Day Shift Movie Review: Technically Well-Made Action Comedy With A Horror Background
Director: JJ Perry
Cast: Jamie Foxx, Dave Franco, Meagan Good, Natasha Liu Bordizzo, Snoop Dogg
Streaming Platform: Netflix
Filmyhype.com Rating: 3/5 (three stars) [yasr_overall_rating size=”large”]
Day Shift Movie starts from a bizarre contrast. A contrast that is based on the day shift to which the title refers and the hunt for the popular monsters of the horror imaginary, who prefer to move in favor of darkness, and which also reflects the tone of a film that enjoys tackling the theme with a healthy dose of irony. An action comedy that bears the signature of JJ Perry, making his debut behind the camera after a long and successful career as an actor and stunt, and revolves around the character played by an established star like Jamie Foxx. Bud Jablonski’s in Day Shift on Netflix is not a job like any other. He does not get up every morning to close himself in the classic office routine, but he undertakes a much more dangerous mission for the common good:
Bud is a vampire hunter, in the dark. The first to not know it is his wife, with whom the separation is underway, and his little daughter, whose custody he risks losing due to the many delays and absences due to his inconvenient employment of him. The only way to avoid this is to earn a large sum of money within a few days, with which to pay for an orthodontic appliance and school fees otherwise, the two women in her life will move to another city. Bud, considered by all to be a simple pool cleaner, thus sets out to eliminate as many bloodsuckers as possible. There is a secret organization that hires agents for this specific purpose, but Bud had been expelled sometime before, precisely because of too explosive behavior that risked compromising his cover. At the urging of his friend and expert colleague Big John Elliott, he is given a second chance. But Bud is unaware that this time it will be vampires who will haunt him down: one of his latest victims was deeply linked to Audrey San Fernando, the new leader of the creatures of the night…
Day Shift Movie Review: The Story
The film opens with the close clash between the protagonist and a sprightly old woman who turns out to be an athletic vampire, ready to give a lot more trouble than expected. A prologue in which Day Shift already reveals its caciarona soul, with that mix of old-fashioned action and comedy that has often been seen in productions of this genre. And This immediately allows the individual viewer to understand if it is the right vision for him: in this, we are faced with an honest introduction, since the remaining minutes offer nothing more and nothing less than an elongated version of what we saw in the first few minutes.
Enjoyable special effects and a good make-up rendering showcase an effective technical sector and from the point of view of the staging, there is little to complain about. JJ Perry, a former stuntman on his absolute debut behind the camera, already demonstrates a certain familiarity with the means of the trade and has learned several tricks on the sets in which he worked – including those of the John Wick saga – and even without presenting a particular style showcases a pleasant genre soul, with lovers of blockbusters and the most playful horror films that will have bread for their canines.
Day Shift Movie Review and Analysis
The idea that vampires are hiding in Los Angeles without the knowledge of the population is an idea seen and revised, from the degraded atmosphere of another horror-teen-comedy such is just a click away – to the equally recent Night Teeth (2002), and the fact that these move freely even during the day is certainly nothing new. The basic plot suffers from various naiveties and forcing, with a showdown within the various clans sketched in an all too superficial way and with the main villain played by Karla Souza never actually able to instill a healthy theme of terror.
But Day Shift is, on the other hand, a film that never takes itself seriously and the choice of supporting the hunter with the comic side of Dave Franco is yet another confirmation of this. Partner obliged to check for possible violations, the character is a more than marked speck, complete with a transformation that makes him even more admittedly hilarious, in the name of a sardonic verve that risks taking over the rest. Serious jokes, surprise moves, and reasoned executions characterize Bud’s desperate mission, played with relentless stoicism by an amused Jamie Foxx, also appearing as a producer. But it is more the extras of excellence that leave their mark, from rapper Snoop Dogg as mentor/friend to Peter Stormare’s unscrupulous fence, up to that Scott Adkins who pleasantly teases himself in the most testosterone role of all.
Between cult and sculptural citations of the vein, from Interview with the Vampire (1994) – here is our review of Interview With The Vampire to the Twilight saga, a soundtrack based on hip-hop, wrestling moves to peep here and there in the exasperated action sequences, the two hours pass by without ever boring but without even thrilling, under the banner of that harmless mediocrity that now seems to be the practice for most of the contemporary releases.
Day Shift Movie Review: The Last Words
The classic Netflix film without infamy and praise, a technically well-made action comedy with a horror background and with a cast to the height but that does not add anything new to the genre, rehashing the myth of vampires once again in a parody key. The protagonist, played by Jamie Foxx now suited to often the same roles, is a bloodsucking hunter who finds himself grappling with a desperate struggle for survival on which the fate of his family could depend. Day Shift – Hunting for Vampires can count on more than discreet staging and good special effects, but it is rarely convincing in the comic verve and it collapses on a script full of forcing and unspoken, moreover excessively stretched in almost two hours of viewing.
