Daywatch - One To Miss On Your Watch!!
- Day Watch review by CS
Trying very hard to be a kind of 'Matrix' with Vampire type characters, this is a very confusing and muddled affair. This is a Russian film, with English dubbing which works Ok. But sadly it tries to be very complex and clever, but instead ends up being very confusing and just plain boring. This has been made in an almost Japanese Anime style but with live action instead of cartoon. It probably would have worked with the script as it is if it had been Anime, but as live action the script just does not work. Also what's odd about this film is that all of the actors look like they worked for the KGB and are about that same age as well. Having a 50 year old bloke, pretending to be a 20 year old just does not work. So it's kind of out of place with so many things. Nice try, but not for UK consumption.
3 out of 3 members found this review helpful.
Inexcusable subtitles.
- Day Watch review by Drumhum
This movie is simply wonderful and even better than the first of this trilogy. I really have a big problem with how this film is often compared to the matrix as it really has nothing at all to do with that film. Its an "urban" fairy-tale, modern and contemporary but not Matrix-y!
Unlike so many hollywood stuff the viewer is not patronised with an easy to follow plot with nice "reminders" of what's happening. The story twists and turns and never stops moving for a moment. This film requires concentration and full commitment but you will be fully rewarded by the end or this 140min epic.
It starts almost immediately where the first film ended. You really need to see the first before this one but that just makes it better. This not just a different story with the same actors/location - its a true follow on.
One MAJOR GRIPE.
My copy from Cinema Paradiso did NOT feature the wonderful subtitles that english people were provided for by the film makers. Buy the movie (or watch on the cinema) and you have amazing fully animated text like you've never seen before. It really adds to the film for those of us who can't speak Russian (!).
The fact this copy has just plain boring white tele-text style subs, was a huge disappointment for me.
I strongly recommend you DO NOT RENT THIS FILM for this reason - but buy it!
2 out of 3 members found this review helpful.
Dismal Russian Demons and Angels Fantasy Movie.
- Day Watch review by PV
OK so I turned this off before the half hour point.
Not my thing. Probably a B-movie of the genre too.
If you like fantasy and chasing demons etc, and such like, try it.
Not for me. Annoying subtitles too. And that rock soundtrack. Very Russian, probably.
0 out of 0 members found this review helpful.
Watch this!!
- Day Watch review by Kurtz
Got to agree with the positive review- “Day Watch” is an atmospheric treat, stuffed with great lines and wild action. Director Bekmambetov seems to have a freer hand here, having dealt with all the backstory in “Night Watch”,so he delivers a clearer, tighter story with all the usual supernatural malarkey, and in amongst it all there are affecting father/son stories, respect between the leaders of the two camps, and fascinating glimpses of the old and new Moscow. OK, so he wimps out on the possibilities of a gender-swap shower scene, but sex is perhaps the one thing that “Night/Day Watch” was never about.
0 out of 1 members found this review helpful.
Fantastic & Original Fantasy/Horror
- Day Watch review by GI
What this sequel to 2004's Night Watch lacks in originality and horror tropes it makes up for in fantasy action and sheer entertainment. There's huge action set pieces and stunts that appear to be there for no other reason than to include them but you can forgive this because they are such a delight. Like many sequels the impact of the original film is now lost so it has to make up for it by being more spectacular and the reason this is a worthy follow up is because it neatly ties up the storyline from the first film. The uneasy truce between the forces of Light and Dark hangs by a thread especially as it appears that two 'Great Others' have appeared, one for the light and one for the Dark. The trouble is Night Watch 'Other' Anton is in love with one and the other is his son. This creates the conflict of the narrative which is essentially a fantasy romance with some themes about family, parenting and the break up of the Soviet Union and the rise of western values in Russia. At the end of the day this is just great fun and if you enjoyed the Night Watch then this is a must see.
0 out of 0 members found this review helpful.
Entertaining, not Dosteyevsky-deep
- Day Watch review by CP Customer
Good fun Russian take on a Hollywood staple.1st movie broadly followed the book's plot. This one massively diverges, with only a couple of plot threads (chalk, relationships) that are in common. Having loved the book, that is frustrating, but my wife who hasn't read it really enjoyed it. To be fair the book meanders around life philosophy, communism vs. capitalism, and would be expensive to film properly in the multiple Russian locationse. I thought the 1st movie was more inventive, but given budget limitations they've made a fun, exciting and unpredictable slice of russian Hollywood. And just seeing the shabby side of Moscow, and Russian skewed view of Hollywood style entertainment, is fun. The books really are better than the movies.
0 out of 0 members found this review helpful.