DAY SHIFT (2022)

Studio:     Netflix
Director:    J.J. Perry
Writer:     Tyler Tice, Shay Hatten
Producer:  Shaun Redick, Yvette Yates Redick, Chad Stahelski, Jason Spitz
Stars:     Jamie Foxx, Dave Franco, Natasha Liu Bordizzo, Meagan Good, Karla Souza, Steve Howey, Scott Adkins, Oliver Masucci, Snoop Dogg, Eric Lange, Peter Stormare, Zion Broadnax

Review Score:

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Summary:

Hoping to bring his family back together, a rogue vampire hunter forms unlikely alliances to prevent an undead takeover of California’s San Fernando Valley.

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Synopsis:     Show/Hide Spoilers

In Southern California’s San Fernando Valley, Bud Jablonski poses as a pool cleaner while secretly working as a freelance vampire hunter. At a suburban home, Bud kills an undead old lady and tricks another vampire into decapitating himself by running through a line of tensile silver strung in a doorway.

After picking her up from school and taking her out for yogurt, Bud drops off his young daughter Paige with his estranged wife Jocelyn, who doesn’t know what Bud really does and separated from him because of his secrecy. Due to the family’s financial problems, Bud learns Jocelyn is planning to sell her house and move to Florida with Paige. Distressed by the possibility of losing his family for good, Bud asks for several days to raise tuition and dental funds for Paige before Jocelyn does anything.

Considered valuable because vampires cannot regenerate without them, Bud tries selling the fangs he collected from his two earlier victims to pawnbroker Troy. Troy ends up buying Bud’s custom pistol and Jordan shoes instead.

Posing as a realtor, ruthless vampire Audrey San Fernando continues her clandestine plan to unite all undead factions under her by killing rivals and taking over properties where vampires can dwell and feed. Accompanied by her familiar Klaus, Audrey finds the old lady that Bud killed, who turns out to have been Audrey’s daughter. Audrey plots her revenge.

Bud contacts fellow vampire hunter Big John Elliott for help raising money. Big John escorts Bud to the dry cleaning shop that hides a secret entrance to the local chapter of the Vampire Hunters Union, which previously expelled Bud. Although union boss Ralph Seeger hates Bud because of his repeated code violations, Ralph reluctantly agrees to reinstate him after Big John vouches for Bud, but only for day shift missions. Ralph also forces Bud to partner with Seth, a nerdy clerk with no field experience, although Seth is secretly assigned to document Bud’s code violations so Ralph can permanently expel him.

Audrey forces her way into Troy’s pawnshop. Audrey tortures Troy for information on who killed her daughter.

With neither man happy about partnering with the other, Bud and Seth raid an abandoned bowling alley to kill several vampires for their fangs. Seth pees his pants in terror over the experience, even though he inadvertently saves Bud’s life.

Bud finds Seth’s notebook documenting Bud’s code violations from the day. When he returns home to his apartment, Bud meets his new neighbor Heather who just moved in next door.

The next day, Bud confronts Seth about trying to get him kicked out of the union. Seth explains that Ralph gave him no choice. Bud asks Seth to just give him a couple of days.

At the pawnshop, Bud and Seth find Troy murdered and his torn-out teeth arranged to spell “Bud.” Seth insists on following union protocol by reporting the attack. After Bud explains the situation with his wife and daughter, Seth agrees to delay notifying Ralph so Bud can have more time to collect fangs. That night, Bud sees an odd man with Heather in her apartment.

As Bud and Seth stake out another location the following day, competing vampire hunters Mike and Diran Nazarian arrive at the same place. Bud agrees to team up with the brothers to take out a house full of various vampires. Seth notes how unusual it is that different vampire types were congregating in the same home.

Bud takes Paige to a birthday party. Having identified him and tracked him down, Audrey calls Bud to threaten his wife and daughter. Bud sees that Audrey sent several vampires after him, including the man from Heather’s apartment. Bud speeds away with Paige with numerous vampires in pursuit. Bud and Paige eventually escape after a dangerous chase over surface streets.

