Jamie Foxx’s $100M Netflix Fantasy-Thriller is an Exciting Leisure Watch — ‘Day Shift’ review
tl;dr: 3 out of 5 stars.
Jamie Foxx as a leading man is not something that has gone wrong since, maybe, 2005's ‘Stealth’ — an awful, awful, movie, honestly.
But for $100 million, almost anyone could come up with a better movie than the Box Office flop, ‘Stealth’ (it's so bad, I mean what were they thinking?) That's even if a streamer churns out such a whopping sum and hands it to amateurs. Well, not amateurs exactly but to be fair, it is J.J Perry's directorial debut and the writers are relatively unknown, although Shay Hatten has previously worked on ‘John Wick 3: Parabellum’ and ‘Army of Thieves.’
Nonetheless, ‘Day Shift’ rises above the odds (there weren't a lot stacked against it to begin with, if we're being honest) and shapes up as a quite remarkable, if unnecessary, adventure film about one of the most-cliched fantasies—vampire hunting.
The movie is about a Bud Jablonski (Jamie Foxx), pool cleaner during the day and a hunter at night. Bud hunts vampires for a living, but he is as erratic as he is skillful and he doesn't believe in the Union rules and regulations. As a result, he's been excommunicated and that means less money for him. The thing is, he kinda needs more money or he'll lose his family. So, what he really needs is to get back in the Union—one last time and kill as many vampires as he possibly can before the ultimatum.
Bud, like most hunters and fighters, is this macho man that prefers to work alone. But when you're who he is, you'll soon find that you can't do shit alone. Not to worry, he's got friends. Some old and some, he doesn't even know yet. It all works out fine.
Oh, except for one little problem; he's killed the relative of a powerful lady vampire who's trying to revolutionize the vampire industry with her disruptive innovations. And, well, she kinda has a vendetta against human beings, what a surprise! So, it's not going to be such an easy ride for our friend Bud after all.
The world-building is shabby. Not that there are not enough details. That's just the thing; it's got too many details. They tried to fit in all these details to create some kind of unique universe but it all forms like a bad, drunken dream at best. On the bright side, there's enough to go on should they decide to make a sequel sometime. But all of that info dump just sort of drags the whole show on the floor.
The supporting cast is not half bad and while I had expected more from Snoop Dogg, it's just as well that he didn't do much.
‘Day Shift’ is all right. It's a fun watch if you got nothing else going for you. I mean, I wouldn't substitute a hangout with a girlfriend for watching this, but I would—and will also recommend—seeing the movie as part of a hangout with a girlfriend or even any friends for that matter.
*** (3 out of 5 stars)