Full Review Source: Chicago Tribune | comment Comment
10/18/08
Michael Phillips
Chicago Tribune
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

The pseudo-sensuality is annoying and the supposed absurdism and satire are flimsy.

Full Review Source: Guardian [UK] | comment Comment
10/18/08
Peter Bradshaw
Guardian [UK]

[A] delightful, lighthearted satire, a quirky story of fantasy, wealth and pretty women with exposed nipples.

Full Review Source: San Diego Metropolitan | comment Comment
10/18/08
Jean Lowerison
San Diego Metropolitan

This inventive, charming picture-perfect picaresque tale of an ambitious young Czech rascal scrambling in the pre-Nazi and wartime eras marks a welcome and victorious return for Jiri Menzel, whose last major conquest was his 1967 Oscar-winning debut, C

Full Review Source: Film Journal International | comment Comment
10/13/08
Doris Toumarkine
Film Journal International

Amelie meets The Pianist in I Served the King of England, one man’s surreal journey through 30 years of Czech history.

Full Review Source: Kansas City Star | comment Comment
10/10/08
Robert W. Butler
Kansas City Star

In the end, I Served the King of England is doomed to fail by comparison. Ironically, they are comparisons that the film itself keeps making.

Full Review Source: Deseret News, Salt Lake City | comment Comment
10/09/08
Jeff Vice
Deseret News, Salt Lake City

"I Served the King of England" is like an endless feast, featuring one spectacular course after another. Somehow, you never get so full that you want to push yourself away from the table.

Full Review Source: Capital Times (Madison, WI) | comment Comment
10/07/08
Rob Thomas
Capital Times (Madison, WI)

Celebrates the pleasures of life while acknowledging its tragedy and absurdity... Its attitude might be described as good-natured fatalism.

Full Review Source: Commercial Appeal (Memphis, TN) | comment Comment
10/06/08
John Beifuss
Commercial Appeal (Memphis, TN)

[It's] surrounded by and infused with the potential for meaning but feels like a lark: a bit of nothing whistling past the graveyard of 20th century European history without a thing to do but indulge itself.

Full Review Source: Austin Chronicle | comment Comment
09/26/08
Josh Rosenblatt
Austin Chronicle

Working from a novel and script by Bohumil Hrabal, director Jiri Menzel again achieves a seriocomic triumph, as he did with his Oscar-winning 1966 adaptation of Hrabal's Closely Watched Trains.

Full Review Source: Baltimore Sun | comment Comment
09/26/08
Michael Sragow
Baltimore Sun

Most movies of this kind would lead towards redemption of sorts. Menzel prefers quiet introspection to loud conversion, and that's both a strength and weakness of this movie.

Full Review Source: Toronto Star | comment Comment
09/19/08
Peter Howell
Toronto Star
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

There's a mystical quality to King of England, a political satire that softens its barbs by locating them in the middle of a fable.

Full Review Source: St. Paul Pioneer Press | comment Comment
09/19/08
Chris Hewitt (St. Paul)
St. Paul Pioneer Press

The trouble with I Served the King of England is that it's sometimes bizarre and clever and often visually wonderful, but you never forget that you're watching a movie. And it does go on.

Full Review Source: Jam! Movies | comment Comment
09/19/08
Liz Braun
Jam! Movies

... full appreciation requires both a grasp of European history and an appreciation for stories which have many layers of meaning.

Full Review Source: Playback:stl | comment Comment
09/19/08
Sarah Boslaugh
Playback:stl
 
 
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