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| Night Watch | 
 enlarge | Director: Timur Bekmambetov
Actors: Konstantin Khabensky, Vladimir Menshov, Mariya Poroshina, Valeri Zolotukhin, Galina Tyunina
Studio: 20th Century Fox
Category: DVD
List Price: $14.98
Buy Used: $3.52
You Save: $11.46 (77%)
New (45) Used (44) from $3.52
Avg. Customer Rating:  155 reviews
Sales Rank: 5816
Format: Ac-3, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, Dvd-video, Subtitled, Widescreen, Ntsc
Languages: English (Original Language), Russian (Original Language), English (Subtitled), Spanish (Subtitled), English (Dubbed), French (Dubbed), Spanish (Dubbed)
Rating: R (Restricted)
Number Of Items: 1
Running Time: 114
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.1 x 5.4 x 0.6
MPN: FOXD2233755D
UPC: 024543237488
EAN: 0024543237488
ASIN: B000FFJ81C
Theatrical Release Date: 2004
Release Date: June 20, 2006
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
 English Version Quite Interesting June 27, 2006
7 out of 8 found this review helpful
First viewed the trailer in a hotel in Moscow then in a few theaters in Cherepovets, Russia. Took a few months to get a version in Russian and loved it. Since I study russian, I'm able to appreciate much of the movie. With an English version, my friends can appreciate it also.
Best film from Europe I've seen in a while. Great action and cinimatography. Better than most of the US movies I've purchased over the past few years. Hope next two are as good or better. Little confusing first time I watched it but I was able to catch a few things more each time I've viewed the movie.
 Overhyped example of a foreign film market trying to imitate American-Style Blockbuster films July 1, 2006
7 out of 18 found this review helpful
NIGHT WATCH may have been done in by its own marketing campaign. Sold to the West as Russia's surprise blockbuster hit with fantastic effects, big-budget flare, and the first part of a planned trilogy or even quadrolgy, the film had its bar raised so high that it ultimately could not reach it in the eyes of this viewer.
I will give them credit for their two main strengths - 1) there are some nice shots and FX in the movie, and 2) there is a whole world created here with plenty of fuel for the planned trilogy.
However, as many nice moments and plot-points as there are, they do not add up to a total satisfying experience. Either the problem lies with this film being aimed at a Russian audience with a different palate for movie exposition, or the filmmakers are just not able to completely immitate what they have seen from the west.
As a Westerner, I was looking for much more excitement - the action of this movie is shot in a grand STYLE, but is not present in the same ABUNDANCE required for the Blockbusters we are used to here. As such, the film's few action scenes are pretty boring - reminiscent of a movie from about 20 years ago with some cool elements, but without the means or budget to give them life.
Furthermore, there is just no way to really understand what is going on in each scene. A fault in the translation, perhaps, but half of the dialogue makes no sense. The overall thread of the story makes sense ultimately, but it took a long time to follow what was going on in each individual scene.
Then there are some just plain bad mistakes - such as a point in which an owl turns into a woman who seems to have not been human for over 60 years. As such, we spend a few minutes watching her try to understand what plumbing and soap are for - only to have her emerge from her bath a few seconds later and state, "Oh - I've been aching for a hot shower for 60 years!" For the remainder of the movie, she seems to know more about her surroundings and what's going on than the hero himself does.
Then, the full nature of the supernatural beings is never quite understandable. Are they created as "Others," or do they start as human and then BECOME Others after a pivotal event occurs? If they are now supernatural, why do they still bleed, sleep, and eat? Why are the sometimes visible and sometimes not? We see that they are always fighting - but over what?
As for characters and developement - it is non-existent. Aside from the main hero, every other character is just in the background - and there are ALOT of characters who had potential to be great - but they simply have few lines and few memorable moments in the movie. In the end, you don't remember any of them - they were just there.
At the end of the movie (if you are still awake), you may be interested enough to anticipate the coming sequels. I myself am not, considering that the director himself admits that the first film was made for a Russian audience, then surprised him by finding a national audience, and now demanding the new movies consider the global audience. A further complication is that the third of the series is expected to be produced IN ENGLISH by FOX Studios. All this means that the three movies are unlikely to have a common feel or direction, but will be influenced by changing demographics, and the interference of a western production studio with their own mentalities.
By and large, this movie had potential, but is ultimately just a conglomeration of ideas taken from better American movies such as UNDERWORLD and BLADE. And when I can say that THOSE two movies are "better" - well, that's just sad!
