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Hagen Lights Up To The Russian Genre Masterpiece, NIGHT WATCH!

YES! by OgieOglethorpe	Feb 23rd, 2005 04:59:48 PM
I've had this on DVD for quite some time, (albeit with normal looking subs), and while I wouldn't quite brag it up like Hagen here has? I'm really looking forward to seeing it in the theaters, not to mention the sequels.
vampires are gay by Toe Jam	Feb 23rd, 2005 05:25:23 PM
can people please stop making movies about them?
man, i'm waiting for this movie for so looong! by CurryIce	Feb 23rd, 2005 06:53:20 PM
i'm very curious what kind of a crazy film the Russians made! i guess i have to wait for many years till i get the chance to see it in a theater near by...
I guess all the good movie titles were already taken? by Lance Rock	Feb 23rd, 2005 07:08:24 PM

Subtitles by macgruder	Feb 23rd, 2005 08:35:27 PM
I bought a copy of this off ebay, while the visuals look the great, the subtitles that were offered seemed to be taken directly off Babelfish, and made watching the film and figuring out what was said like reading through a poorly translated technical manual. I welcome a better translation to this movie because I had to turn it off ten minutes in because I couldn't process the poor subtitles fast enough to keep up with the film.
It's an okay film by The Real McCoy	Feb 24th, 2005 02:58:48 AM
Back when this site posted it's article touting NightWatch as the Russian version of the Lord of the Rings, I sought it out on DVD. I bought the region free disc with the lame subtitles as mentioned before me. Anyway, it's a well-made film but nothing more. It drags quite a bit in the middle and I think some portion of the plot probably makes more sense in Russian context. I'm not ragging on the film but, as a warning, do not go in with big expectations. *** What I find most interesting about this film is how amazingly close it is to a DC comic book (under Jim Lee's Homage banner) that came out in 1999 called Nightfall. It was about a group called NIGHTWATCH (!) that monitered vampires, witches, and such to make sure they didn't get out of line. I understand that ideas are bound to be repeated but the similarities between these two is startling.
BBC article by ScaryJim	Feb 24th, 2005 05:47:29 AM
Film Focus: Night Watch August 17th 2004 Director/Screenwriter: Timur Bekmambetov Starring: Konstantin Khabensky, Vladimir Menshov Russia Release date: July 2004 UK / US Release date: TBC Russian cinema has come a long way since Eisenstein
meh by ScaryJim	Feb 24th, 2005 05:49:08 AM
wish they would allow paragraphs or at least our own html made spaces in these talkbacks...
Quicktime trailer?... by Schnorbitz	Feb 24th, 2005 06:07:39 AM
Is there a quicktime trailer anywhere online? Probably not a subtitled one at this stage, but we could get a feel for the films's visuals with the Russion original. "Priviert, Minya zavot Michael."
Wow, this is what trailers should be! by Schnorbitz	Feb 24th, 2005 06:17:17 AM
Go to http://www.kinoafisha.ru/?stat us=1&id1=2250&tshow=on and click on the
quicktime trailer- not that i can watch it , damn download block by ScaryJim	Feb 24th, 2005 06:18:10 AM
http://www.bbcworld.com/conten t/talkingmovies_archive_33_200 4.asp?pageid=665&co_pageid=4
Hate to nitpick, but (oh, wait a minute - I don't hate to nitpic by WeedyMcSmokey	Feb 24th, 2005 09:12:13 AM
There isn't a Soviet box-office. There isn't a Soviet anything, anymore... But it's NOT thanks to Reagan, pissants.
Uhhh, this review is chopped up and makes no sense in the middle by human2	Feb 24th, 2005 09:32:08 AM
"Set in contemporary Moscow, and directed by Timur Bekmambetov and upholding The Truce. In turn, the Day Watch..." ???????????? It looks like they cut out a whole sentence between 'bekmambetov' and 'the truce'...that makes no sense as is
Russian films by Mafu	Feb 24th, 2005 10:02:13 AM
I'm happy to read that Russian cinema is getting some worldwide recognition again. Having lived in St. Petersburg, Russia for two years, I grew to love a few of the classic Russian movies like "Stalker," the original "Solaris," "The Thief," and "Come and See" (one of the most gut-wrenching movies I've ever seen). Of note to Westerners is the fact Russian films commonly do not conclude with happy endings, instead showing sad, often tragic endings. In fact, I learned Russians have taken the phrase "happy ending" and turned it into their own word with the same meaning. They often make jokes about Russian films not having "happy endings," in contrast to American films, but I can say they honestly love American films. I watched a sleazy Don Johnson film called "Harley Davidson and the Marlboro Man," a B-movie flick co-starring Mickey Rourke dubbed into Russian, and the theater was packed and they paid rapt attention. It makes sense that "Nochnoi Dozor" is influenced by modern American action films, and I'm glad younger Russian directors are creating their own artwork. I can't wait to see the fruits of this progression.
ScaryJim & "Come and See" by CurryIce	Feb 24th, 2005 10:37:45 AM
