Day watch/Dnevnoy dozor

BEHOLD the Chalk of Destiny! Recovered centuries ago by Tamerlan, hammer of the Golden Horde, this humble artefact has the power to bring to pass anything its bearer chooses to write. Give it here and allow me to scrawl a few words: "Coherence, structure, earmuffs."

This relentless sequel to Night Watch, an extravagant Russian horror flick from 2004, leaves no absurdity unexplored in its determination to outdo Hollywood for bang and wallop. There are many good (evil) things here, but, whereas the first film found a way to impose order on the madness, Day Watch quickly disintegrates into a tangle of confusing, careering plotlines, none of which can make itself heard over the relentless din.

The avalanche of stories defy summary, but we can say, with modest confidence, that Timur Bekmambetov's picture takes place in a version of Moscow where vampires and the living squabble for control of the streets.

Following that prologue concerning the magic chalk and a hurried synopsis of the first picture, Day Watch reintroduces us to Anton (Konstantin Khabensky), a psychic police officer, and his younger, but more powerfully clairvoyant, partner Svetlana (Maria Poroshina). It soon transpires that Anton's son, who fell in with the undead during Part I, is involved in a series of attacks that contravene arrangements made between the vampires and their warm rivals. Chaos then begins its reign.

The film-makers must be congratulated for filling every corner of the frame with dazzling incident. As before, the imaginatively designed subtitles distort themselves according to their meaning and to events happening above and below. No motorbike will settle for the road when it can travel across the reflective wall of a mighty skyscraper. Each conversation happens among fresh varieties of the apocalypse. Yet, without any lucid connections between the impressive set pieces, the picture ultimately ends up as a great, glorious, bloody muddle.

Still, there is enough imagination on display here for us to hope Bekmambetov can rise from the dead for the proposed third part.

DONALD CLARKE