Nightwatch

A good cast gets wasted in this dark, dopey thriller, cowritten by Steven Soderbergh, who should know better. Nightwatch's plot revolves around a law student (Ewan McGregor) freaked out by his new night-watchman job at the morgue, his thrill-seeking prankster friend (Josh Brolin), and a killer who gets unsuspecting hookers to wear white sheets and toe tags, then butchers them. The storylines converge in a Grand Guignol finale, but not before veering to avoid several plot holes big enough to hold a body. Thanks to Danish director Ole Bornedal's heavy-handed hackwork, the movie is never the trashy fun it might have been. C-