Review for Nightwatch

(Originally posted on fight-evil.com)

When I first saw this film, I rather enjoyed it. Or at least that's what my IMDb rating (an 8/10) would lead me to believe. Perhaps the second viewing of this film falters for everyone, or it's not nearly as good as I remember it being, though, as I was mostly not that enthralled with it this time around.

The whole atmosphere of the film seems sort of off, especially regarding Martin's (Ewan McGregor) friend James (Josh Brolin). James just doesn't seem to care about anything, and his attitude is one that's difficult to relate to. He's just an odd character, and didn't feel right to me. The movie's decently slow - it doesn't really pick up until an hour and 15 minutes (the whole run-time is an hour and 40 minutes), which was a major detriment.

We had some memorable actors, such as Nick Nolte (who had a great role), Brad Dourif, and John C. Reilly (who was, for some reason, uncredited, despite having significant screen-time near the end), but the story itself didn't do much for me this time around. It's a disappointment, really: I was rather excited about seeing this one again, but not only does it not live up to what I remembered, and not only did it feel average, overall, I thought the film was a bit below average.

Truth be told, I don't have much more to say about this one. It had solid actors, moderately decent gore, and it picked up near the final thirty minutes, but everything beforehand fell a bit flat. Despite previously enjoying this, it just doesn't hold up. 6.5/10.