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Set in contemporary Moscow, NIGHT WATCH (NOCHNOI DOZOR) revolves around the conflict and balance maintained between the forces of light and darkness — the result of a medieval truce between the opposing sides. As night falls, the dark forces battle the super-human “Others” of the Night Watch, whose mission is to patrol and protect. I saw this movie the other day and really liked it. It's Russian with english subtitles. Great stuff I would highly recomend it. The Officail site 
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Putting the "fun" back in Fundamentalist Christian Dogma.
" I know God exists because WBAM told me so. " - theory9
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read a lot about this, but have yet to see it. it's gotten a lot of praise.
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Quote:
Pariah said:
Looks B-Grade.
EVERYTHING looks B-Grade to you
 Racks be to MisterJLA
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In this case, however, he's right.
I saw it about a year ago after watching the trailer. Sadly, after you remove all the great stuff you see on the Apple site, you're left with piss-poor storytelling.
The movie is simply labored with the responsibility of bringing too much to the plate. The closest analogy I can think of would be one to Star Wars: Episode III: cool special effects coupled with the promise of a great premise, but neither make the grade as a whole.
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I disagree with Wednesday. I saw it two weeks ago and I think they brought too little to the plate. You get the basic background of the trilogy and then two B-stories converse to eventually become part of the A-story. This movie almost forces you to see the latter two parts of the trilogy, just so you get some kind of payoff for your time. There were very few special effects in this first part. The movie wasn't awful, but they need to up the ante quite a bit in the next two.
Uschi said:I won't rape you, I'll just fuck you 'till it hurts and then not stop and you'll cry. MisterJLA: RACKS so hard, he called Jim Rome "Chris Everett." In Him, all porn is possible. He is far above mentions in so-called "blogs." RACK him, lest ye be lost! "I can't even brush my teeth without gagging!" - Tommy Tantillo: Wank & Cry, heckpuppy, and general laughingstock ![[Linked Image from i6.photobucket.com]](http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y203/JoeMama13/RedSoxBanner05.png)
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As I said before, i really liked this movie. I'll start by noting with a lot of forign movies there seems to be a disconect based on the viewers exposure to that culture and that culture's method of story telling. Alot of time films are seen through a narrow spectrum, because even if it's not a consious recognition there are subleties that we expect, because American films follow specific rules. I remember after Crouching Tiger the most common criticism I heard was that it was rediculous how the people "flew" all over the place, while in Hong Kong Cinema the art of wire-work is as much a movie staple as teh high-speed car chase is to American movies. I don't want to go as far as to say any criticism to the movie is simply based on cultural ignorance, just want people to consider the differences before placing the film in a box.
As far as the trailor making the film look B-Grade, I'm acctually not a fan of the trailor as it attempts to Americanise the movie. Also it is a Russian film and isn't exactly going to be on the same budget as an American film.
Putting the "fun" back in Fundamentalist Christian Dogma.
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Ruskies should stick to making vodka and mail order brides.
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oh and strippers and rub and tug girls.....they're good at that too.
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You're right, PJP, they absolutely are.
I probably watch as many foreign films as I do American films nowadays. Okay, maybe not, but at least half as many easy. Either way, I like a lot of Russian films (The Return is an incredibly good, fairly recent Russian movie that comes to mind) but I didn't like Night Watch.
I think something else to consider is that JM and I are talking about the movie's ability to tell a story, not its use of highwires or perpetually grim lighting. Storytelling is an art that transcends culture; a good story is a good story, whether Russian, German, or American.
This was not a good story.
P.S. I love Crouching Tiger. It's one of the few movies I've seen more than once.
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Quote:
Wednesday said:
I think something else to consider is that JM and I are talking about the movie's ability to tell a story, not its use of highwires or perpetually grim lighting. Storytelling is an art that transcends culture; a good story is a good story, whether Russian, German, or American.
Absolutely. These days, I find myself drawn to Asia to get my horror fix. There are so many good ideas being made into good films there, and many of them rely on only the barest of special effects. As far as Night Watch goes, I wasn't as disappointed in the special effects - whatever the budget was, Olga's transformation from owl to woman was well done - as I was in the pacing issues in the story itself. Wednesday believes that too much was put in; I'd argue that too little was put in. The final reveal/twist/climax to part one was satisfying. But the movie itself was very uneven.
