An Average Movie-Goer’s Review
Spoilers! If you don’t want spoilers – check out the Spoiler-Free post
I love movies and if I’m going to watch them anyway, why not write an entertaining/funny review from the POV of an average movie-goer and not a professional critic.
Today we’re looking at 2022’s Netflix exclusive Day Shift
Vampire hunter Bud (Jamie Foxx) rushes to save up enough money to keep his family from moving away while being watched by a union rep (Dave Franco) from an international vampire hunting agency.
Is it Scary?
Nah, not even a little bit but it’s not trying to be. Some of the vampire designs and movements might give you some flashbacks to scarier movies but overall this is an action/comedy movie. You won’t leave this movie scared unless you’re planning on raiding a vampire house but if that’s the case, you should probably rethink some of your life choices.
Detailed Plot:
The film opens in San Fernando Valley, CA where our main character and pool boy Bud Jablonski (played by Jamie Foxx) fishes a possum out of a pool. After noticing one of the neighbors leaving, Bud lifts his cleaning supply crate to reveal a false bottom with a bag full of weapons.
Bud zips up his coveralls, adds a handgun and ammo onto this belt, grabs the shotgun, and breaks into the house. Before entering the bedroom he places a thin metal wire trap across a doorway right around neck level. Anyone who runs through it will most likely get their heads cut clean off… so you can pretty much guess what’s definitely going to happen at some point.
After he enters the bedroom, an elderly women comes out of the adjoining bathroom, confused as to what he’s doing there. Bud calmly and professionally explains he’s only there to- oh wait no, he blows her across the room with the shotgun.
We pan over to see the woman lying in the bathroom when her arm starts to twitch. As she jumps up we get some pretty cool effects of her transforming into a vampire and seeing the hole in her stomach heal on its own.
The vampire… vampire-granny(?) lunges at Bud and the two struggle. Bud’s unable to get another shot off as she appears to be the absolute best gymnast in the world. Flipping backwards, she disarms him with some kicks, flips around the wall to break his grasp on her, and then throws him through a freaking wall.
Sitting up, Bud pulls out a small glass shard from his shoulder and honestly he’s lucky that this is his only wound because HE WAS JUST THROWN THROUGH A WALL!
Vampire-Granny appears behind him and as they continue fighting we get confirmation on a few vampire myths; the sun burns them, no reflections in mirrors, and the knife Bud pulls out appears to be silver. Also the fight choreography is pretty great, giving off some John Wick vibes.
Post Viewing Update: I went into this movie blind but it turns out it’s produced by stuntman and director Chad Stahelski, the director for all the John Wick movies so that explains all the John Wick-esque fighting.
Vamp-Granny dodges the knife swipes and slams Bud through a wooden table. Grabbing a piece of the broken table which is now conveniently the shape of a stake, Bud stabs Vamp-Granny in the stomach causing her to vomit a lot of black blood on him. Though she’s thrown back, it doesn’t do much to her as she says he missed.
They continue fighting with Bud overpowering her and able to shoot her a few times slowing her down. Eventually he slams her on the ground, stakes her in the heart (which doesn’t kill her), and uses his knife to decapitate her (which does kill her).
As Bud catches his breath, another vampire busts through the door and runs at him. Not seeing the metal wire Bud placed earlier on the doorway, he immediately gets decapitated. Bud then says “it works every time.”
Bud grabs the heads of the vamps and removes their fangs, placing them in small jars. Before he leaves, he changes into a grandma dress since his coveralls are covered in black goo. I assume he’s doing this to not bring attention to himself but, I’ll argue that him walking around in a grandma dress is not as inconspicuous as he thinks it is.
As Bud drives off we finally get a title screen!
We cut to another vampire, Audrey (played by Karla Souza) at a construction site torturing a vampire named Sasha who is tied to some rebar in a ditch and burning in the sun. It appears that Sasha and Audrey are both heads of different vampire factions and were recently at war.
Sasha tells Audrey she can have peace if she lets him go but Audrey refuses and tells him she wants to own it all. She signals to her men who fill the ditch with concrete while Sasha begs her to stop. As Audrey leaves we see a sign depicting Audrey as the owner of the real estate business in the area.
Back with Bud, he arrives at his apartment and showers using some orange paste that causes him to yell out in pain but, removes the black goo from his body. As he pours alcohol on his shoulder wound we see that he has multiple scars, showing us that he’s been doing this for awhile.
Bud leaves and picks up his daughter, Paige (played by Zion Broadnax) from school. Although he’s late, Paige doesn’t care and asks to go to get some frozen yogurt which he agrees. Afterwards, Bud takes Paige home to her mother and his ex-wife, Jocelyn (played by Meagan Good) who is in the middle of replacing several floor tiles.
Jocelyn is not happy that Bud was late to pick up Paige from school and never showed up to take Paige to school that morning. It’s also insinuated that Bud keeping his job as a vampire hunter a secret is what led to the family breaking up.
