Sametoví vrazi

If I once said about Rule of Lies that it is the most sympathetic Czech attempt at a genre film, then what I will say about The Velvet Murderers is that it is probably the most professional attempt, which has no comparable competition far and wide. However, to say that The Velvet Murderers is the best post-communist Czech crime film is the same as saying about another film that it is the best Austrian sci-fi or Mongolian horror. Simply put, there is weak competition here, and on a global scale, this film would only amount to a pure average. I'm not even going to bother with the opinions of some who criticize Svoboda for how the former leader of the Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia can make a film about criticizing capitalism. The point is that The Velvet Murderers has a strangely fragmented script, where it jumps from character to character and from one motif to another, where, for example, the police and the course of the investigation play purely secondary roles. The casting of some supporting roles is also problematic, and I would name Alice Bendova, who is far from being a top-notch actress. Overall impression: 60%. (20/01/2013)

In retrospect, The Velvet Murderers may seem like an ideal mirror to the series Nineties because the film follows the stories of the killers, while the series focuses more on the private lives of the investigators. The film has the advantage that director Svoboda was present at some of the trials himself, living the case first-hand. In his film, he does not balance out or evaluate, instead offering a view of the ancient drama from the very beginning. For his actors, especially Dlouhý, it was a really interesting opportunity to portray Hrubeš's journey from Rapid Response Unit to the wheelchair and then to prison. Benešová and Veselá (now Bendová) were given the opportunity to play exceptional negative female characters. Other than that, Svoboda took a safe bet and repeated his collaboration with his team from the film Pardon Not Granted. This was a time when Vondráček used to play the sleazebags and Dolanský played the murderers. (17/02/2009)

Such a promising, very promising subject, hiding great audience potential, and yet such a tragic result. In an interview, Svoboda indirectly compared his latest creation to 'Tarantino' (adding that the best stories are written by life itself, something we can all agree with). I think he should wake up some day. After a few days, all I can remember is a very confused plot, a tragic performance of the pseudo-celebrity of all tabloids Alice Veselá (that woman really can't act), Michal Dlouhy's wannabe tough talk with his annoying "fuck" in every other sentence, the dense occurrence of shags every ten minutes, and the artfully hidden life attitudes of a convinced communist. The wild years of Czech capitalism could make a good thriller bomb, here I got only a faintly audible fart. (05/01/2006)

I think that Czech filmmakers do not particularly excel at making thriller, crime or action movies. So, Sametoví vrazi (Velvet Killers) is one of the exceptions that actually turned out great. Even though the film has its flaws, it’s far from a disaster and, even fifteen years after its creation, it works quite well for me. I was really close to giving it a fourth star for Jan Dolanský’s performance. Anyway, I was satisfied. (14/04/2020)

A briskly paced and solidly acted crime drama, unfortunately, plays on something it is not in some places, featuring too many characters and frequently resorting to gratuitous sex scenes. Nonetheless, at the time of its creation, it was an important proof that the dire state of Czech cinema is not so critical, and it represents the direction followed by many followers of Svoboda. (09/12/2006)