1.Thank you, ScaryJim for posting the BBC article. 2.I've also seen "Come and See" a few years ago and i think it is one of the most disturbing and strained war movies i've ever seen...definately not for everybody's tastes...
Jim Lee by LoneChicken	Feb 24th, 2005 12:10:03 PM
Also from Homage/Wildstorm was Wetworks which watched vampires werewolves, etc. Not like things from Russia respect international copyright laws:)
Although I should be angry you didn't print the review I sent wa by gigaloff	Feb 24th, 2005 01:17:09 PM
Not bitter. Nope. Not bitter at all. Heheh.
NightWatch by triflic	Feb 24th, 2005 03:55:04 PM
Had a DVD copy with quite good subtitles since October, 2004. Here is my review from my Blog (http://kurtscomment.blogspot. com/2004_10_01_kurtscomment_ar chive.html): Here is the Russian sci-fi thriller based on the book of the same name, and this years entry into the Foreign Film Oscar nomination race. It is usually cause for worry when a film begins with multiple prologues and this film has two of them. The first begins with a mythic battle between good and evil armies in the centre of a narrow bridge that immediately conjures up comparisons to the big army shots in Lord of the Rings. The second is thousands of years later when a schlub of a man goes to a fortune teller and finds out that his wife will leave him for another man because she is pregnant by her. The very helpful fortune teller offers to kill the fetus in the mother for an extra fee and one other condition...that the man will take responsibility for his actions in the afterlife. Weirdness ensues as we get a peek behind the supernatural curtain. Flash forward 12 years and the story of Mages, Vampires and Shapeshifters in some major Russian Urban centre battling it out before a prophecy is fulfilled. It's somewhere between Underworld (crap that that film was...) and The Highlander (a genre classic) but with a lot more gore than either. Add this to the release of France's Immortel, China's Zu Warriors and you are beginning to get the sense that the rest of the world wants to make big explosive genre pics like Hollywood has been turning out since Star Wars. I don't know if this is a good thing, but Nightwatch has such a twisted and organic sensibility. It is squishy, bloody and twisted like a good Cronenberg film, but without the subtext. This is pretty straight-up plot driven story telling, and it occupies with its visual candy, for its 2 hour run time. Then you find out that there is a cliff-hanger ending and two more chapters to come (again, comparisons to Lord of the Rings). Would I recommend this movie? Well it's too obtuse and exposition free for most non-genre fans to make any sense of. I'm still undecided on whether or not this is a good thing. Let's just say you are just thrown into the mix thinking: "I would probably have understood this better if I had read the book."
I tried to fast-forward through this imbecilic garbage a few mon by SalvatoreGravano	Feb 24th, 2005 06:32:12 PM
It makes Paul W.S. Anderson's masterpieces look like actual masterpieces. But since the Fox executives already got this wossname who shot it a green card, and they apparently want him to shoot a Yankee remake (hahah, what else do they do with non-US movies in USA, short of dubbing them?), this is probably good news for Germany: he will take most of the attention that Uwe Boll is currently receiving. I can't say Boll's Alone in the Dark was better than this "masterpiece", but they were more or less equally bad. (Although Boll's one didn't have that utter look of badness and budgetless cheapness that this one did)
Big advert for Nescafe coffee? by John Nefastis	Feb 27th, 2005 07:29:52 AM
Picked up a copy of Night Watch when I was over in Moscow last autumn (you can get some not-bad-quality DVDs from the little kiosks in metro stations). Thought it was great fun - a cross between Highlander / Blade / Amelie / Fight Club / Vidocq / with an ending v similar to Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. The fact the plot was a bit of a mess at least meant it wasn't too predictable. My main gripe was the astonishing product placement for Nescafe coffee. One of the characters tries to chat up the Vortex in a supermarket packed with adds for the coffee. Then they go back to her place and the dialogue is crammed with lines about how great-tasting the coffee is and how they should have another cup. Did anyone else notice that? The plugs for Nescafe were so deliberate and over-the-top it might just be that the director was taking the piss... Anyhow, very much a cliff-hanger ending, so it will be intriguing to see how the sequels pan out. Oh - and there really doesn't seem to be any point at all in a Hollywood remake. It makes better sense as a Moscow film - the bureacracy surrounding the workings of the Night and Day watch seemed typically Russian.
"that's foreign FLICKS, Mr. Connery!" by bubcus	Mar 9th, 2005 03:53:55 PM
I can't wait to see this. I love foreign films and am curious to see the Russian approach.

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Hagen Lights Up To The Russian Genre Masterpiece, NIGHT WATCH!

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