Daywatch

iguana

Film4 showed the first 10 minutes of Daywatch last night in advance of it's October 5th release. Really looking forward to this. I got a shock during the introduction as the introduction was done in English. But it moves into Russian once the action starts. Though I'm actually slightly apprehensive about seeing it in any of my local cinemas as I'm imagining half of the cinema having a hissy fit when they realise they need to read subtitles.

ixoy

I noticed that the trailer over here has nobody speaking in an effort to hide the subtitles from the young movie-goer who couldn't handle the stress of having to read.

The subtitles that you did see though - are they the fancy, animated subtitles that were in "Nightwatch"? They were very effective and could be a good marketing trick for getting in those who would normally shy away from a foreign-language film.

iguana

ixoy wrote:

The subtitles that you did see though - are they the fancy, animated subtitles that were in "Nightwatch"? They were very effective and could be a good marketing trick for getting in those who would normally shy away from a foreign-language film.

What I did see were quite normal, but there was only a few minutes of speech. And I saw a promo version of Nightwatch in mid-2005 that just had normal sub-titles so it doesn't mean they won't be more interestingly done in the cinema release.

unreggd

Even though NightWatch [Nochnoy Dozor] was abysmal, I'm kinda lookin forward to this one

the only good thing I can say abt the first one is that it was dubbed by english-speaking Russians

Petey2006

Looking forward to this one. And to seeing a film in the cinema when I'm not surrounded by talking bastards.

Giruilla

unreggd wrote:

Even though NightWatch [Nochnoy Dozor] was abysmal, I'm kinda lookin forward to this one

the only good thing I can say abt the first one is that it was dubbed by english-speaking Russians

i was wondering if I was the only one who thought it was garbage! I couldn't get how so many people said it was good, nothing really happened through the whole film. Still though I also have the feeling that the next one will be pretty good, theres two more films to follow too. I feel like night watch had to sort of lay the foundation for the mad universe its set in!

Eirebear

Seen a trailer in the cinema last night for it, and i must say it looked fairly good fun.
But the trailer was in English...no subtitles, just action with an english voice over. Sneaky!
I'd heard good things about nightwatch untill reading this thread....

unreggd

Giruilla wrote:

i was wondering if I was the only one who thought it was garbage! I couldn't get how so many people said it was good, nothing really happened through the whole film. Still though I also have the feeling that the next one will be pretty good, theres two more films to follow too. I feel like night watch had to sort of lay the foundation for the mad universe its set in!

It was terrible, so random and so hard to watch

qwertplaywert

When I first saw the trailer for this, didnt notice the no english , still looked fantasic, can't believe the budget is only 5/6 mill dollers.

senordingdong

Yeah, Daywatch is defiantly going to out do Nightwatch.
I feel the third won't live up the second though.


A bit like the Bourne movies.

kaimera

heres two more films to follow too

I thought it was just a trilogy? Twilight Watch being the last no?

Saw the books a day or two ago but they only had Nightwatch so I didn't bother.

senordingdong

No, there were two more books, Twilight Watch and Final Watch.
The rumour is that there will be only one more movie and it will be called Duskwatch though.

Vokes

How many films you reckon they could make out of the 4 books? 5, 6 films?

The Daywatch film is based on the latter half of the Nightwatch book isnt it ? (which I found awful by the way),

--Kaiser--

I have to say I really liked Nightwatch, maybe because it was so refreshingly not like most movies (which are predominantly American) i.e. no pointless romantic subplot, no umcomical comic relief, no crap dialogue and no happy ending, things I've learnt to expect from the majority of films.

That said it was awfully odd, being Russian, and I can understand a lot of westerners not liking or understanding it. Apart from anything else it was visually fantastic.

