Day Shift

Parenthood is seemingly at the center of this lazily written, though occasionally diverting, vampire movie. Jamie Foxx stars as Bud Jablonski, a pool cleaner and vampire killer who is low on funds. His ex-wife Jocelyn (Meagan Good) is chalking out a move from Los Angeles to Florida with their daughter Paige (Zion Broadnax). Jocelyn says Paige’s tuition fees as well as the braces the child needs must be paid for and gives Bud a week to come up with the cash. Bud goes to the vampire-hunting union, which he believes will give him a solid price on the vampire teeth he has collected, but he gets a lot less than he expected. He’s ordered to pair up with jittery union rep Seth (Dave Franco), who would rather be working in an office than be out in the field. What Bud doesn’t know is union boss Ralph Seeger (Eric Lange) has commanded Seth to catch Bud committing code violations that would make his return to the union very brief.

Despite many failings (which I will get to), Day Shift has several sapid qualities. For instance, I like the drone footage. When the truck Bud drives makes a hard right, the drone moving fast itself, makes the turn more enthralling. A drone also lifts out of car’s sunroof and views a speedy chase that shows vehicles rushing on a different street. Director of photography Toby Oliver gives some shots an engaging orange tint in early scenes, including my favorite shot: the intense orange around a white sun. The soundtrack contains clips of tasty cuts, like “Check Yo Self (Remix)” by Ice Cube, “Shimmy Shimmy Ya” by Ol’ Dirty Bastard, and “Body Count’s in the House,” by Body Count. Sound is effectively used in the part where pawn shop owner Troy (Peter Storemare) yells “No!” The elongation of the echo intimates the pain he’s about to go through without having to see it.

The beginning scene works partly because it’s so unexpected. (Mild spoilers) Bud puts in a little time as a pool guy before pulling out a shotgun for an old lady, it appears. He fires. She gets hit. Then the excitement starts because it’s not really an old woman. I enjoyed the energetic sequence where Bud and two Russian brothers, Mike (Steve Howry) and Diran Nazarian (Scott Adkins), blow away vampires. The climax contains appendage-pulling fun as well.

Jamie Foxx creates a likable character out of Bud. Though he doesn’t know what he’s in for as he enters a house inside which vampire reside, his self-assurance had me identifying with him. He’s tough when he must be, but he illustrates personality, as when he’s with his daughter Paige. Dave Franco plays the skittish, klutzy, and pitifully weak Seth, and while his whining can get annoying, he grows more endearing as the movie rolls along. When he becomes more confident, it comes off the right way—the result of his experiences with vampires. Snoop Dogg, in the role of Big John Elliott, doesn’t say a lot, but gives his character a likable swagger. He’s laconic and goes about his business with plausible cool. The way he carries himself gives creedence to the early scene where women gesture to him as though they’d love to have more of him in their lives.

But while Day Shift gets off to a pungent start, faults pile up shortly after. The stakes are only a couple inches off ground-floor level. Bud needs 10 grand, and he has an entire week to get it accomplished. He probably could have asked Big John for that amount and received it. There’s no urgency in that conflict. I said at this review’s beginning that parenthood is “seemingly” at the heart of the movie. Really, though, the family and money parts are used as excuses for the vampire hunting. In between the opening scene and the martial arts moves of the Nazarian brothers in the movie’s middle, not enough goes on. The money Bud needs, Bud dealing with the pawn shop owner, his desire to get into the union, and his early relationship with Seth aren’t worthwhile conflicts, being ordinary at best. It’s made worse by first-time director J.J. Perry’s too leisurely pacing in the non-action sections.

The screenplay by Tyler Tice and Shay Hatten fails in different ways, including in the laugh department. I’m not saying an action-comedy vampire movie must be hilarious or the movie stinks. But while there are many attempts at comedy, and the vast majority don’t amuse. When Seeger says Bud has one last strike, Bud queries if he’s talking about bowling. He then mentions to Big John that there is “a strike in bowling.” Thank you for that bit of information. Seth making squirrel noises is also a comedy low point. To show how fearful Seth is fighting vampires, he repeatedly pees his pants. That’s about as unimaginative as it gets. The thing I disliked most about the movie is vampire and lousy chief villain Audrey (Karla Souza) having Bud and his family where she wants them. What does she do? She leaves so Bud can kill vampires, find her, and have a showdown near the end. They could have saved dozens of minutes by having the big battle right there.

