Its based on a series of best selling Russian books:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0434 ... e&n=266239
then the first movie at amazon:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B000 ... e&n=283926
I hear that there are 3 books by this famous Russian scifi writer, and then within each book are three parts. So in total there are in fact going to be 9 movies made, the first Night Watch is the first part of the first book.... i think.
IMDB:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0403358/
6.4/10 (7,976 votes)
Short... its not for everyone. Americans have always been intolerant of "foreign" movies so i doubt this is any different. I think the idiots at fox have recut it and bundled it with a copy of "Buffy the vampire slayer" and that's just... bizarre. Whilst using the word bizarre i think that sums up the movie, its not an easy, straight narrative which is a thing that typically scares and confuses American audiences too, or at least how the studios perceive the american audiences.
I can't say that i found many negative reviews for night watch but i didn't look for any, in fact it went down rather well from all i heard and has had a steady stream of positive press/promotion.
More importantly than info:
http://www.dead-donkey.com/modules/shar ... ies&id=203
http://www.dead-donkey.com/modules/shar ... ies&id=202
Its the most successful Russian movie of all time, what ever that means.
I wouldn't say its high art, but its got a weird and wonderful non-linear kind of narrative, and a more european (even if it is russian) kind of humour mixed in. I'd rather watch another one of these than most hollywood action films. Reminds me a bit of good films by that french Alien 4 director, good being most of the other films he made apart from alien 4