..and I literally jumped for joy when I found out the sequal was being released in Irish cinemas

RAIN

unreggd wrote:

It was terrible, so random and so hard to watch

Wow I didn't find it hard to watch at all - infact I was surprised it was so straight forward as some reviewers said it was completely off the wall.
I thought it was great really enjoyed it !! Cant wait for the new one.Id also recommend the book as it paints a little bit of a clearer picture of what's going on - that said, im glad Night watch never patronised its audience by over explaining things.

senordingdong

Saw Daywatch the other night and I have to say it was fan-****ing-tastic.
It blew Nightwatch out of the water!
The plot was really well handled, especially considering all the individual matters to be dealt with for each character. I wouldn't go so far as to say it was mezmerising but even when the pace slowed down, I still found myself glued to it.
It had one or two parts that suffered from bad editing but for a film of its length, I still think they did a good job of it.

I especially liked the ending.

Gingervitis

How are they gonna do a sequel to that though? looks pretty well wrapped up.

Finially saw Day Watch last night and I loved it. I had to travel to Castlebar to see it as my local cinema doesnt show any film in which English is not the main language.

It was worth it. I think it's the best film I've seen in the cinema since the Return of the King. I literally had to reinsert my jaw on a number of ocassions. And the ending, so sweet yet bitter at the same time.

It really does raise serious questions regarding the state of American film. This is a film made for the catering budget of Spiderman 3, yet it's visually more impressive and all things considered a far finer film.

Listen to my fan boy gushing, just get yourself to the cinema and watch it.

Fysh

Saw it the other night and liked it. Not too sure about the extra polish compared to Night Watch, I kind of preferred the less tweaked look of the first film. Still a very good show, though. I particularly liked the use of music, and the range of musical styles implemented reinforced this.

There were some great humorous moments, like

the spoof loreal ad when Anton is in Olga's body and goes into the shower with Svetlana

.

This thread has delighted me with the information that there's another Watch book; I'd assumed the series concluded with Twilight Watch as the final story in that book has a conclusion that felt very much like "the end". I'm looking forward to this now.

On another note...given that the film was originally released in Russia nearly 18 months ago as far as I know, does anyone know if there are significant differences between the Russian and international releases?

Edited to add : Never mind, turns out Wikipedia has an extensive list of the changes

senordingdong

Gingervitis wrote:

How are they gonna do a sequel to that though? looks pretty well wrapped up.

Well that's how its is now but the last two books in the series are more stand alone adventures, not really contributing to an overall bigger plot.

Also, with the rumours circulating about the third film, it doesn't look like the end of the second film will matter. The rumour is that Fox offered to fund the third part and so rumours are flying that it will be set in America and be with a whole new cast etc..
Obviously that's a really stupid idea but another rumour I read suggested it would follow the third book, kinda.
Because in the third book, Anton goes to Scotland to help the Scottish Night Watch in a murder investigation...the rumour is that he will travel to America instead.

senordingdong

senordingdong wrote:

Well that's how its is now but the last two books in the series are more stand alone adventures, not really contributing to an overall bigger plot.

Also, with the rumours circulating about the third film, it doesn't look like the end of the second film will matter. The rumour is that Fox offered to fund the third part and so rumours are flying that it will be set in America and be with a whole new cast etc..
Obviously that's a really stupid idea but another rumour I read suggested it would follow the third book, kinda.
Because in the third book, Anton goes to Scotland to help the Scottish Night Watch in a murder investigation...the rumour is that he will travel to America instead.

From what I've read concerning the third film Bekmambetov has said that it will retain most of the same cast. I really can't imagine anyone other than Konstantin Khabensky as Anton. I'm afraid that if they do decide to recast someone like Keanu Reeves will end up in his place.

If they decide to recast and do the film as a totally American film, I would imagine that they would simply remake Night Watch. I am curious as to what Bekmambetov will do with the film. Having seen what he can do with 5 million dollars, imagine what he could do with ten times that.

Fysh

senordingdong wrote:

Well that's how its is now but the last two books in the series are more stand alone adventures, not really contributing to an overall bigger plot.

Also, with the rumours circulating about the third film, it doesn't look like the end of the second film will matter. The rumour is that Fox offered to fund the third part and so rumours are flying that it will be set in America and be with a whole new cast etc..
Obviously that's a really stupid idea but another rumour I read suggested it would follow the third book, kinda.
Because in the third book, Anton goes to Scotland to help the Scottish Night Watch in a murder investigation...the rumour is that he will travel to America instead.

