Day Shift Review: Fangs But No Fangs
Directed by J.J. Perry, Day Shift stars Jamie Foxx as the awkwardly named Bud Jablonski. Bud is a vampire hunter, who extracts the fangs from his kills and sells them for money. Of course, Bud’s family know none of this, and his secretive nature has led to the breakup of his marriage. When Bud finds out that his wife is planning to move herself and their daughter away for financial reasons, Bud pledges to raise the money, in just a few short days, to keep them happily where they are. In order to do this Bud must beg the top-paying vampire hunters’ union to let him back in (he was previously expelled) and then go on the biggest vampire hunting spree of his life. He must also avoid the super-strong vampire villain Audrey, who is after him in the name of revenge.
Day Shift introduces itself as an amped up, vampire slaying, comedy horror. But can a movie about a secretly heroic man who just wants to keep his adorable young daughter close and restore his family unit really satisfy as a blood thirsty fang-fest? Well, certainly in this case the answer is no. It doesn’t help that the script by Tyler Tice and Shay Hatten seems to have been constructed out of a cliché rolodex. In addition to the above, Bud’s union boss hates him and regularly chews him out like something from an 80s cop movie. While, as part of his deal to re-enter the vampire hunting union, Bud has been partnered with Seth (Dave Franco), a weedy, by the book millennial who is recording his every indiscretion. As such the main bulk of the film’s comedy comes from Bud and Seth’s odd-couple relationship. It’s all a bit hackneyed.
“One running joke has Seth wetting himself every time a vamp attacks. This writer did not wet himself laughing.”
It must be said that Franco is excellent, and the two actors have plenty of chemistry, but unfortunately much of their screen-time together is wasted on exposition, as Seth explains various aspects of vampire lore in detail to his gung-ho new partner. This is all interesting and inventive stuff, but none of it pays off in an important way. The comedy that these two characters generate is crude, and yet not crude enough to be interesting. One running joke has Seth wetting himself every time a vamp attacks. This writer did not wet himself laughing.
The film also lacks a convincing villain. Karla Souza, who plays Audrey, does her best. But Audrey just isn’t evil enough, her plan is not nefarious enough to make any impact on the audience. She’s a realtor who wants to put vamps in suburban housing. Yes, that does sound worrying, but we never see the consequences of her plan. We never see, for example, a sweet little child answering the door to the postman and ripping out his throat. None of it is threatening or interesting enough.
Aesthetically the film tries. The action scenes owe a debt both to the David Leitch and Chad Stahelski school of frenetic action, and the Sam Raimi school of crazy, man vs. undead combat, but it lacks the invention of the former and the visceral, mad eyed humour of the latter.
So what’s good about Day Shift? The cast are all excellent, with Snoop Dogg deserving a special shout out for playing Bud’s close friend, Big John, the smoothest, baddest vampire hunter of them all. Surely Snoop is the only man that could have been hired to out cool Jamie Foxx.
And for all that the film is fun. It’s not very good, but not very good films can still be fun.
