Jamie Foxx impresses in this disjointed mess in the movie “Day Shift”
Breaking genre conventions
When done well, breaking genre conventions yields a rewarding payoff, but when done carelessly, as in Day Shift, it becomes unbearably tedious to watch. With this movie, martial artist and action choreographer J.J. Perry makes his directorial debut. The genres it flips between in a split second include horror, buddy comedy, action, family-friendly, and road movie.
If a parent does not receive a sizable sum of money quickly, his family will perish. The father, Bud Jablonski (Jamie Foxx), works as a pool cleaner by day and a vampire hunter by night, or is it the other way around? Forget it. To stop his ex-wife Jocelyn (Meagan Good) from travelling to Florida with their daughter Paige, Bud needs money (Zion Broadnax).
He takes the high road and rejoins the vampire-hunting union after being expelled for his dangerous behaviour in order to get paid well for his efforts. Famous vampire hunter Big John (Snoop Dogg) tries to help Bud, but his employer Ralph Seeger (Eric Lange) isn’t having it. Seth (Dave Franco), a desk jockey, is the union representative Ralph insists Bud travels with. Legendary vampire hunters Mike (Steve Howey) and Diran (Scott Adkins) Nazarian and Bud’s next-door neighbour Heather (Natasha Liu Bordizzo), who may be much more than a sympathetic nurse, are also involved. A delicate situation involving pliers and teeth befalls Troy (Peter Stormare), the pawn broker.
They are all confronted by Audrey (Karla Souza), a wicked vampire woman who talks as though she has a mouthful of teeth, but she actually does. When Audrey is not torturing people and consuming their blood, she is a hotshot realtor (what is the subtext here, then?).
A disorganized mess
On paper, the theory seems absolutely sound, but when seen in action, it reads like a disorganised mess. The humour is quite childish, the action scenes are slack, and the gore is meagre. The sole redeeming grace in a movie that makes a lot of promises but delivers very little is Foxx’s charisma.
The film ends up being uninspired while being shiny and colourful. Day Shift is Jamie Foxx’s second significant Netflix movie.
This Netflix original appears to be a throwback to action flicks from the 1990s; it was directed by first-timer JJ Perry and co-produced by John Wick director Chad Stahelski. From the very first scene of the film, it is clear that Perry enjoys telling stories and that he brings his expertise in action and vampire knowledge to his directing.
In the opening scene of “Day Shift,” Jamie Foxx shoots an elderly woman with a shotgun. The woman is a vampire, and she raises herself off the ground while displaying her vampire features. The combat scenario that follows features some of the most impressive moves recently. The scenes that follow show Jamie breaking into vampire dwellings. Silver blades, garlic bombs, and wooden bullets are all used by the vampire hunters. Amazing action scenes with bodies twisting in unthinkable directions.
However, the most enjoyable aspect of the movie is Jamie Foxx’s comedy. Snoop Dogg makes a memorable appearance in the film as well.
Despite the gory violence and clever humour, the film seems to lose sight of its initial theme and emerge as something else. It was written by Shay Hatten, who has also contributed to a few John Wick series projects and three Zack Snyder films.