Day Shift takes parts of movies of different genres. Audrey saying someone is having Bud for dinner recalls Hannibal Lector saying nearly the same words in The Silence of the Lambs. The buddy of the protagonist getting bitten recalls Ed (Nick Frost) in Shaun of the Dead. Bud refers to some beings as “familiars,” calling to mind humans who are loyal to vampires in Blade. This film, available to watch on Netflix, isn’t as shocking as Lambs, anywhere near as funny as Shaun, or as flat-out fun as Blade. Apart this movie’s few positives, it’s routine—apropos given its title.

Nope

Get Out revealed Jordan Peele a talented director who could jolt people out of their seats (when I saw it in 2017, a guy a row up from me jumped out of his seat, thudding to the floor) and tell a story with humor. Us, released two years later, seemed to me well made in spots, but it was dragged out and the deeper meanings Peele inserted didn’t add much. With his third effort, Nope, he does a better job with the hidden connotations, but while I enjoyed some aspects of it, I left the movie theater partly exhilarated and partly disappointed.

In this sci-fi horror film, horse ranch owner Otis Haywood Sr. (Keith David) is killed when a nickle falls out of the sky and strikes him. His children, Otis Jr. (Daniel Kaluula), commonly called “OJ,” and “Em,” as in Emerald (Keke Palmer), inherit the ranch. Six months later, however, financially struggling OJ sells horses to Ricky “Jupe” Park (Steven Yeun), a former child actor who runs Jupiter’s Claim, a Western theme park adjacent to the Haywood ranch. OJ and Em notice a UFO shaped like a flying saucer and hope to take a picture of the flying saucer. They enlist tech salesman Angel Torres (Brandon Perea) to assist with surveillance cameras and notable cinematographer Antlers Holst (Michael Wincott) to help capture visual evidence of the thing, which turns out to not be a spaceship but a creature.

Let’s go back to Jupe, once known as Ricky Park, who was on a television sitcom called Gordy’s Home that featured a chimpanzee. One day on set, the chimp mauls multiple people. Jupe hides under the table and fearfully watches the attacks. The chimp spots Jupe and goes over to him. As the two are about to bump fists, the police arrive and shoot the chimp dead.

A primary theme in Nope is the danger of spectacle. There’s a Bible quote at the beginning, as in Us. Nahum 3:6 says, “I will pelt you with filth, I will treat you with contempt and make you a spectacle.” Our culture burns to see the next big thing, to experience it and, by doing so, be a part of it. That’s the case with OJ, Em, and Jupe. OJ and Em see the alien and hope to get what Em calls “the Oprah shot.” Why? To be a part of an event and to possibly get rich. Jupe witnessed his co-stars being assaulted, yet rather than learn from the experience (that animals and, in this case, a creature can be dangerous) he incorporates the alien into his Jupiter’s Claim show. Jupe’s desire to create a spectacle causes a tragedy.

Another motivation for why OJ and Em want to create splashy headlines is because of the sense that a part of them has been forgotten by history. They claim their great-great-great grandfather was a jockey on a horse in the first assembly of photographs used to create a motion picture. Since people don’t remember their ancestor, the two main characters feel the sense that the Haywood family never got proper credit for being a significant part of movie history. So, when an alien is in the sky not far from the Haywood ranch, OJ and Em feel impelled to get a photograph that will bring the family fame and money. Had Peele been a character in the movie who was asked if the Haywoods should get involved in this spectacle, his answer no doubt would have been, “Nope.”

There are other attractions. Hoyte van Hoytena’s cinematography is masterful. I love his framing of the sky, sometimes when the alien visible and sometimes when viewers look for to see if it’s there. The colors are extraordinary, especially the landscapes, which are various shades of tan. Credit should also go to the outstanding sound design. The balloon popping in the chimp-gets-violent sequence accentuates the horror. The people’s screams while they’re inside the creature are also startling. The sounds of material falling from the sky are eerie and mysterious. Michael Abels provides a highly enjoyable, exuberant score that’s as high-flying as the action late in the movie.

