"Night Watch" is a contemporary Russian movie that you could honestly call revolutionary, more for its style than its politics. In this full-throttle science fiction tale of vampires, shape-shifters and warring supernatural armies, breakthrough writer-director Timur Bekmambetov opens a shocking new contemporary world - a Moscow of poverty, crime and moral breakdown - but he does it in Western-influenced techniques a world away from what we usually imagine as standard Russian cinema.
- Michael Wilmington, Chicago Tribune.

Night Watch (and its successor Day Watch) portray the renewal of hostilities between light and dark supernatural forces after a thousand-year truce. Russians have been thrilled by Night Watch's brooding yet slickly rendered combination of action, fantasy and horror. Genre fans here should be just as impressed. Night Watch's bravura and ambition make many of its Hollywood sources seem puny. Chalk one up for Mother Russia.
- Jason Anderson, Eye Weekly.