Jamie Foxx has been very busy. Since signing a development agreement with Sony Pictures, where he now has a license agreement for Netflix features, Foxx has been working on everything, from comedy series for families to action movies on the streaming platform.
The partnership continues “Day Shift,”This is a comedy about vampire hunting that was shot in Los Angeles. It stars Megan Good and Karla Souza. Also, Peter Stormare and Snoop dogg are special guests.
It’s also the directorial debut of stunt coordinator and second-unit director J.J. Perry, and subsequently, the action scenes here are definitely impressive. And that’s great, because you will not be watching this movie for the script. “Day Shift”This is what you get when you put “Supernatural” “Training Day”Take the plots out of the juicer. You will be left with epic fight sequences and lots and lots of teeth.
Foxx stars in the role of Bud Jablonski, a struggling divorced dad who works as a pool cleaner to make ends meet while also hunting vampires. Hunters in this universe make a living hunting by joining a union and following strict rules about their kills. They make their money exchanging vamp fangs for cash, but since Bud’s been kicked out of the union, he’s forced to sell his trophies on the black market.
In or out, the older the vamp, the higher the payout, and Bud is looking to score an Elder kill to make cash fast to pay his daughter’s school tuition bill plus alimony before his ex-wife Jocelyn (Good) leaves town.
Bud is asked to do a favor by Big John Elliott (Snoop Dogg), a legendary vampire hunter. He can only return to the union if Seth (Franco), the guild rep, comes along on jobs to ensure he kills according the law. He is quickly put on. “day shift,” and since vampires are not fans of sunlight, it’s slim pickings, in terms of both prey and payouts.
Of course, Seth, who has never been out in the field, keeps gumming up the works with red tape, and when Bud kills a vampire connected to one of the most powerful Elders in the region, it’s all Bud can do to keep his family, Seth and most of Compton safe before everyone gets killed or turned.
It’s an action movie first, and a vampire story later. “Day Shift” offers very few scenes that aren’t crafted around a fight, even when it’s unnecessary — for instance, when Bud goes 10 rounds with a vampire indoors during the day, instead of simply opening the curtains and letting sunlight do its damage. An excess of car chases, gun-kata and undercranked close-quarter hand-to-hand combat scenes make half the movie look more like a stuntman’s demo reel than a vampire thriller, but Foxx and Franco bring fun and humanity to the film. Although it can sometimes be a bit ridiculous, their comedy buddy-cop chemistry is mostly plausible. (Seth suffers from fear-triggered incontinence.
Their banter, plus Seth’s encyclopedic knowledge of vampires, holds the plot together between impossibly high-octane fight scenes, one of which includes throwing a bullet from one gun into another. Perry, Felix Betancourt, the stunt coordinator and Toby Oliver, the cinematographer (“Get Out”The film was color-graded as a McG 1990s music video, which is an impressive feat of art.
Although Netflix’s “Day Shift”Promotions give the impression that Snoop Dogg has become a star. Stormare is Stormare’s curmudgeon role, playing Troy, a vamp paraphernalia-lender and loan shark in black-market loans. Far from being her “How to Get Away With Murder”gig, Souza digs deeper into her Telenovela repertoire and chews the scenery as Elder vampire Audrey San Fernando. She is a wealthy Realtor who gentrifies the Valley with undead.
It’s the ensemble’s youngest member, Zion Broadnax (“Abbott Elementary”), who steals every scene she’s in as Bud’s daughter Paige. From the sarcastic way she has her father wrapped around her finger to her kickass co-pilot role during a car chase, it’s a standout turn from an up-and-comer.
“Day Shift” doesn’t offer much in the way of surprises, but audiences whose taste runs to horror comedies that are heavy on action and light on plot may enjoy sinking their teeth into this one.
“Day Shift”Premieres August 12, 2018 on Netflix