Magician, Fourth Class, of the Night Watch

Night Watch is the first in a fantasy trilogy by Sergei Lukyanenko, translated from the Russian. The forces of evil have signed a truce and each side made arrangements to keep watch on the others and enforce the truce; the Night Watch is the good magicians etc. keeping tabs on the bad sorcerers and witches, and vice versa. Here are the IMDb links: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0403358/ and http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0409904/. There's a third book, Twilight Watch, which may yet be filmed.

Night Watch and Day Watch have both been filmed by Timur Bekmambetov - and are absolutely bonkers, high energy experiences. Both films feature imaginative and utterly mad driving sequences (the Night Watch race across Moscow in a dump truck; the Day Watch witch Alicia drives a sports car along the sides of buildings etc.) The characters appear to be deliberately unfashionably dressed, a relief after the incessant product placement of, say, the Matrix or Bond series. However I could be wrong - this may actually reflect Moscow fashion. The films take elements from the books but tell slightly different stories, with different endings, and there are elements from the first two books in both films. Incidentally if you are watching with subtitles these are animated dramatically rather than just appearing at the bottom of the screen.