Night Watch / Day Watch (aka Nochnoy dozor / Dnevnoy dozor)

Objective Rating (How much merit I think it deserves):
6.5/10
Subjective Rating (How much I personally like it):
6.5/10

Year released: 2004, 2006
Runtime: 114, 132 minutes
IMDB page: here, here

This is supposed be the trilogy based on the popular Sergei Lukyanenko fantasy novels, but the last installment, Twilight Watch, is still being made. The films were great box-office smashing hits in Russia. And I can see why.

Plot: Anton is persuaded by a witch to curse his wife, who left him, supposedly pregnant with another man's child. This will come to have great repercussions on the Balance between Light and Dark. Through this incident, Anton becomes an Other (humans with supernatural powers who can enter the Gloom, a dimension superimposed on reality). He is on the side of Light and becomes part of the Night Watch (Light Others who make sure the Dark Others don't do anything out of line. Similarly, the Day Watch are Dark Others who monitor the Light Others' activities). The two sides keep a precarious Balance. It is prophesied that a great one will come and break the Balance, because he will choose one side over the other.

Cast: I'm not familiar with the Russian cast, but I'm impressed that they got everyone from Night Watch to come back for Day Watch, the sequel.

Script: The trilogy has been compared to Lord of the Rings, mostly because it earned more at the box office in Russia than LOTR. But the story is a bit more twisted and is like a mystery sometimes. And it actually makes sense at the end in terms of causality of events and the clever little clues that they left throughout the movies, so rewatch values greatly increase.

Production: It has a very gritty feel, exposing the less glamourous side of vampires and shapeshifters and other supernatural beings. The Night Watch drives a beat-up little van around that looks like the van from Ghost Busters. Their uniform looks a lot like Bill Murray's too. The fantasy elements are very much present, but the characters live in dingy little apartments, hold meetings in dingy little offices, have little problems like trying to quit smoking or ... bad hair and shedding. And you'd never know what kind of cool but destructive visual effects you can get from playing with a yo-yo.

I'm a bit pleasantly surprised with how much I liked the movies. Well, you have to be able to stand subtitles, because they certainly don't speak English.

Observe and Report

Objective Rating (How much merit I think it deserves):
6/10
Subjective Rating (How much I personally like it):
6.5/10

Year released: 2009
Runtime: 86 minutes
IMDB page: here

Most of the time things are funny in this movie with a slight tinge of sadness (in the pathetic sense). I watched this because it received a much better review than Paul Blart The Mall Cop.

Plot: Er... I'm a little bit confused myself to a lot of the things that happened in the movie. I know, it's supposed to be a not-too-smart comedy, but sometimes things feel so surreal. Ronnie is a security guard at a mall where a pervert has been exposing himself to women in the parking lot. After the ditzy slut Brandi at the cosmetics counter (who is the object of Ronnie's affection) suffers an encounter with the pervert, Ronnie feels his calling: to catch this pervert at all costs.

Cast: Seth Rogen is not the most handsome guy. We know that. But there's something charmingly down-to-earth about it. He's your guy-next-door who may not do the smartest things but can be nice to an old lady. Or give her a kick. Depending on if he's stoned or not. But he's sincere no matter what he does. Anna Faris, as Brandi, is a scary portrayal, slightly exaggerated, of what women can be sometimes. All of us know a few Brandies in our lives.

Script: The characters sometimes act irrationally... like, "Why would you do that? That doesn't make any sense." Yet you somehow understand where they are coming from. They are acting out a hyper version of reality, where you can discard common sense and do the things you want to. Well, not murder, only things that come close. The consequences may still be there, but you just don't have to think about them.

And really, can't we live like that in real life? Who's stopping us?

P2

Objective Rating (How much merit I think it deserves):
3.5/10
Subjective Rating (How much I personally like it):
4/10

Year released: 2007
Runtime: 98 minutes
IMDB page: here

A puzzling name for a movie, but once you find out it's a label for a level of a parking garage, there's about nothing left to the movie.

Plot: Angela is a workaholic in a large company in NYC. On Christmas Eve, she's the last one to leave from the office, trying to make it on time to her sister's house in Jersey, where her family is waiting. Her car refuses to start in the parking garage, and she asks the attendant for help. But the attendant is definitely NOT the normal, good-natured young man he appears to be...

Cast: Wes Bentley (from American Beauty) is properly psychotic as the attendant and his talent is quite wasted in this movie. Angela (Rachel Nichols, whose cleavage is impressive and whose profile looks a bit like Jodie Foster in the poster) is also a nice mixture of vulnerability and independence. The whole blond, slender pale limb thing really works to the character's advantage. So acting is not exactly the problem, then it must be the...

Script: Yes, that's where the problem lies. It's cliched, it's predictable, and you just know from the first moment on that the beautiful heroine with a fighting spirit is not gonna go down. Ugh.

Production: I would guess it didn't take THAT much money to make this movie. After all, everything happens in a vast parking garage, which did NOT explode in the end (a car does though). There is a nice visceral scene of a man being crushed to death, and that should elicit some ewww's from the audience. Really, I think the eerie, chilly, lonely, desperate feel that could be achieve in a vast dark cavern of a parking garage was not achieved.

Umm, not to be mean, but I want my hour and half back.

Sunshine

Objective Rating (How much merit I think it deserves):
6.5/10
Subjective Rating (How much I personally like it):
7/10

Year released: 2007
Runtime: 107 minutes
IMDB page: here

It's a fun sci-fi flick, a psychological thriller, if you want it to be. It's a philosophical outlook on religion and humanity if you want it to be. It's quite a versatile little gem with different facets.

Plot: A group of diverse (read: a lot of Asians) scientists/astronauts are sent on a mission to chuck a nuclear bomb into the sun to re-ignite the dying star and save all life on earth. The mission's chance of success is pretty low, and the crew's chance of survival is even lower. And their discovery of the spaceship from the previous failed attempt, crash-landed on Mercury, does not improve their odds.

Cast: Cillian Murphy has been one of my favourite actors since 28 Days Later. He can pull off the haunted look so well. Here he is suitably cast as the quiet physicist who reluctantly helps make some big decisions for the crew. And I learned that "Cillian" is pronounced with a "k," unlike my previous assumption. The cast has the special chemistry fermented as crew members who have spent the last 2 years (or something like that) on this isolated ship heading to a dangerous destination. They may not all like each other, but they are professional and oh so desperate to maintain order in this chaotic blackness of entropy. The relatively large number of Asian characters (Sanada Hiroyuki from The Last Samurai, Michelle Yeoh from Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, Cliff Curtis, Benedict Wong) and the American accent are meant to represent that in the future, China and US are supposed to be the leaders in space exploration.

Script: Despite its sci-fi themes, the film is surprisingly relatable. Fear of death, battle to overcome nature/space, selfishness, guilt, idol-worship, insanity. The sci-fi elements are very much present and important, but the film doesn't get bogged down with esoteric details. It's credibly scientific, but the science is incorporated into the characters' motives and drives the story forward.

Production: Directed by Danny Boyle, before he won the Oscar with Slumdog Millionaire. The shots are distinctly in his style, jerky at times but draws you to connect the dots. The inside of the spaceship looks very serene and immaculately clean, but at the same time you get the sense of imminent doom because the film always reminds you the ship is the only thing keeping you away from the blackness of space, from instant death.

Sunshine shows a lot of details that trace their origins back to Alien and Solaris. And actually, Sunshine is almost a combination of the two: philosophical and dangerous.