These were both on SuperChannel when I had a free preview a month or so back and I just got around to watching them and was VERY impressed.

The two movies to date (apparently at least one more is in the plannings) are based off a series of Russian novels by the same names (though the two movies thus far take most of their plot from the first book, Night Watch, which is divided into 3 chapters).

The movies take a lot of liberty with the novel plot (from what I've gleamed online since watching them), but I think it is for the better as the novels sound very chaotic in their approach, and this was chaotic enough with the adjustments.

One of the really cool components of the movies is the sub-titles (as the dialogue is Russian), which are done in an artistic manner rather than just rapid fire basic sub-titling. One kid hears a voice while under water and the sub-titles cascade with the water. There are vampire type characters in the flicks and when they talk, the sub-titles are in blood red and kind of veiny looking.

The basic plot is a long standing battle between good and evil advanced humans called Others. You are born an Other or not, but for an Other to develop their power they must enter a shadow world called "The Gloom", and choose to be on the side of good (the Night Watch) or evil (the Day Watch). Both sides police each other, with the good licencing certain behaviours of the bad (such as each vampire being allowed to turn one human) so as to keep the peace.

Every so often their are "Great" Others who come along, and their is a battle of wills to try and have them end up on the side of good or evil - kind of along the lines of Neo in the Matrix, but much better.

I could go into more details, but I highly recommend just checking 'em out yourself.

Anyone already seen these? (the first came out in '04, I believe)

I've got both, Skare and I discussed them before and the 'Twighlight Watch' as well.

I was watching another movie and saw the preview for DayWatch and thought 'Wow, that looks awesome!' only to find out that it was the sequel to NightWatch which made it even mo betta.

However I'm really not sure how the 3rd will fit in, the second seemed like a good stable end to the storyline.

I almost picked up the book for the 3rd one, but didn't.

I was kind of surprised at the budget for them, it seemed like they didn't spare much expense for the effects.

I rented/copied Day Watch shortly after it came out but only got around to watching the first 25 minutes or so - it seemed semi-cool, but the english overdubbing made me lose interest - if I can find it in my massive pile of dvdrs i'll try to watch it this weekend - i also added "Night Watch" to my netflix queue, should I watch that before Day Watch ?

Yes. The story in Nightwatch is continued in Daywatch.

and get the non dubbed version ... that is the one I saw.

I saw Night Watch and loved it. I'd heard that Day Watch wasn't as good but since you people say it's great too I'll definitely watch it!

Day Watch isn't as good, but its a solid sequel regardless. Would I change some things? Definitely.

Having seeng both movies and read all the books except for Final Watch.
The movies do solid justice to the first book. Which is really where all the movies come from.
Sure they changed a bit, but really, like most books, it would be better suited to be a miniseries.

I just finished watching Daywatch after having watched Nightwatch last week. I saw the dubbed version of both the films and to be honest i didon't really think they were that great. I found the plot unsatisfying as there were long periods of no real plot development (more so in Daywatch).

There were decent movies though, worth the time spent to see them. But would i buy them? No. Would i recommend them to people? Sure. Would i say they are must see films? No, not at all. They are simply OK films.

If that's the best the Russians have, i feel sorry for them. Their homegrown movies must really suck.