Day Shift movie review: Jamie Foxx’s new Netflix action-comedy is movie night material, but you could also just go to sleep

Jamie Foxx performs a down-on-his-luck vampire hunter in Day Shift, his second main Netflix movie after the equally comedian book-y Challenge Energy. A tongue-in-cheek throwback to the glory days of Michael Bay — a minimum of when it isn’t actively reminding you of the early Netflix tentpole Vibrant — Day Shift is the sort of movie during which an aged woman vampire vomits black goo on the hero within the very first scene. Nevertheless it’s additionally the sort of movie during which the hero journeys and falls on the goo, instantly after being puked on. No person is taking themselves too critically right here.

Directed by debutante JJ Perry and co-produced by Chad Stahelski (director of the John Wick films), Day Shift feels very very like a movie that was conceptualised as one factor, however (maybe after being bitten within the neck) was reworked into one thing else over time. It’s co-written by Shay Hatten, the 28-year-old who has already labored on three Zack Snyder movies and a number of tasks within the John Wick franchise. He’s doubtless behind Day Shift’s elaborate world-building, which incorporates blink-and-miss proof that the movie Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter is likely to be canonical to this universe, and a longish exposition dump about vampire factions.

Set within the modern-day San Fernando Valley — though the oversaturated visuals, the buddy comedy humour, and a Peter Stormare cameo might remind viewers of 90s motion movies — Day Shift combines an excessively easy man-on-a-mission plot with dense lore not simply in regards to the vampires that roam freely amongst us, but in addition a union that oversees working-class hunters like Foxx’s Bud Jablonski.

After a collection of misdemeanours, Bud was thrown out of the union and compelled to promote his wares — vampire fangs and the like — on the black market. Penniless and estranged from his spouse, Bud is reinstated as a union member, however on one situation. He’ll be allowed to conduct enterprise solely with a chaperone — a paper-pusher named Seth, performed by Dave Franco.

He’s a dorky foil to the braggadocious Bud. Seth has the rulebook memorised, thinks weapons are ‘immoral’, and could be very pleased with his most up-to-date buy — an ergonomic chair for his workplace desk. So, when he’s instructed to accompany Bud on ‘hunts’ and report again to his boss the second Bud places a toe out of line, Seth is thrown fully exterior his consolation zone. However underneath menace from vampires who already personal the night time and now wish to seize the day, he has no selection however to comply with orders and tag alongside.

Franco beforehand appeared in a supporting function within the two Soar Avenue reboot movies, and whereas Day Shift leans extra closely on the motion and doesn’t warrant Lord-Miller comparisons, it has an odd-couple vitality much like these movies. The jokes not often land, however the motion is commonly partaking — and in a shock twist that would probably please Christopher Nolan himself, largely sensible. From the stunt-work within the fight sequences to the drone pictures in an elaborate automobile chase sandwiched between the movie’s two halves, there’s a playfulness to the set-pieces that feels uncommon on this period of navel-gazing motion filmmaking.

Considerably problematically, nevertheless, the 90s vibe (maybe inadvertently) additionally invitations some informal sexism within the script. After all Bud’s ex-wife is ‘taking’ their daughter away from him, and naturally (feminine) porn stars are equated with aliens. The movie might have simply prevented these missteps, with out dropping its composure even a tiny bit. However both in its pleasure to correctly honour the sort of movies that it has been impressed by, or — and that is extra doubtless — no person concerned knew any higher, Day Shift represents each the very best and worst of that period.

Both method, it’s nonetheless a marked enchancment over current Netflix motion films, together with the unwatchable buddy comedy The Man from Toronto, the shockingly low-cost Carter, and the vastly extra high-profile (however shamefully dangerous) The Grey Man. I’m grading on a curve, although, as a result of praising a movie like Day Shift serves as a reminder of simply how darkish the scenario has actually change into.

Day Shift
Director – JJ Perry
Forged – Jamie Foxx, Dave Franco, Meagan Good, Natasha Liu Bordizzo, Snoop Dogg
Ranking – 3/5

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