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The online film magazine Combustible Celluloid offers new movie reviews, DVD reviews, film reviews, actor interviews, actress interviews, director interviews, film books and all things cinema related for the thoughtful and passionate. Online for ten years! Over 3000 reviews!

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Day Watch (2007)

Rating: 2 1/2 Stars (out of 4)

Chalk Hop

By Jeffrey M. Anderson

Buy Day Watch on DVD

This sequel to Timur Bekmambetov's 2006 convoluted horror/sci-fi/action Russian import Night Watch offers more of the same. Troublemaking hero Anton (Konstantin Khabensky) returns, suffering because his 12 year-old son Yegor (Dima Martinov) has sided with the bad guys. Anton is also training a new agent, Svetlana (Maria Poroshina). Yegor and Svetlana are potentially Great Others, and if they meet, all hell breaks loose. Meanwhile, everyone searches for a mystical piece of chalk (!) that can make anything written down come true. Bekmambetov's camera whirls and jiggles, and cinematographer Sergei Trofimov lights everything in dramatic blues and grays. Even the subtitles refuse to stay still. Many more characters and subplots are ladled in; parts can be fun, but ultimately it's just empty.

Note: The DVD release contains the unrated version, which runs 146 minutes.

Starring: Konstantin Khabensky, Mariya Poroshina, Vladimir Menshov, Galina Tyunina, Viktor Verzhbitsky, Zhanna Friske, Dima Martynov, Valeri Zolotukhin, Aleksei Chadov, Nurzhuman Ikhtymbaev
Written by: Timur Bekmambetov, Alexander Talal, based on the novel by Sergei Lukyanenko, Vladimir Vasiliev
Directed by: Timur Bekmambetov
MPAA Rating: R for violence
Language: Russian with English subtitles
Running Time: 132 minutes
Date: June 8, 2007