Day Watch / Dnevnoy dozor (Russia, 2006)

Day watch (Dnevnoy Dozor) by director Timur Bekmambetov is a Russian action/horror movie dealing about good and evil, about the day watch and the night watch.
If you haven’t seen night watch before you should leave this one unpacked for a while. This is because of the simple fact that you won’t understand anything of this film when you start with day watch. Night watch was very confusing and it complexity was brilliant but for the western audience it was too weird and difficult to understand it to its best.
Night watch continues the story where it was left. Maybe this film is a bit easier to understand, but don’t expect a simple storyline.
Most of all it is a great action movie, Hollywood could learn something from these scenes. I won’t say anything of the storyline cause I simply don’t know where to start. The fantastic and hypnotic music adds some dark mood as well. I can’t really describe it well but this movie breathes a ‘Russian’ feeling, in almost any scene. Westerns (like me) will probably miss some wordplay about Russian life and politics but that is fine, cause it will satisfy you enough!

A very interesting movie about good and evil, now we have to wait for twilight watch.

Lions for Lambs (USA, 2007)

Lion for lambs by director Robert Redford is a very interesting film about the war in Afghanistan, or in fact it is about the propaganda and what the USA government wants us to believe about their fight against terrorism.
The story comes close to your own life, for many Americans it even came to close. That these kind of anti-war movies (just like In the valley of Elah and Battle for Haditha) don’t bring in a big American audience it due to this fact. It is not because this film in not good or skilful made. On the contrary it is a very very intense film. But why were films like Apocalypse Now such a huge success and Lions for Lambs not. It can be explained rather easily I guess. Apocalyps Now was made when the war in Vietnam already ended, while the war in Afghanistan is still going on. But I understand, to watch a film about your own government, your own fight against terrorism is pretty hard when everything happened seems to be a wrong judgment of the situation.
With actors like Tom Cruise, Meryl Streep and Robert Redford, the Hollywood cast is enormous but also differs much. Robert Redford did a good job, cause Tom Cruise is perfectly presented like the Senator (not necessarily good or evil), Robert Redford as the teacher and Meryl Streep is the journalist who wants to dig deeper. We also follow two soldiers who are left in the snowy mountains of Afghanistan which adds a bit of drama to the story.

It will leave you with this question: did we do the right thing?