MOVIE PREVIEW: Night Watch

THE world is full of monsters – demons, witches and vampires – and the only thing stopping them from creating havoc are the Night Watch, a supernatural police force who keep a close eye on the forces of evil.
In turn, the good guys are also policed by their sinister counterparts, the Day Watch.
Thus an uneasy 1000-year truce between good and evil is maintained.
But that’s all about to change with the coming of the “Great One”, an individual who’ll finally tip the balance in favour of one side or the other...
This is the interesting premise of Night Watch, the stylish new Russian horror movie that's made a bucketload of cash in Europe.
For the most part, it works. Our hero Anton (Konstantin Khabensky) is a pig blood-swilling schlub who looks like he's just been run over by a bus. However, he still goes to work every night protecting the unsuspecting masses from shape-shifting nasties.
His work mates drive round in a battered truck and hardly look like heroic studs.
But the plot gets a bit confusing at times – maybe that has something to do with the subtitles – and when it enters Lord Of The Rings territory, I just wanted to groan.
Night Watch is also the first in a three-film trilogy, so the ending has a real “stay tuned for the sequels” vibe, which is bloody annoying.
The film – which will be released in Australian cinemas on October 6 – is cool and scary in parts, comrade, but you'll need to neck a bottle of vodka to make sense of it all.

Anton overcomes a pigs' blood hangover to fight evil in 'Night Watch'

The Earlwood Ambler rides again

I'm all in...

CONGRATULATIONS to the Dulwich Hill Doddler - poker player extraordinaire - who took out the inaugural League Of Ordinary Gentlemen Texas Holden Perpetual Trophy, held at the prestigious Killara Casino last Friday.
He overcame a solid field of seven contenders (well, one contender known as the Goulburn Gambler...and six amateurs steadily getting drunker and poorer as the night wore on) to win the event in a little over three hours.
As for the Earlwood Ambler (yours truly), he went all in (then all out) in spectacular fashion to finish fourth (thereby not even managing to recoup his initial $20 investment...doh!).
For his efforts the Doddler took home a cool $100 and the trophy (made even more prestigious by the engravers who misheard the term "Hold 'em" and engraved "Holden" instead).
How long can he maintain his grip on the trophy? Only time - and the keen desire of several people to lose a small-but-significant amount of money - will tell.
And remember, folks, it's still cheaper than a night out at the pub.