 Great movie ... April 25, 2006
5 out of 6 found this review helpful
Hopefully, this DVD will have the original full-length version, not the considerably shortened North American theatrical release.
Watch the Russian cut instead June 21, 2006
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
This is the first time I have been inspired to write an Amazon review. I finally bought the U.S. release of Nochnoy dozor, which has turned out to be one of my most favorite movies. However I was very upset to find that this release is completely different than the original Russian version. The U.S. version of Night Watch is a bit hard to follow. The explanation of Others and the Great Battle at the beginning was excellent, but it quickly goes downhill when scenes are inserted that throw the movie totally off course. There's very little of the dark humor that was shown in the Russian cut, and what happened to Ignat?
The U.S. release portrays Night Watch to be some sort of unfeeling, straight action movie in the vein of Underworld. Anyone wishing to experience the full effect of Night Watch should do themselves a favor by getting the original version.
 Y'all must have lost your damn minds June 24, 2006
5 out of 20 found this review helpful
I'm honestly speechless. I've never seen a movie so over-hyped in my life - there are no action sequences (unless u consider quick-cutting to random screams & close-up shots of open eyeballs 'action'), the special effects are lame (when they even show up - watch the trailer and u'll see all there is to see of the tiger woman - a whole 2 seconds!), and the acting wooden. I'm a big fan of B movies, but it really pisses me off when a film as bad as this gets so much attention and truly great movies like 'the descent' go relatively unnoticed. The film isn't even cheesy in a good way - there are no cool monster designs, no witty one-liners, really no action or gore, and, worst of all, it is actually trying to be serious with its hokey plot. You get a certain amateur charm with most B movies, but for some reason the ones that always seem to be pressing for attention end up just looking ridiculous. And is it just me, or is the whole quick-cutting/fast-forward movement of characters getting REALLY old?! I mean honestly, how many times can you get 'freaked out' by seeing someone stand still for a silent moment, then suddenly thrust their hand up on a mirror with the fast-forward effect? The first I remember seeing this in was Resident Evil, where the camera cut suddenly to the little red girl with her hand on the glass and her eyes open. I've seen it in almost every single big-name horror movie since then, though, and these pathetic attempts at portraying a shattered psyche or frenetic movements are getting REALLY lame. Doesn't anyone recognize a tired device anymore? A good example of this is during the scene where the main character tries to revive a little kid (why he passed out and was suddenly covered in ash makeup, I couldn't say). Cheesy glow-in-the-dark spider veins showed up all over his body for no reason, and the camera suddenly goes on a frenzy, darting into one of the veins and then careening around wildly inside the kid's blood vessels. We see a shirt button fall 'ominously' through the darkness and slice several ribbons, and then we cut to a mosquito sucking blood from a transluscent pool. Wow, great stuff guys. Suddenly the kid is revived, and he doesn't seem the least bit surprised that he's suddenly now a ghoul, or 'Other' (original, huh). As for the action sequences, there were none. I don't recall a single fight, save for the ultra-cheesy medieval swordfight in the beginning (and replayed during the end for the climax). Bunch of the cast dressed up in either fur or silver armor, running at each other with swords. Wow. Epic, lemme tell ya. Oh, and there's the climactic fight - the villain pulls his spine out of his back (in a cheesy sequence with obvious dyed rubber) and doesn't do a damn thing with it. This villain and the main character have perhaps the lamest sword duel ever captured on film. It cuts between the main character weilding a massive blacklight bulb like a maniac, to the villain slamming his sword into the ground over and over. Isn't this guy supposed to be the king of darkness or something? And wasn't he an accomplished warlord? His swordsmanship was totally unconvincing, not to mention the fact that neither sword actually seemed to clash during the duel - they just dodged and swung, repeatedly. There's no resolution to this either - the little kid mentioned earlier just runs into the fray and suddenly the fight stops, and it's revealed that the child has strayed onto the dark path. It really took a lot for me to finish this flim, because I desperately wanted to turn it off about halfway through...but I just had to see what all the hype was about, and form my own honest opinion. In summation, I honestly don't see a single redeeming quality in this - hell, at least underworld had monsters and action. This is basically just a bad plot with some ultra-cheesy 'new-wave' horror effects thrown in as (bad) eye candy. If you really want to watch a special effects-laden, action-filled monsterfest, go check out blade, underworld, hellboy, or van helsing. Classics they ain't, but at least there's some entertainment to be found.
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