Hi, everyone. "Moriarty" here with some Rumblings From The Lab...
As soon as I finish posting today’s stories, I’m heading down to the Russian neighborhood near the Labs and scouring their video stores for an import DVD of this film. I’m very curious, and you’ll see why as soon as you read this review:
Haven't seen you mentioning this one, so...
According to Variety, Fox just outbid among others Dimension Films to buy distribution rights of the Russian blockbuster The Night Watch (Nochnoi Dozor), its sequel The Day Watch, and is going to co-produce the triquel The Dawn Watch. OK, just what they mean by Russian blockbuster? Well, it made over a 15 mil $ just in Russia, which is more than Gigli or Pluto Nash made worldwide, plus you've got to remember than the ticket prices in Russia are pretty low, and the bears get to see the movies for free... I dunno what is more telling - the fact that The Night Watch outperformed The Lord of the Rings in Tolkien-crazed Russia, or that according to Moscow newspaper, babushkas from the neighborhood watch are scaring the shit out of drunks and perverts in the 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 in November, and I just got it on DVD from one of Russian video stores in NY, and you know what - everybody who complained about the PG-13 rating of the AVP should go see this movie. Everybody who liked the 6th Sense should go see this movie. So should everybody who didn't. I can tell you that the movie is based on series of SciFi novels by some Russian dude, moreover, I even can spell his name - still ain't tell you nothin', right? So, everybody who didn't like LOTR because "it's not like the book" should also go see this movie - no danger for you there, heh? The premise/ mythos of the movie is simple - there are powerful Dark (evil - vampires and things like that) and Light (good - wizards and such) forces in the world, we humans are as always simply the food or the collateral damage. But in this movie there is no all-out war between the Dark and the Light, because both figured out that once one of the sides is winning all sorts of calamities ensue - wars, plagues, revolutions, Windows upgrades... So the word of the day is 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 too heavy on wizarding (just you wait, Mr. Harry Potter). Then there the Inquisitor, who watches over the Night Watch - well, you don't wanna mess with this guy. So the Night Watch drives around Moscow in a bright yellow City Utilities and Electric Power truck, keeping the peace and balance. How long you think it takes before something goes terribly wrong? Just like with every other basically good idea - peacekeeping, Israeli-Palestinian peace process, liberation of Iraq - not all that long. Think big city, plunged in darkness by a power outage, add few vampires - you get the picture. And then there is this kid - think Luke Skywalker, if you will... OK, no major spoilers.
Moviewise - personally I think the plot is great, and is trimmed well enough for the movie, so that one can get the idea without reading the books. The casting is superb, most of the operators in the movie are character actors, not your average run-of-the-mill daytime-soaps-rejects that seems to be filling Hollywood's horror B-flicks. Maybe it's just me but I have had hard time accepting Banderas or Gibson as action heroes, no easier than say Adam Sandler, and I am really all for a tough guy who not only talks mean but looks mean also. Do they have some mean looking motherfuckers in this movie... Special effects - it's not the LOTR or the Spiderman, but finally there is a Russian movie with not spectacular but quite passable, even by American standards special effects. Stunt work was always good in Russian action films, they still know how to 'splode things, stage a fight, and apparently blood costs next to nothing over there. What sets this movie apart from the rest of Russian flicks is that CG special effects started catching up with the Hollywood productions. Not there yet, but you don't get "Oh, fuck, what is that?!" feeling, not as often at least. I'd say the effects are far less cheesy than in British Dog Soldiers, that got good buzz on AICN, and in all the Crocodiles and Anacondas thus far. The Night Watch has a lot of nice little details - like the Moscow policeman, treated to a view of a Watchman vomiting blood in the subway, asks indignantly "What kinda shit ARE you drinking nowdays?!" It also has that creeping eerie feeling to it, but on the other hand I get it everytime I go to Moscow anyway, vampires or not.
The film is quite gory, the blood is splattering, body parts are a-flying, heads get smashed, - well, all the attributes of a good carnage missing from LOTR and AVP. There are some flaws to this movie, not all special effects and make-up came out allright, and as it became painfully obvious in Antikiller-2 Russians did finally discover the product placement, but all and all I think the positives outweigh the negatives in this one. As a departure from our usual made for SciFi channel horror flicks the Night Watch definitely worth a look.
If you are going to use this write-up call me Worm.
Thanks, Worm.
Another enthusiastic fan wrote in, but not with a review. Instead, he sent a link:
Hey Harry,
Is the next great fantasy trilogy coming from...Russia??? By the director of ESCAPE FROM AFGHANASTAN??? Witches, vampires, a 1000 year old truce between the forces of good and evil that is about to be broken in modern-day Moscow???
I'll cut to the chase; watch this:
Don't know about you, but that got me very, VERY excited!!!
Looks like we have something to look forward to next summer...but, if you just can't wait, you can buy (or download!) the first movie here!
If you use this, call me Fishmael...
Pretty amazing that Fox paid $2 million each for these films. There must be something going on with them, and as soon as I take a peek, I’ll make sure to weigh in on them m’self...
"Moriarty" out.
