Stunt coordinator and martial artist J.J. Perry's directorial debut, Day Shift, premiered on Netflix on August 12, 2022. Known for his stunt work on blockbusters like John Wick and F9: The Fate of the Furious, Perry's vampire action-comedy does set itself apart in the genre, but fails to deliver on the exciting stunts one would have expected from his film.

Leading the cast as protagonist and vampire hunter Bud Jablonski, Jamie Foxx does take the cake to balance the act divided between various genres of action, comedy, satire, horror, and drama. One truly cannot visualize anyone other than Foxx pulling off a feat like this.

But to give credit where it's due, Dave Franco's character, Seth, did well to add some refreshing slapstick humor to the film, gelling well with Foxx's character. Additionally, Snoop Dogg and Karla Souza shined in their brief performances as well, and overall, the cast played to the tone of the film.

The same appreciation cannot be given to the plot though, which remained chaotic and underdeveloped for the most part. For a Friday night mindless movie night, Day Shift does well to entertain viewers, but don't go in looking for anything extraordinary.

Continue reading for the complete film review and summary.

Bud Jablonski used to be a blue-collar worker, cleaning rich people's swimming pools in the San Fernando valley until his employer was out. He then switched to his real job, which included hunting vampires and extracting their fangs. On a good day, these fangs would fetch him the big bucks, allowing him to make a sustainable living.

He was managing a topsy-turvy life with his secretive job and a family life that included an endearing and quick-witted daughter Paige (Zion Broadnax) and ex-wife Jocelyn (Meagan Good) until he needed $10,000 to prevent his family from moving to Florida.

His only solution was to rejoin the "union" of vampire hunters that had kicked him out for violating several of its codes on a daily basis. However, his maverick friend and ally Big John (Snoop Dogg) had enough clout to get him the job again.

The only condition was that a highly strung accountant Seth (Dave Franco) would be overseeing his field missions and reporting back to the union leader Ralph Seeger (Eric Lange).

There were discussions of five types of vampires, categorized by age, black-market sunscreen that allowed them to be out in the sun, methods to kill vampires, vampire hives, a supreme vampire called El Jefe, and various gibberish-sounding vampire hunting codes in Day Shift. However, none of them came down to anything significant in the film.

Not only did Bud and Seth find loopholes in the vampire hunting union's codes, the film's plot had plenty of loopholes too. Sometimes the vampires took too long to kill and no amount of wooden bullets would knock them out, other times they would be blown to smithereens with just machine gun fire. But wasn't a steel blade required to kill them?

Karla Souza's tough vampire queen made for a badass villain, who was rather easily defeated. Her daughter, the old female vampire in the first scene, put up a better fight, making the ending seem rushed and disjointed. Snoop Dogg's Big John seemingly blew himself up as a sacrifice to kill an army of vampires, but where were his fangs when he was regenerated?

All in all, Day Shift was an entertaining watch if you left analysis out the door. It seemed as though the creators began with an ambitious idea in mind that slowly fizzled out and ended in a substandard manner. Nonetheless, the mind-numbing action and garden variety gore in the film would make for a decent enough movie night.

Day Shift opened with an action sequence featuring Foxx's action moves as he took down an old female vampire who made for a worthy opponent with her unrelenting bloodlust. The action scene, with just enough gore and special effects, made for a great way to reel in viewers right off the bat.

However, it became grating and tedious with the same moves being done over and over again as more unimpressive vampires came at Jablonski. In one of the scenes featuring Bud, Seth, and the Nazarian brothers (professional vampire hunters), fending off a hive of vampires, it seemed like watching the same stunts on repeat.

Gunshots, vampires being thrown around like bullet-hit zombies, spider-walking absurdity, and powder-caked faces dripping with black blood, and repeat. Whatever happened to the astounding action choreography illustrated by Keanu Reeves in the John Wick films?

Tune in to Day Shift on Netflix for some uniquely comical vampire hunting romp with a video game aesthetic and Jamie Foxx's well-rounded performance in an otherwise uninspiring film.

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