Day Shift

2022 - 8 - 12

Post cover — Image courtesy of "Roger Ebert"

Day Shift movie review & film summary (2022) | Roger Ebert (Roger Ebert)

Too bad dollar theaters don't really exist anymore, because this action-horror fest would be a hit there.

Aside from a handful of twists in the final act, there's nothing in "Day Shift" that you can't see coming long before it shows up onscreen, and the more potentially emotional aspects of the story are treated as glancingly/jokingly as everything else. His comic pitch is impeccable, and with his skinny frame and six-foot-four height, he looks magnificent in a ten-gallon hat and leather vests and dusters, like an animated cartoon version of an Old West gunfighter. The movie gets much more assured in the second half, when Bud and Audrey's stories begin to intertwine, and it finds the right balance of goofy deadpan comedy, martial arts-inflected supernatural brawls, gunplay, car chases, and gore. Elsewhere in the City of Angels, beyond the awareness of Bud and his workaday money troubles, a conspiracy is brewing. (Kudos to the Van Helsings of Los Angeles for unionizing; hope they have a good medical plan, because they get knocked around a lot.) Bud is a struggling divorced father whose wife Jocelyn ( Meagan Good) still loves him but just can't live with him because he's never around and keeps too many secrets from her. The first part of the movie is about Bud ramping up his vampire hunting to accumulate and sell more teeth so that he can make $10,000 in less than a week, give it to Jocelyn to catch up on the mortgage, pay private school tuition for their adorable daughter Paige ( Zion Broadnax), and eliminate the financial necessity of Jocelyn selling the house, moving away, and taking Paige with her.

'Day Shift' review: Jamie Foxx rises again on Netflix as dad, the ... (CNN)

"Day Shift" is about vampires, but it's one of those Frankenstein-like movies stitched together from used parts, with Jamie Foxx as a family man version of ...

That produces lots of banter, bickering and unfortunately, pants wetting, a natural if low-brow response to the new-to-him prospect of getting killed. Making his directing debut, veteran stuntman J.J. Perry and writers Tyler Tice and Shay Hatten seek to unearth laughs and fun where they can, which includes having Snoop Dogg on board as a veteran vampire hunter. Parenthood is again at the heart of the plot, such as it is, in "Day Shift," which could just as easily be titled "Dad: Vampire Slayer." Foxx plays Bud Jablonski, a bounty hunter (he masquerades as a pool cleaner) struggling to make ends meet financially, suddenly given a major motivation to earn cash: His ex (Meagan Good) is planning to move away from Los Angeles with their young daughter (Zion Broadnax).

'Day Shift' Review: Jamie Foxx's Vampire Hunter Film Unfortunately ... (Collider.com)

Day Shift, starring Jamie Foxx and Dave Franco, has a fascinating world, but rarely explores it substantially.

If this world does decide to open up more in the future, there’s plenty to explore in the Day Shiftiverse. This is where Day Shift shines, as Perry has decades of experience in the world of stunts, working on such films as Mortal Kombat, Iron Man, and Avatar. The fights in Day Shift are fast-paced and blunt, and almost always manage to feel spontaneous and brutal. Yet even though it never quite reaches its full potential, Day Shift is enjoyable for the aspects it does want to focus on, even though it’s hard not to wish it would investigate the larger world further. There’s plenty to be done within this world of vampire hunting unions, vampire realtors, this apparent underground collection of vampires, and the partnership between Bud and Seth. But again, Day Shift seems only to exist to show the possibilities of this universe, without embracing them or exploring them in any significant way. But while these fights are often impressive to watch, it’s the elements of Day Shift that aren’t explored further that feel like a missed opportunity. Once the coast is clear, Bud abandons cleaning a dingy pool and goes inside, where he takes out two seething vampires, and then pulls their fangs out to sell on the black market.

Day Shift 2: Will there be a sequel? (Netflix Life)

Given the cast features big names like Jamie Foxx and Snoop Dogg, it wouldn't be surprising if Netflix was mulling opportunities to expand the Day Shift ...

However, the chances of there being a Day Shift 2 are favorable. As of August 10, Netflix has not announced if there will be a sequel. The action-comedy vampire horror film Day Shift is now streaming on Netflix and people are already stoked to watch what looks like a super exciting summer movie.

Jamie Foxx Enlivens Netflix's Workaday Vampire Comedy <i>Day ... (TIME)

The movie features garden variety vampires and plenty of cartoon blood-spurting, but the always watchable Jamie Foxx goes above and beyond the call of duty.

(Even Dave Franco’s Seth, the hapless union rep charged with tailing Bud on the job, eventually masters some of the necessary skills.) The action scenes are choppy but brisk, and there’s plenty of cartoon blood-spurting, de rigueur in a work such as this. Day Shift is the story of a guy who’s able to reclaim his past glory—and get some of those all-important dental-insurance benefits—but it isn’t easy: union honcho Ralph (Eric Lange) doesn’t want to let him back in, but one of Bud’s old pals, a union member in good standing, advocates for him. But Foxx goes above and beyond the call of duty, seemingly without even trying. Day Shift, directed by J.J. Perry and written by Tyler Tice and Shay Hatten, is designed to be fast, gory and silly, and it’s all of those things. He and his wife, Joceyln (Meagan Good), have split, and Jocelyn is now threatening to whisk the couple’s young daughter, Paige (Zion Broadnax), away to Florida in the hopes of giving her a more stable upbringing. Vampire entertainment is as eternal as vampires themselves, and from the ever-fertile dust of this genre springs Netflix’s Day Shift, in which Jamie Foxx plays Bud, a modern-day San Fernando Valley vamp hunter fallen on hard times.

