Day Shift – Review
113 Minutes, Rated R
Written by Tyler Tice and Shay Hatten
Directed by JJ Perry
**NOTE: this post will be updated with audio once we actually have the chance to talk about it. Until then, enjoy this brief look at Mark’s thoughts. Stay tuned.**
Synopsis:
A hard-working, blue-collar dad who just wants to provide a good life for his quick-witted 8-year-old daughter. His mundane San Fernando Valley pool cleaning job is a front for his real source of income: hunting and killing vampires.
Finally, the Jamie Foxx vampire slayer film I never knew I needed. And from Netflix, no less.
A soon-to-be-single dad who’s desperately trying to keep his (ex-)wife from relocating his daughter from LA to Florida, Foxx moonlights (daylights?) as a pool cleaner while pursuing his actual vocation: vampire hunting.
The world of the vampire hunters, with its unions and pay scales and by-law, is reminiscent of the (John) Wickian universe, but is not nearly as cool or expansive. A better comparison would be RIPD‘s organization, with a hint of John Carpenter’s Vampires thrown in for good measure.
That’s not to say the film is without its charms. Dave Franco perfectly embodies the desk-jockey assigned by the union head to prove (for the umpteenth time) that Foxx is incapable of following even the least-critical of union rules (thus allowing him to be fired…again).
The casting of Snoop Dogg as the grizzled vampire hunter (and old friend of Foxx) is actually a masterstroke, as he appears just long enough and often enough to make an impression but never attempts to overstay his welcome.
Money.
I find the bureaucratic logistics of the ending to be an issue, however, which you’ll understand when you see it.
Check it out for some good old-fashioned fun.
Day Shift hits Netflix on August 12 and stars Jamie Foxx, Dave Franco, Natasha Liu Bordizzo, Meagan Good, Snoop Dogg, Eric Lange, and Peter Stormare.
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