Listen, I came for some light vampire action comedy and got just that from the 2022 Netflix film ‘Day Shift’. Directed by J.J. Perry, the film stars Jamie Foxx as Bud Jablonski, a ‘vampire hunter’ in need for some quick cash to pay his daughter’s school fee and stop his ex-wife from moving them away. The easiest way to make the moolah? Slay a lot of blood-suckers, rip their fangs off and exchange them for a lot of cash. His plan gets complicated when he unwittingly decapitates somebody close to a powerful Vampire boss.
Set in San Fernando Valley, ‘Day Shift’ has the unrealistic fun swagger of a Rajinikanth movie, with plenty of bendy action straight out of the Matrix. Bud is forced to team up with amateur Seth (Dave Franco) while ‘hunting’, to ensure he doesn’t break too many rules while killing vamps. The Jamie Foxx, Dave Franco combination is so odd… it somehow manages to be hilarious. Foxx as the lone wolf stuck with white boy Seth who pees his pants every time things get out of hand, you might dig it or hate it.
Of all the recent vampire themed stuff Netflix has dropped, ‘Day Shift’ is a lot more old school and entertaining, definitely better than ‘First Kill’ and ‘Night Teeth’. Vampire fans with a love for action are going to be the most enthused, because the film is all ‘kill kill kill, a few jokes, kill kill kill’ and repeat. There’s a thin vengeance theme in the barely there plot, but the makers keep the pace running, something or the other is constantly happening to keep you amused till the end. A ridiculous car chase sequence was made fun with a mirroring technique – Bud is on the run with his daughter, to keep busy the kid plays a car game on her phone which cleverly plays out like the real-life chase her father is experiencing.
Foxx brings a lot of heft to this flick and Snoop Dogg has a cameo which was totally just a stylistic flex but hilarious if you take it in the right stride. Like the rest of the movie, the climax has some goofy fight scenes and things end on a fun note. It’s a 7/10 from me for the horror comedy flick.
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