Bud returns Paige to her home to find that Audrey has Jocelyn held captive. Seth lies unconscious on the floor. Bud is forced to finally tell Jocelyn and Paige what he actually does. Audrey explains her plan to turn Paige into a vampire so she can have Paige kill Jocelyn. Audrey then knocks Bud unconscious before leaving with his wife and daughter.

Bud and Seth recover. Seth realizes Audrey turned him into a vampire. When Seth uncontrollably rushes Bud, Bud decapitates him. But because he was turned by an uber-vampire, Seth doesn’t die. Seth reattaches his head to continue partnering with Bud.

Realizing she was Audrey’s spy sent to find out more about him, Bud confronts Heather. Heather explains she was forced to follow Audrey’s orders because she is Audrey’s familiar, but she insists she actually wants to help Bud and Seth. Heather explains why Audrey wants revenge against Bud and also details Audrey’s plan to buy up the Valley and move in vampires so she can control all vampire activity in Los Angeles.

Now on the night shift, Bud, Seth, and Heather raid an underground lair in an abandoned mall where Audrey and Klaus have Jocelyn and Paige held prisoner. Big John joins the fight after Seth contacts him for additional help combating Audrey’s undead army. Big John gets bit in the fray. Assuming he will die anyway, Big John blows himself up to take out a horde so Bud can get to his family.

While Bud confronts Audrey, Seth and Heather fight Klaus. Seth and Heather kill Klaus by tearing off his arms.

Bud battles Audrey. Jocelyn helps her husband by staking Audrey through her torso. Bud ultimately kills Audrey by tricking her into triggering the same decapitation trap he used in her daughter’s home.

As everyone recovers in the aftermath, Ralph arrives on scene to berate Bud over his code violations. Seth cites other codes that contradict Ralph’s attempts to officially discipline Bud. Bud recovers Big John’s hat and gives it to Seth as a sign of approval. Now that he has the fangs to pay their debts, Bud proposes getting back together as a family. Jocelyn agrees to give it a try. Big John is seen emerging from a sewer alive.

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Review:

When the 21st century was still getting started, Netflix emerged as the most future-minded company in show business. Go back to 1999 and try telling anyone exiting a video store with an armful of VHS tapes that Blockbuster would be bankrupt in ten years. They’d call you crazy. Famously, that’s exactly what happened when Netflix’s DVD-by-mail business completely disrupted the way everyone consumed movies.

Crowned the new king in home entertainment, Netflix continued to read writing on the wall like they were Nostradamus while everyone else willingly wore blindfolds. Remember when Netflix announced they were spinning off its DVD rental business into a separate entity called Qwikster? Netflix knew the future was streaming, yet customers unable to fathom the death of physical media lost their collective minds to confusion. Like Marty McFly playing his guitar solo at the “Enchantment Under the Sea” dance, Netflix scuttled the proposal and apologized with, “I guess you guys aren’t ready for that yet, but your kids are gonna love it.” The real mistake Netflix made was being too far out in front of a trend no one believed was changing.

Netflix smelled the streaming wars brewing well before that kettle went on the stove too. Correctly predicting that one day, every media company would hold their catalogues hostage with exorbitant licensing fees in favor of promoting their own platforms, Netflix knew that to stay alive, they’d have to pivot to being a content creator rather than just a distributor. Thus they began developing original properties so their outlet wouldn’t become a barren playground when Disney, Paramount, and Warner Bros. inevitably took their toys and went home.

Considering how savvy Netflix used to be when it came to evolving a forward-thinking business, it’s confounding that their strategy for making movies remains stuck far behind in the past. Rather than rising as influential creative leaders with breakout blockbusters based on imaginative inventiveness, they’re still content to coast on formulaic features that are contemporary equivalents to movies-of-the-week on network television in the ‘80s. The budgets are bigger and the casting is better. But where’s the evergreen value in filler that’s “fine enough for a Friday night,” then forgotten the following week when it’s knocked off the main menu into oblivion?

