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.