Directed By J.J Perry

Starring – Jamie Foxx, Dave Franco, Snoop Dogg

The Plot – A hard-working, blue-collar dad (Foxx) who just wants to provide a good life for his quick-witted 8-year-old daughter (Zion Broadnax). His mundane San Fernando Valley pool cleaning job is a front for his real source of income: hunting and killing vampires.

Rated R for strong violence, gore and adult language

Day Shift | Jamie Foxx, Dave Franco, and Snoop Dogg | Official Trailer | Netflix – YouTube

POSITIVES

This is a geographically relevant vampire flick, full of vibrancy and personality from the city of angels that finds its way into nearly every avenue of production that is cleverly stitched together. The cinematography from Toby Oliver conveys a sunbaked sparkle that crafts a scenic splendor in the many jaw-dropping landmarks of Los Angeles, and the culminative soundtrack pieced together from Tyler Bates inspirationally taps into famous west coast hip hop artists in everyone from Warren G to Ice Cube, to Tupac, to even Snoop Dogg himself, who pulls double duty as a legendary vampire hunter working underground. On the subject of those performances, Snoop is suave, strong, and savage in the role, playing an extensive version of himself, yes, but one that works exceptionally with the many beats and personalities of the character. Foxx is also a breath of fresh air, trading in the seriousness of his action star familiarity from over the past decade for a performance that wholeheartedly taps into the comedic muscle of his career’s first act. Because of such, it’s clear that Jamie is having the time of his life in the role, and that infectious appeal transfers itself seamlessly to the overall tonal consistencies of the film, which are comedy first above all else.  In addition to the aforementioned benefits, the film also contains with it a series of side-splitting action sequences, that while unbelievable in gravity conveniences, do attain crisply concise fight choreography for the engagement. What’s most pleasant here is that the work from Oliver and the vision from Perry allows the chaos to unfold with commitment to documentation, affording us the convenience of believability that establishes firmly the commitments of this ensemble to memorization, all the while immersing us as closely as possible with proximity while still affording us the safety of a screen to sit back and enjoy. The indulgences of C.G blood and free-flying limbs reach heavily for the freedoms of an impactful R-rating, and the cohesiveness and clarity of the production’s sound designs marry heft and velocity in ways that captivate the conflicts organically without feeling overtly influential from a conscious outside of the engagement. It’s easily the film’s biggest highlight and bridges the gap seamlessly between streaming and the silver screen that Netflix has worked years to perfect.
NEGATIVES

In my opinion, “Day Shift” would be better suited as a Netflix original series instead of a 110-minute film, based entirely on the unfulfilled potential of the world-building it creates but rarely follows through on. This is especially relevant in the rules of the world of vampires living among us, which is periodically touched upon, but rarely illustrated to convey how the world evolved to this gritty and unforgiving circumstance. This is also apparent with the abundance of colorful characters, who each get a scene to introduce themselves feverishly to the audience, but rarely, if ever, followed through upon again. The movie’s villain is blandly written, flatly performed, and annoyingly ignored upon, leaving the conflict free from ever reaching the world-defining circumstance that the script cements it as, and a duo of Puerto Rican brother assassins who were easily the most interesting characters of the film to me, arrive to help Foxx with a nest then disappear for good. We never see them again, leaving more questions than answers with why Foxx’s character wouldn’t just stick with them if they’re as good at their jobs as they convey, while further adding to the limitations of its aforementioned run time. Beyond storytelling limitations, the tone of the film is an equally nagging in the interpretation, with an overtly comedic tone shielding the compelling elements of horror and science fiction to the point that they completely weaken their influence in stakes. We’ve seen this recently with zombie flicks that would rather be cool than cunning, and while it undercuts the tension in the many conflicts and dynamics of the characters, it’s all the more problematic to the dependency of its humor, which falls flat despite all of the capabilities of a rating that should easily enhance it. Finally, while most of the film’s action sequences maintained my interest despite the air of their artificiality in realism, the constant use of drone footage felt unnecessary, and essentially gave us distance from the claustrophobic camera work of on-the-ground footage. Thankfully, there’s no shaking camera during these sequences, and the freneticism of the editing actually adds to the depiction of the choreography, but the experimentation of overhead angles felt too jarring and confrontational with the building momentum, giving us a creative, but displaced out that I wish wasn’t an aspect of its documentation.
OVERALL
“Day Shift” does occasionally sink its teeth into the audience with boldly colorful characters and ruthlessly intense action sequences, but its immortality is dwindled with surface level scripting that never fully commits to the world it is trying to convey. An episodic approach could’ve elicited more time towards fleshing out the many character dynamics and shallow world-building, but as it stands, this one should’ve never seen the light of day.

My Grade: 5/10 or D