Night Watch (Nochnoi Dozor)
Fox
just outbid all comers to get distribution rights for this Russian blockbuster
'Night Watch'; it's sequel 'Day Watch' and is going to co-produce the third
film, which will be called 'Dawn Watch'. The film's made over a $15 million
in Russia alone even considering the low price of tickets. 'Night Watch' outperformed
The 'Lord of the Rings'; neighbourhood watch groups are scaring the shit out
of drunks and perverts in the Gorky Park with their new battle cry "This is
the NIGHT WATCH! Everybody, please step out of the TWILIGHT!" The movie is set
to open in US as you read this and I just got it on DVD from some Russian video
store in NY. Convoluted way to get a review copy but it had to be done. The
movie is based on series of Sci-Fi novels by a Russian bloke whose name I can't
pronounce but the basic premise is simple and familiar. There are powerful Dark
(vampires, etc.) and Light (wizards and suchlike) forces in the world. Humans
are pretty much food or collateral damage. There cannot be all-out war between
the Dark and the Light since they both figured out that once one of the sides
is winning all sorts of calamities ensue (wars, plagues, revolutions…). So there's
a real need for balance and coexistence, thus the Night Watch, made up from
both the Dark and the Light ones, to police the world, to look for vampires
who got over their quota in blood supplies, or for wizards going all Valdimort
on your ass. Then there's the Inquisitor (ooh, scary man), who watches over
the Night Watch. So the Night Watch drives around Moscow in a bright yellow
City Utilities and Electric Power truck (with rocket boosters), keeping the
peace and
balance.
Stuff goes terribly wrong? Power outages all over the place, swirling plagues
of crows, aircraft out of control, people running out of Nescafe…y'know, the
usual apocalyptic portents. . And there's this kid who holds the key to the
balance in the force…erm…I mean the balance between the good and bad stuff.
Only he don't know that he's either the messiah or the anti-Christ and just
wants to watch TV. Ok. The plot is great, convoluted and difficult to follow
through the subtitles sometimes, but great. The cast is also great (nice to
see some ugly leads for a change). Special effects are generally passable, even
by American standards (watch out Yanks, the Ruskies are catching up), and some
are even innovative enough to be regarded as new ideas. Excellent stunts, action
set pieces, exploding heads and flying body part stuff and plenty of blood (the
film, in case you couldn't tell, is quite gory). Nice creepy, eerie atmospheric
feeling to it as well. And, surprisingly, I got the humour as well, dark and
Russian as it is. I haven't enjoyed a film, foreign or otherwise, this much
for ages. Recommended whole-heartedly. 6/5