Uschi said:I won't rape you, I'll just fuck you 'till it hurts and then not stop and you'll cry. MisterJLA: RACKS so hard, he called Jim Rome "Chris Everett." In Him, all porn is possible. He is far above mentions in so-called "blogs." RACK him, lest ye be lost! "I can't even brush my teeth without gagging!" - Tommy Tantillo: Wank & Cry, heckpuppy, and general laughingstock
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I agree with Wednesday,Joe Mama and the Russian Strippers.
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But the Russian Strippers disagree with both Joe and Wednesday.
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not the girl ones, just the trannys....please stay on topic.
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Quote:
Pariah said:
But the Russian Strippers disagree with both Joe and Wednesday.
The scary thing about this statement? Night Watch did better box office in Rusiia than LOTR: ROTK and Episode III, so Pariah's dead-on correct.
Uschi said:I won't rape you, I'll just fuck you 'till it hurts and then not stop and you'll cry. MisterJLA: RACKS so hard, he called Jim Rome "Chris Everett." In Him, all porn is possible. He is far above mentions in so-called "blogs." RACK him, lest ye be lost! "I can't even brush my teeth without gagging!" - Tommy Tantillo: Wank & Cry, heckpuppy, and general laughingstock
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second time today someone agreed with him. I will now prepare for the apocalypse.
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Quote:
Joe Mama said:
The scary thing about this statement? Night Watch did better box office in Rusiia than LOTR: ROTK and Episode III, so Pariah's dead-on correct.
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Quote:
Wednesday said:
You're right, PJP, they absolutely are.
I probably watch as many foreign films as I do American films nowadays. Okay, maybe not, but at least half as many easy. Either way, I like a lot of Russian films (The Return is an incredibly good, fairly recent Russian movie that comes to mind) but I didn't like Night Watch.
I think something else to consider is that JM and I are talking about the movie's ability to tell a story, not its use of highwires or perpetually grim lighting. Storytelling is an art that transcends culture; a good story is a good story, whether Russian, German, or American.
This was not a good story.
P.S. I love Crouching Tiger. It's one of the few movies I've seen more than once.
Everything this man says here is correct. CTHD's excellence is incommensurable. It belongs in the pantheon of filmmaking.
My foreign-American film ratio is about 1:1, and while there are plenty of good nonsensical movies you'll find overseas, this isn't one of them, in my opinion. I thought it started out fine, but kind of degenerated into a ridiculous mess by the end. The dramatic music was a bit silly, too, especially considering that there were numerous parts where I really had no idea what was going on.
I will say this, though: best use of subtitles ever.
When I think Russian cinema, I think Andrei Tarkovsky or Sergei Parajanov. Solaris(the original, not the crappy Clooney remake) is by far my favorite Russian film. Of course, Solaris couldn't be more different than Night Watch. It's slow, methodical, and precisely planned.
I recently saw the Return, and was impressed.
MisterJLA is RACKing awesome.
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Quote:
Wednesday said:
You're right, PJP, they absolutely are.
I probably watch as many foreign films as I do American films nowadays. Okay, maybe not, but at least half as many easy. Either way, I like a lot of Russian films (The Return is an incredibly good, fairly recent Russian movie that comes to mind) but I didn't like Night Watch.
I think something else to consider is that JM and I are talking about the movie's ability to tell a story, not its use of highwires or perpetually grim lighting. Storytelling is an art that transcends culture; a good story is a good story, whether Russian, German, or American.
This was not a good story.
P.S. I love Crouching Tiger. It's one of the few movies I've seen more than once.
Right, I was trying to be carefull to suggest that the cultural anomolies are simply one consideration and not to invalidate your critisism. I simply dissagree with your take on the story telling. I find it interesting that while both you and JM rated the movie similar you both seemed to have polar opposite issues with the story telling. You thought it was too much and he thought it was too little. I however thought it was just enough. A friend of mine owns a theater (plays, not movies) They cater to a broad scope of adherants, both secular amd religious. While the owners and many supporters are Christian, teh theater is in teh heart of the art distric and has a large secular following. If you're still reading and haven't given up because you don't see the comparrison, I'll tell you. Often they have plays that they edit for content (before you get outraged, this is a common practice in community theaters). He told me that if the Christinas think they left too much sex and profanity in and the purists think they took too much out, he knows he did his job. That's why I take you're combined critisism as a potential positive.... all though, i may have birdwalked too far in order to make the point.
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