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Nightwatch (1997)
Rate:
3
Viewed:
6/04, 6/25
6/25:
I wasn't aware until now that Nightwatch is a virtual remake of Nattevagten.
After checking out the trailer, I can see so many similarities between these two. Appearing in the first
American film of his career, Ewan McGregor looks and acts almost like Nikolaj Coster-Waldau. Regardless,
the remake is atmospheric and the acting, most especially from Josh Brolin, is decent, but it moves too slowly.
The first hour is patched together with random scenes that appear to have nothing to do with the serial killer
premise originated by Nick Nolte's character.
Eventually, everything converges, and I was thinking of either James or Cray as the culprit. By the time
the revelation was made, the movie pretty much died with Nick Nolte changing from a corpse to a zombie. Another
moment that ruined it for me is when a woman's body was propped up against the wall and she's later gone,
causing the loss of credibility for Martin Bells who ironically remarked, "This is like one of those
movies on the USA Network. The hero sees something weird, and then no one will believe him."
No matter what was going on, I wanted to scream at somebody in the film to change the damn bulb that kept
flickering for days. Also, I kept having the feeling that it had to be made before internationally because
where did people work like this with black plastic sheets hanging out constantly to cover up the façade of
a medical examiner building with barely anyone there? As for the poor lighting, it seemed like they got somebody
from Mimic to do it, and *ding dong* it's the same person: Dan Laustsen.
In case if you're wondering who that is in the picture, it's Lewis Powell who co-conspired with John Wilkes
Booth. He tried to kill Secretary of State William H. Seward but failed. As a result, he was hanged.
All in all, thanks to Nightwatch, I will check out Nattevagten.