Nope seems like a mixture of Signs (where people run from a largely unseen force) and Jaws. Unfortunately, it’s not as fulfilling as either. Most of the first half, for instance, is uneventful and dull. OJ and Em talk in an electronics store, and there’s more talk when they see Angel there. OJ and Em go to see Jupe at Jupiter’s Claim and speak to him there. While I knew the creature would eventually get the focus it deserves and Peele establishes his themes through talk, I was restless in the first hour. Peele pokes fun at jump scares, like when a co-worker walks up Angel, but it struck me as annoying because so little happens. It’s as though Peele is toying with the audience, but since I was bored by that point, I was starved for something “real.” The final third is much better because there’s much more going on. OJ, Em, and their team trying to stay alive while getting a photo of the creature, presently called Jean Jacket, is very exciting and exceptionally well directed by Peele, who maintains interest for the entire third act. (Spoilers) Still, I was let down by the helium balloon that destroys Jean Jacket. It would be like seeing a blow-up doll defeating Jaws. It diminishes the creature as a villain and doesn’t feel satisfying. Peele has said when he sees a creature in some horror movies, he’s disappointed. It takes nearly the entire length of Nope to see the whole of Jean Jacket, and when I did, my reaction was the same.

Although the acting is generally good, there’s a problem there too. Keke Palmer has an electric personality, allowing her to easily fill her part and then some. I don’t think Daniel Kaluuya is as successful as OJ. He doesn’t seem naturally impassive. He looks away from many people and Jean Jacket (a characteristic that likely saves his life), but, to me anyway, that seems more like an actor’s choice than a character being who he is. Brandon Perea provides some fun as the pleasurably loquacious Angel, and Michael Wincott portrays the grizzled, intimidating Antlers Holst plausibly. Steven Yeun, as Jupe, acts ably, illustrating an emcee’s joy of performing and proving a lively conversationalist when the Haywood’s come to visit. These are personality performances, which is itself isn’t bad, but I wished I knew more about OJ and Em. They’re shallowly drawn and don’t develop intriguingly. I suppose the same could be said about some old Cary Grant characters in some Hitchcock movies, like John Robie in To Catch a Thief and Roger O. Thornhill in North by Northwest. The difference is Hitchcock had these characters deal with so much drama, it was impossible for me not to cheer for them. I felt a bit distant from OJ and Em because they don’t encounter the difficulties that would make me feel as close to them as I wanted to.

I have heard and read comparisons between Peele and M. Night Shyamalan by some who disliked Nope. But that’s unfair. Shyalmalan made three mostly solid thrillers with TheSixth Sense, Unbreakable, and Signs. Although The Village initially interested me, it ultimately proves more aggravating than entertaining. Monstrosities such as Lady in the Water, The Happening, and The Last Airbender followed. Get Out remains for me the best movie Peele has made. Us and Nope are decent. If you have a similar opinion and you just want to judge the downward trajectory, Shyamalan comes to mind. Yet Peele has no terrible movies to his name, and it’s not like he’s made four crummy movies in a row. He’ll have more chances to make very good movies. Let’s see.

Thor: Love and Thunder

When I initially heard there would be a fourth Thor movie, I grinned because the delight from the third film in the series, Thor: Ragnarok, remained in my mind. That flick was helmed by Taika Waititi, who directs the follow-up. If Waititi can create material as well crafted, amusing, and exuberant as Ragnarok, let him make five more in the series, if he wants. Turns out, however, Thor: Love and Thunder is a misfire that’s nowhere close to the quality of its predecessor.

The movie begins by showing Gorr (Christian Bale), a gray, bald man in a barren desert with his daughter, Love. He prays for his god to help them, but Love dies. Gorr is transported to another realm, inhabited by his god Rapu (Jonny Brugh), who has little interest in this creature’s hardships and attempts to throttle him. The Necrosword proffers itself to Gorr, who kills Rapu and declares he will all gods. Thor, (Chris Hemsworth) misses his ex-girlfriend Jane Foster (Natalie Portman), arrives in New Asgard, where Gorr is set to strike. There, he meets Jane, who has Mjolnir, Thor’s old, cracked hammer, which she hopes will help her in her fight against stage four cancer. The two reunite and battle Gorr, who kidnaps many Asgardian children and confines them in the Shadow Realm. Also joining the clash against Gorr are Kronan gladiator Korg (Taika Waititi) and Valkyrie (Tessa Thompson), the King of Asgard.

