Day Shift

5 / 10

“With my mind on my money and my money on my mind.”

Probably the most prominent example of the “Netflix look” yet, Day Shift from director J.J. Perry sounds and certainly feels like an unofficial Grand Theft Auto V DLC with sunbathing frames and a constant orange color cast filling the sets. For those who haven’t seen L.A. in films for the umpteenth time, Perry quickly unloads “California Love” onto the viewer with Bay-ish establishing shots – and fortunately none of the applicable typography choices – which creates reasonable doubt of being fed with an engaging drama, but there are some more or less interesting surprises.

The hunting of vampires and the collection of their valuable fangs serve as the story’s silly basement. Jamie Foxx’ Bud Jablonski, a vampire hunter – who has to deal with a low income due to the sinking prices for fangs over the years – faces the loss of the joint custody for his daughter Paige as her tuition has to be paid in seven days. His wife Jocelyn (Meagan Good) therefore considers to move to Florida with her just to make sure that Paige can continue the education. With the financial problems and an imminent separation from the family, he has to find a way to pay the tuition over the course of thr week in order to keep his family in Los Angeles. A bureaucratic jungle through the vampire hunting union awaits him which reinstates his profession as a hunter for better revenue, but one of his previous jobs has drastic consequences which threatens his goals.

In addition to the vampire hunting action and the standard family drama, J.J. Perry inserts an interesting antagonist with the vampire Audrey (Karla Souza), a real estate agent who wants to build new housing complexes in the city to give fellow vampires a new home. The topic of gentrification immediately comes to mind which could have been promising, but the simple focus on the blood-thirsty violence reveal a huge problem: In true DLC fashion, the vampires feel like an add-on to the society of Los Angeles. You cannot tell whether they are being viewed as feared outsiders or if they can be controlled by the LAPD, because we don’t see any sort of news or small talk about this undead group throughout the days.

Audrey’s ambitions of creating new living space for them are not explored, as her sole sinister aura seems to be the most important thing for the screenplay. Surely, summer blockbusters can be a fun ride, but with gentrification being thrown into the room, there could have been a light dilemma for Bud between destroying the antagonist’s dreams and a new potential residence for vampires or the separation of his family if the relationship between citizens and the undead is addressed. I mean, there are good and bad vampires out there as the show goes on, so there is something to work with. But another elephant in the room is the budget.

Day Shift costs about 100 million of dollars, which is 32 million more than Jordan Peele’s Nope and ten million more than the first two John Wick films combined which is insane, considering the production value of the respective pictures. In this case and The Gray Man, it likely boils down to the expensive cast and the heavy action. One of the executive producers is John Wick director Chad Stahelski, whose influence on this violent vampire spectacle is clearly visible. The choreographed fights and especially the kills, carried out by Bud and his entourage, are brutal with a high number of decapitations. This in combination with the uncompromising, hilarious use of the shotgun compensates the sketch-riddled story for the most part.

Bud is joined by two sidekicks and just one of them would have been perfectly fine. It’s definitely not Dave Franco’s Seth, an office worker at the union who’s been assigned to track Bud’s job routine. His fears in regards to the violence and his strict abidance of the union’s large set of rules get annoying over time and he slowly devolves into an afterthought. The second sidekick however is none other than Snoop Dogg who plays a fellow vampire hunter from the union. His acting chops are surprisingly solid with the given screen time while his word flow thrives within the setting and the genre frame.

The plot moves on very straightforward, causes an unnecessary plot hole midway through and shows small stakes surrounding Bud’s family in the third act, but the lighthearted spin on every element kills the surprise. Day Shift is a slick action comedy ride inspired by the third chapter of John Wick and accidentally touches on a relevant subject which is being treated like a leftover on the whiteboard after the initial brainstorming process. This sort of storytelling and investment into the cast makes me wonder whether or not the generous board at Netflix is smokin’ indo and is sippin’ on gin and juice.

Review published on 13th August 2022.