Day Shift review: Netflix's vampire movie has some of the year's best ... (Polygon)

Jamie Foxx, Scott Adkins, Dave Franco, and Snoop Dogg flex their action muscles in Day Shift, J.J. Perry's first directorial project after more than 30 ...

Day Shift is a treat for genre fans and a perfect example of the unusual, flavor-filled projects Netflix should be investing in for the future. Day Shift’s place on Netflix means it will have a lot of competition for viewers’ attention, with the platform’s seemingly never-ending content stream always moving on to the next film or series without giving new releases much time in the spotlight. The chaos in this set-piece feels entirely fitting coming from a director who the stunt community lovingly nicknamed “Loco.” Best of all, none of the intricate fight scenes, intense shootouts, or wild car chases featured in the film are obscured by poor editing or unnecessary CGI. It’s all presented clearly, and fine-tuned for maximum visual impact. His 30-year-plus career as a stunt performer and action coordinator is nearly unparalleled in Hollywood. So when the action design collective known as “87eleven,” (the group behind the John Wick franchise, and many of recent cinema’s best action sequences) decided it were going to proceed with Day Shift as its first fully branded 87eleven film project, the team reached out to Perry, as a longstanding member of the group, to steer the ship. Day Shift’s action has echoes of that “tacticool” Wick style, but the supernatural setting allows him to incorporate more exaggerated elements. Scriptwriters Shay Hatten ( Army of the Dead) and Tyler Tice handle this without falling into the all-too-common mentality of “saving it for a sequel,” which has stopped so many film franchises before they ever really began. The refreshingly low stakes and the way the mundane and the supernatural effortlessly intermix here are just two of the ways Day Shift will remind savvy viewers of the many ’80s and ’90s video-store staples the film is so clearly a love letter to. Someone who has never seen the older films the script and directing nod to will still find a lot of quality subtle world-building that hints at where sequels (and spinoffs) could fit if there’s a suitable demand. Perry’s action sensibilities have always been a bit more freewheeling than those of his 87eleven colleagues, and it shows in the ways Day Shift looks different from Nobody or the John Wick movies. At his core, Bud is just a working schmo trying to get through the day, dealing with a boss who wants to see him unemployed, a partner he doesn’t want to deal with (Dave Franco), and unforeseen complications making his job more difficult, like a gentrifying elder bloodsucker (Karla Souza) who has plans to remake the Valley into a new vampire hot spot. In a blockbuster landscape where all big-budget movies are starting to feel frustratingly similar, Day Shift stands out for its clear point of view, obvious swagger, and decidedly old-school approach. Netflix’s vampire battling action movie Day Shift feels like the antithesis of that pattern.

Day Shift Cast: Where You've Seen The Stars Of The Netflix Movie (Cinema Blend)

Snoop Dogg and Jamie Foxx standing next to each other in a cluttered office in Day. (Image credit: Parrish Lewis/Netflix). Vampires are ...

Playing the role of Troy — a pawn-broker with connections to the vampire-hunting business — is Peter Stormare, who last worked with J.J. Perry on John Wick: Chapter 2. Bud’s neighbor, Heather, is played by Natasha Liu Bordizzo — who made her debut in an action-packed Netflix original movie (2016’s Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: Sword of Destiny) and later starred on the platform’s short-lived coming-of-age fantasy seriesThe Society in 2019. As Bud and Jocelyn’s daughter, Paige, we have Zion Broadnax — who has already acquired a lengthy resume in her few years in the business. As Bud’s vampire hunting partner, Seth, we have Dave Franco — certainly no stranger to horror having starred in the 2011’s Fright Night remake, as well as writing and directing The Rental, to name just a few. Look for his name in just about any article related to Batman. Adkins is also part of the MCU, having played one of Kaecilius’ henchman in Doctor Strange in 2016. Making his horror debut as vampire hunter Bud Jablonski in Day Shift is Jamie Foxx, who has done almost everything else under the sun since his stand-up career led to a break-out spot on the In Living Color cast. Lange also has a horror-comedy under his belt with 2016’s Fear Inc., with Abigail Breslin. Dracula and Godbrand on Netflix’s Castlevania. Day Shift is only his latest Netflix collaboration — following Dad Stop Embarrassing Me! and Project Power — and won’t be his last in 2022 with upcoming sci-fi comedy They Cloned Tyrone. Among his other roles, he voiced a sentient joint in Machine Gun Kelly’s Good Mourning. I mean that both in the sense that these creatures of the night are ageless (as long as they drink enough blood, avoid garlic, and don’t get stabbed) and that stories about this classic staple from some of the best horror movies will likely continue to get made until the end of time.