Starring: Konstantin Khabensky, Vladimir Menshov, Valeri Zolotukhin, Mariya Poroshina Script: Sergei Lukyanenko Original Title: Nochnoy dozor Running Time: 1:54 Country: Russia Year: 2005 Official Site: Night Watch
Those who think Russian cinema is synonymous for slow, naturalistic and cerebral films might be proven wrong with Night Watch, a fantastic piece of mumbo jumbo that mixes together the mythologies of Blade, Matrix, Highlander and Blade Runner, and then shakes them with a strong dose of punk attitude.
This classic story of good versus evil is set in the streets of Moscow, where Night Watchers battle vampires, trying to protect the world from the enterprise of the forces of the darkness, which will lead to the apocalypse.
As we follow our hero, Joe (Konstantin Khabensky), a Night Watcher who claims to fight for the good of the world but whose violent actions might result in the balance of forces tipping to the wrong side, it is clear that the film has a political sub-text, satirizing US president George Bush, his "crusades" and his simplistic presentation of a world divided into two camps, one good and the other one evil.
Voluntarily making references to fantastic and horror classics, somewhere between homage and parody, director Timur Bekmambetov's work recalls, in its approach, a Hollywood farce such as Mystery Men, but most especially Alex Cox's Repo Man, as it takes clichés of the genres and twists them with ferocity and a sense of anarchy, in a pure punk tradition.
The editing is sharp, almost neurotic, while the cinematography is glossy and dark, for a result that is halfway between David Fincher and Jean-Pierre Jeunet. Violent and hallucinated, Night Watch is fun for a while, but soon the effect starts to wear down. From there it goes downhill, until the indigestible conclusion that turns a parody into self-parody. You might be left with the same feeling as after watching Versus, another film whose cult status is owed to geekmania rather than to cinephile reconnaissance.
Night Watch review
