 |
| Strange
creatures: Khabensky and friend in Night Watch. |
Unorthodox
Horror
By
Ann Morrow
Night
Watch
Directed
by Timur Bekmambetov
In the opening sequence to the convolutedly mythic Russian
blockbuster Night Watch, the forces of good and evil
do battle as if they were Orcs and knights in an outtake from
The Lord of the Rings. But fear not, fantasy, sci-fi,
and dark-arts fans: It’s only a prologue, and the film quickly
skips 1,000 years ahead to 1992. And then to the present time.
And also to a dimension called The Gloom, which might be a
time of day, or maybe a state of mind. To keep all of the
film’s elements and influences in order is near impossible,
anyway, so just let director Timur Bekmambetov’s febrile imagination
wash over you like a stream of consciousness (yes, there’s
surrealism afoot, and hand-drawn animation and video clips,
too).
The forces of good and evil are called the Others, and according
to the ancient truce, they must keep each other in check in
the human world. So the dark forces keep watch by day, and
the good forces keep watch by night. But in 1992 Moscow, recently
jilted Anton (Konstantin Khabensky) doesn’t know anything
about Bekmambetov’s cosmos, and so he seeks the help of a
witch to get his wayward wife back. The benign- looking crone
(or is she an Oracle? Only Neo would know for sure) mixes
him a potion that knocks him for a loop. And while he’s knocked
over, a tiger cub flies past the kitchen cabinets and a gnome
barks orders about the crone’s hands, and then. . . . When
Anton comes to, he is one of the Others. But which kind of
Other, he doesn’t know yet, and neither does the audience
(or the other Others). But that’s just level one of the mysteries
that keep the crazy-quilt narrative jumping like a scalded
black cat.
Structurally, Night Watch resembles Sin City
in the way its rapid-fire, and seemingly unrelated, vignettes
build upon each other like a pyramid of cards. It’s also violent,
in a graphic-novel way, and incorporates an eye-pummeling
amount of bizarre imagery to make each vignette hallucinatory.
But the plot is surprisingly coherent, and much more humanistic
than Sin City’s base instincts. As an Other, Anton
encounters a 12-year-old boy who is being hunted by vampires
for reason unknown, and a young woman doctor who has been
cursed by an unknown nemesis. And if Anton isn’t able to deduce
the whys and wherefores, the gathering vortex hovering over
Moscow will open up and . . . but no one wants to go there
because of the really evil-looking swarms of bats that form
the vortex’s material manifestation.
And did I mention the shape-shifters, the oddly involved rock
band, and the tragic vampire girl who wanders the streets
like a coffeehouse waif? The neat trick that makes Night
Watch more than just an art-film extravaganza for fan
boys, however, is that all the effects (the on-the-cheap CGI
is admirably imaginative) and pop-culture, dark-side references
are in the service of a quest story, one in which Anton will
discover the consequences of his evil deed in the witch’s
kitchen. And by that point, any viewers who have not yet fallen
by the wayside of the film’s visual and allusive thickets
may find themselves in keen anticipation of the next installment,
Day Watch.
Shoot
for It
16
Blocks
Directed
by Richard Donner
It took me several long minutes to recognize Bruce Willis
as the lead character of Richard Donner’s latest flick, 16
Blocks. Of course, I knew this was a Willis vehicle when
I received the assignment, but still, could detective Jack
Mosley, a disheveled, alcoholic has-been, complete with beer
belly and gimpy leg, really be the star of Die Hard
and so many other action flicks?
Once my senses regained equilibrium, and I got comfortable
with the fact that Willis was, indeed, Mosley, I had to marvel
at how well this actor plays downright end-of-the-road despair.
Without benefit of major makeup or prostheses, his ability
to transform into a decrepit veteran of the NYPD says a whole
lot about his acting, or maybe, a little about the kinds of
choices we’ve come to expect from him. Willis, alone, is enough
reason to see what is essentially a cat-and-mouse tale involving
police corruption, mixed with the well-worn white-cop/black-felon
buddy-flick formula.
That said, 16 Blocks, which also stars Mos Def as petty
criminal Edward Bunker, a key witness set to testify before
the grand jury in a case involving, well, police corruption,
is fairly solid entertainment. Donner deftly sets up the premise
of the aging, loser cop, no doubt kept on the rolls through
some fluke in union contracts, who gets more than he bargained
for while transporting Bunker to the courthouse. In the blink
of an eye, or more aptly, in the aftermath of the first shoot-out,
Mosley makes a life-changing decision that puts him at odds
with his former partner Frank Nugent (David Morse), not to
mention a whole lot of other men in blue. The result of that
decision puts both Mosley and Bunker at great risk, as the
pair attempt to make it to the grand jury in time.
As with most Donner films, there is hardly a dull, or stationary,
moment. Bullets fly, with the chief twist being the variety
of settings in which this can happen. Let’s just say the sweatshops
and laundries of Chinatown have never been shown to such effect.
In the rare moments between gunshots and the chase, Mosley
and Bunker form an inevitable, yet believable, truce, with
an undercurrent of the omnipresent question, ‘Can I really
trust this jerk’? Def’s Bunker is a nonstop babbler who may
or may not be retarded, just as he may or may not be a coldhearted
criminal, but it’s a refreshing change of pace from the usual
street-smart black half of this kind of buddy picture.
The last 40 minutes of the story, in which the duo attempt
to make the courthouse, seems, in real time, much longer.
The continuity and lighting departments seem to have had problems
with things like making the courthouse appear as if it’s in
daylight. People in New York seem not to notice things like
two bloodied individuals, one of whom holds a sawed off shotgun,
walking among them.
Despite moments that stretch credulity, 16 Blocks manages
to tell a good story, with interesting characters, and that
in itself is sadly refreshing. Then again, we get to see yet
another performance in which David Morse, who in his youth
was typecast as the angelic, usually victimized protagonist
(St. Elsewhere), plays a downright menacing presence,
and that too is pretty darn fun.
—Laura
Leon
|
Classifieds
