Thursday, April 14, 2005

The Night Watch



Russia 2004 - Fantasy/Mystery — 115 min — Directed by Timur Bekmambetov
Cast: Konstantin Khabensky, Vladimir Menshov, Valeri Zolotukhin, Mariya Poroshina, Galina Tyunina, Yuri Kutsenko

A long time ago, The Forces of Light battled the Force of Darkness, but when the two sides realized they were too evenly matched, a truce was reached. In present day Moscow, disheveled Anton gets ready for his first assignment - capture or kill vampires that have broken the "truce" established by the aforementioned battle thousands of years ago.


Now who would have guessed that something as cool as this would come out of Russia? Great special effects, and lovely settings. The only drawback it has, is that it's Russian; which will (probably) stop it from doing great at box-offices all over the wrold. Sadly. Because the whole mythos of this movie is just awesome, and it's the first of a trilogy, with the second named "The Day Watch" being released in Russia this year. Wanna bet against Hollywood negotiating to do an US remake, set in New York or Los Angeles? I enjoyed it immensely, especially the gloomy setting, and I'm looking forward to seeing the sequel. Now that is not something I usually do - ever.
The offbeat story and mix of weird scenes was also a joy to watch. After seeing it you just want more and more. You need answers, you need to find out what's really happening and why. I normally root for the bad guys, but I found myself rooting for the good guys in this one. Damn it.

My rating: 8 / 10

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