The low-grade script is by Waititi and Jennifer Kaytin Robinson. Jane’s cancer doesn’t fit with the team confronting Gorr or with Thor and Jane revitalizing their romance. I understand they wanted a force that would threaten the happiness of the two leads, but the disease is an odd choice that certainly doesn’t make the film more intriguing. Jane has the choice to stay in bed and get chemotherapy, so she can defeat cancer and live her life with Thor or help her boyfriend fight Gorr and die quickly after. That’s simply bizarre, and her decision left me looking at the screen for a bit like I was peering into a deep fog. And Valkyrie is terribly underutilized. As a fierce fighter, she would be perfect to stand alongside Thor and confront Gorr in the Shadow Realm. Waititi and Robinson have Valkyrie handling beauracratic duties, which is boring. In another quick scene, she does an Old Spice commercial to promote a retail shop opening. Who should help Thor late in the action, the indefatigable Valkyrie, or the cancer patient?

Because of the jumbled script, Thor: Love and Thunder is a tonal catastrophe. In the early sequence where Gorr and Rapu converse, they seem to be in two different movies: Gorr in a tense drama and Rapu in a silly comedy. The movie has a try-anything feel, and while that may work for some movies, it’s a negative here. Because Jane has late-stage cancer, it would only make sense for the action to have a more serious tone. Instead, Waititi and Robinson go for too many laughs to prevent the movie from being too gloomy. What’s worse is, most of the humorous stabs fail. After conquering the opposing side in battle, Thor says they won with “minimal damage” and numerous structures subsequently fall. Thor “gives” Peter Quill (Chris Pratt) a ship. But since it’s already Quill’s ship, Thor comes off as stupid. The film nuttily uses personification to show Thor’s axe, Stormbreaker, becoming jealous of Mjolnir. I’ll admit, the screaming goats made me smile. There are so many jokes and gags, though, it seems like a spoof at times, which, again, is a poor fit for Jane’s disease.

There are good things. The voice-over summaries of Thor’s hammer and Thor and Jane’s relationship are tidily told. Gorr makes for a decent villain, one that would have been better if he had been in more of the movie. Also, Michael Giacchino and Nami Melumad offer an appositely energetic score. There are some killer songs on the soundtrack, such as “Welcome to the Jungle” and “Paradise City,” that give the film a shot of adrenaline. And there are better hairdos in this movie than in most superhero flicks.

Chris Hemsworth does a mostly good job as Thor. Of course, he looks incredibly strong and atkes on his foes with the right amount of force. He also handles the humor in stride and gets plausibly serious when Jane’s cancer is broached. The relationship between Thor and Jane seems off—there’s more forced biology (as in both Hemsworth and Portman are paid to act near each other) than chemistry. It’s that the cancer part is so out of place, the two don’t connect as they should. Natalie Portman is only fair Jane. She acts believably (though she’s less successful with comedy—her attempts to conceive her own catchprase don’t amuse, partly because of her), but she doesn’t bring me to feel for her struggle. As Gorr the God Butcher, Christian Bale performs at a high level. I wanted Gorr to develop fully so Bale to create a first-rate character out of him, but because of the inferior script, that doesn’t happen. Still, Bale imbues Gorr with an intensity that is gripping to see.

On The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Waititi said of his film, “It’s like we asked a bunch of six-year-olds what they wanted in a movie, and we just said yes to everything.” Given the chaotic mixture of genres, that doesn’t seem too far off. Thor: Love and Thunder sometimes forgets the necessary focus on the drama as well. At no point did I think the kidnapped children were in great danger, keeping the stakes low. The movie swings hard on comedy (trying too hard to get the audiences to laugh) and earns, at best, a foul tip. It misses on drama. Having a character with cancer as your superhero movie’s clean-up hitter—the one needed to tip the balance in favor of the good guys—is strike three.