That's not what I'd heard - the way I understood it, Fox Searchlight became involved in partially funding the second film (presumably thus also gaining the rights to make an "international edit" of sorts that they could better tailor to their audience/butcher to allay the fears of ignorant subtitle-fearing twits - take your pick ). They would then be the main source of funding for the third film which would be from start to finish a Fox Searchlight production.

The Scotland plotline is actually part of the fourth book, Final Watch. The third book's overall theme is the nature of Others and their powers; how these powers can be obtained and the way in which they work. Having not read Final Watch (translated version isn't out until July next year) I don't know what sort of conclusion it offers to the series, but an abridged version of Twilight Watch could work quite well as a conclusion to the series.

Another thing that's just dawned on me -

quite a few characters die in the Moscow Apocalypse near the end of Day Watch. But the whole time-reversal trick means that those characters are still alive and so can be re-used; in the case of Gesar and Zabulon they appear to have at least some awareness of the events in the timeline shown in Night Watch & Day Watch, so there are some interesting possible scenarios. Personally, I hope that Kostya and that fantastic hat make another appearance.

KdjaCL

iguana wrote:

Film4 showed the first 10 minutes of Daywatch last night in advance of it's October 5th release. Really looking forward to this. I got a shock during the introduction as the introduction was done in English. But it moves into Russian once the action starts. Though I'm actually slightly apprehensive about seeing it in any of my local cinemas as I'm imagining half of the cinema having a hissy fit when they realise they need to read subtitles.

The intro to Night Watch is in english too

Looking forward to Day Watch liked the 1st one.



kdjac

biko

Was just at the movies. Sorry, Daywatch doesn't do it for me, I found it confusing, cluttered and un-smooth.
Maybe I'm just "americanised" and don't get more arty films.

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar

I liked night watch, for all it's flaws..and i was excited about this one

but when

some dude rode a horse through a wall

I decided i just wasn't up for it and turned it off


maybe later... but..

jesus christ

ahorse... through a ****ing wall...

--edit

alright, just watched the whole thing

i spent the first hour trying to remember what happened in the first film, then another 20 minutes or so trying to relate the first one to the hour and twenty minutes I'd just watched.. and then some weird **** happened in a hotel.

all in all, pretty good.

senordingdong

Fysh wrote: »

The Scotland plotline is actually part of the fourth book,

Oh yeah, my bad.

But yeah, Fox own the distribution rights outside of Russia I believe.
But the rumour I read about them replacing the cast wasn't that they completely replace the existing cast...with American actors replacing the previous ones...it was that the film would follow the American Night/Day Watch.

Though I am happier with the idea that they are leaving things the way they are.

K!LL!@N

I liked the first one despite the overly prominent Maxwell House product placement, that was just bizarre.

Will definitely be checking this out.

Killian

senordingdong

Actually it was nescafe.
It's in Daywatch too.

stevenmu

Anyone know if this is still showing anywhere, been looking on the web but can't find it ?

senordingdong

It was on a good bit in Cineworld Dublin but I doubht they are still showing it.

ixoy

senordingdong wrote: »

It was on a good bit in Cineworld Dublin but I doubht they are still showing it.

Actually by the second week they had already severely cut down the shows - the only one by then was at 22:15 or something. Obviously this movie didn't do nearly as well as expected.

arcade1

senordingdong wrote: »

No, there were two more books, Twilight Watch and Final Watch.
The rumour is that there will be only one more movie and it will be called Duskwatch though.

the 3 films are all based on the nightwatch book, are they not?

senordingdong

ixoy wrote: »

Actually by the second week they had already severely cut down the shows - the only one by then was at 22:15 or something. Obviously this movie didn't do nearly as well as expected.

Shame since the dvd was such a huge success and the sequel had such a huge advertising campaign.

arcade1 wrote:

the 3 films are all based on the nightwatch book, are they not?

Well I don't know because I don't know the plot of the third film yet.