“Day Shift” offers example #43,587, which might be an accurate number given how many marginal movies Netflix pumps out that no one notices or are eventually forgotten, of another low-risk, low-reward feature. In typical fashion, it’s a decent-ish distraction as an action-intensive horror/comedy. But it’s built from a blueprint of predictable plot beats and clichéd characters, meaning it too won’t do anything to move the needle on what anyone usually thinks of Netflix original films overall.

Jamie Foxx plays Bud Jablonski, a vampire hunter who hides under the guise of a Southern California pool cleaner. He’s a stock good guy with an anti-hero streak armed with occasionally quirky quips. A rogue who runs by his own rules, Bud’s determination to exterminate the undead estranged him from his wife Jocelyn, who doesn’t know what he really does (even though telling her would solve the trust issues that caused their separation), though he of course remains a doting dad to their adorably hip little daughter Paige.

Bud needs quick cash to get his family out of debt and prevent Jocelyn from moving to Florida with Paige, which would kill his hope of getting everyone back together. He’s on the outs with the Vampire Hunters Union though. To get good leads on where he can find valuable fangs to hock, Bud needs Snoop Dogg to put in four or five minutes of screen time. Snoop obliges with a cameo that gets union boss Ralph to agree to reinstate Bud, even though Ralph would rather not deal with Bud’s constant rule-breaking ever again.

As a condition of Bud being back on the job, he has to take on a partner. Guess what? In a development no one could ever see coming, Bud gets paired with his exact Odd Couple opposite. Decked out in glasses and insistent on wearing a suit, stuffed-shirt Seth (Dave Franco) would prefer to keep clerking behind a union hall desk, but Ralph wants him to keep tabs on Bud’s screw-ups. A fish out of water on his very first field assignment, Seth reluctantly starts staking vamps with Bud, literally wetting his pants every time, regularly flailing his arms like Kermit the Frog, and eventually breaking the ice between these two wacky guys ill-suited to be working together.

In the meantime, there’s a pant-suited ice queen as the main baddie who wheels and deals as both a ruthless realtor and a vicious vampire determined to rule over all of the undead in Los Angeles. Her purpose in the plot is the same as another not-noteworthy Netflix vampire movie, “Night Teeth” (review here), so if you somehow remember that flick, you’re a step ahead of the motivation in “Day Shift.” If you haven’t seen “Night Teeth,” you’ll still be ahead of “Day Shift” since so much of the story comes from standard screenwriting craft anyway.

“Day Shift” is the directorial debut of seasoned stunt coordinator J.J. Perry, or as the trailer cheekily calls him, one of the “guys who taught John Wick how to kick ass.” It’s no surprise then that the fight scenes buzz with high voltage violence and the stunts, including a car chase over San Fernando Valley surface streets and the Los Angeles River basin, are spectacular. Vampire carnage gets even crazier by employing acrobats who contort their bodies into unique shapes for unprecedented camera movements and blistering blocking that hypnotizes the eyes with dazzling creativity.

One such scene starts off the movie with a beautiful ballet of bullets and biting punctuated by a wild decapitation. A bone “Day Shift” regularly chokes on however, is that it takes 40 more minutes before we get to another sequence packing the same punch. Focused on franchising its fiction by building up unneeded backstory instead of concentrating on a solid story in the hand, “Day Shift” gets caught up in constant chatter when its strong suit should be explosive spectacle.

What does everyone onscreen have to talk about? I usually note a few of the lamer lines when I find a film to be unfunny, but “Day Shift’s” jokes were so blah that they barely registered. There was something about a vampire not wanting to drink human blood because he’s a pescatarian and another bit where Bud and Seth are both outted as “Twilight” fans. The nerd and the tough guy both like YA fiction, so ha-ha, I guess?

“Day Shift’s” action hits hard. There just isn’t enough of it and some of those moments are mired in typical tricks of sudden slo-mos and sudden speed-ups. Perry blends horror with humor for a tone balanced for fun, except the comedy’s staleness provides very little personality. And at one hour and 53 minutes, “Day Shift” gets long in the fang when tightening into a down-and-dirty dynamo would have mercifully killed long lulls. Put another piece in Netflix’s pack of gum that loses its flavor after a few chews, only to be spit out and stepped on as audiences keep walking right by.

Review Score: 55

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