For a good hour and change, the film is a big toy box that teases you out of the Gloom.

It has a refreshing Old World take on a never-ending fantasy war between vampires and the forces of 'light.'

Clarity may be lost, but rare is the movie that grabs viewers by their throats and never lets go. Bekmambetov's Night Watch is one of the grabbers.

The faux mythology may be cheesy, the grandiose plot stretched thin and full of holes, but underneath the recycled story and style is a hint of something troubling and real.

Even though you couldn't call it a great science fiction movie, on the level of Tarkovsky's Solaris and Stalker it's often a great, heart-pumping, blow-you- to-the walls movie experience.

While the movie's inspirations might be glam-Hollywood action fantasies, Night Watch fairly wallows in damp, post-Soviet decay.

Although it doesn't have Kate Beckinsale, her guns ablazin', vamped out in the latest vampire-slaying couture, Night Watch is vastly more fun than the similar-themed Underworld pics.