Realizing that Jocelyn has replaced the front door, he questions her and Jocelyn reveals she’s planning on selling the house and moving to Florida with Paige. Bud begs her not to go, but she tells him she doesn’t have a choice since they can’t afford the $5,000 for tuition nor the $4,800 for braces that Paige needs.
“… What?”
Bud is shocked at the amount and even more surprised when Jocelyn tells him they need to pay the school in a week. She tells him he would have known if he had just checked his messages so I guess this is the first time they’ve talked in awhile? Bud asks her to give him till Monday to get the money and Jocelyn reluctantly agrees. We got character motivation people!
Bud leaves and arrives at a pawn shop to meet with his friend Troy (played by Peter Stormare). Bud shows him the vampire fangs but is only offered $800 for the male’s fangs and is dismayed to find out the vamp-granny wasn’t an ‘elder’ vamp, dropping the price from $20k to $2k. We learn that Bud could sell the fangs for a hell of a lot more at the “union” but he isn’t allowed there anymore.
Desperate, Bud sells his custom gun, ‘snake-eyes’ for $1500 and sells his shoes, Jordans, for undisclosed amount since we cut away to see Bud walking out in socks.
At his car, we see that Bud chose not to sell the vamp-granny fangs. He did sell the male’s fangs, his gun, and shoes though, so that’s gotta put him at around $2500. Paige then calls wondering if she’s going to move but Bud reassures her she’s not moving away. After hanging up he reluctantly messages a friend ‘Big J’ for help.
We cut to Audrey, at night, arriving at a house and we hear her on the phone with another vampire leader. The vamp-leader tells her he’ll have to rethink their deal as she had no authority to attack Sasha. Audrey warns him that the product she’s making will allow the vampires to roam the day so he can join her or join Sasha.
After hanging up, Audrey and her right-hand man Klaus (played by Oliver Masucci) enter the house and it’s revealed to be the same house where Bud killed the vampires earlier. Audrey is shocked and cries a tear of blood when finding vamp-granny’s body. Meanwhile Klaus finds the shard of glass that was embedded in Bud’s shoulder and tells Audrey it was one man.
Audrey takes the glass shard, licks the blood, and orders Klaus to find him. Don’t know why she had to lick the glass, Klaus didn’t, he only smelled it and instantly knew it was just one person.
As they leave the house, Audrey passes by some roses and causes them to instantly die… well that’s a power that’s going to be interesting to see her use against Bud or any other opponents. Post Movie Update: She never uses it again.
The following day Bud meets up with Big J (who is freaking Snoop Dogg) and tells him he needs to make $10k in the next 5 days. Doesn’t he technically only need $2,500? The only thing that needs to be paid in 5 days is the tuition and he sold the fangs, gun, and shoes for around $2,500.
Anyway, we learn that Bud got himself kicked out of the ‘Union’, which is the name of the secret international vampire hunting organization. Big J has vouched for him to allow him back in, but first they’ll have to get approval from the head of the branch, Mr. Seeger. Once in the Union, vampire hunting is like a job and hunters are assigned shifts, but members have several benefits including selling vampire fangs for a much higher price.
The two enter a dry cleaners and walk to the back where a high tech door opens to the ‘Union’ offices. Meeting with Mr. Seeger (played by Eric Lange) we learn that Bud was kicked out of the ‘Union’ for violating multiple codes since 2014 including one in 2017 that left another hunter dead. By the way, the whole scene is played for laughs but the jokes don’t really land which has been a constant in the movie so far.
Seeger agrees to give Bud another chance due to Big J vouching for him but he’ll be required to take a union rep with him out in the field and can only work the day shift; so that’s why this is called that. He also tells him that if he violates just one code, he’ll be kicked out indefinitely.
Bud and Big J head over to the bank section of the ‘Union’ where Bud sells the vampire fangs to the teller, Seth (played by Dave Franco). Now I’ve watched this scene multiple times and although they don’t say exactly how much Bud is paid, I think I’ve figured it out.
For the fangs, Seth puts two identical looking stacks of cash on the counter. He then takes one full stack away claiming it’s for union dues amounting to $5k, this means the other stack is also $5k. He then deducts 15% for each fang, since there were two fangs at $5K each, that leaves Bud with $3,500.
Seth then takes half as it’s required to hold half until the new hire paperwork is done. In the end this leaves Bud with $1,750, add the $2,500 he should already have and he just needs $850 to reach the $5k. He could also just do the paperwork and get the other $1,750 back, so there’s that.
An angry Bud takes what money is left but before he leaves, Mr. Seeger walks by and informs him that Seth will be his union rep partner in the field. We cut to a little bit later and Seth approaches Mr. Seeger telling him he isn’t suitable for the field. Seeger dangles a promotion over Seth and says that the sooner he tells him that Bud violated a code, the sooner Seth will be back in the office with a promotion.
The following morning Seth arrives at Bud’s storage unit where Bud is already preparing for the next hunt. After Bud reprimands Seth for wearing a suit, we get a bunch of lore and exposition:
- There is a 700 year-old European vampire called ‘El Jefe’ who is said to be the head of the L.A drug trade but is in hiding. Bud doesn’t believe the stories of ‘El Jefe’.
- Vampires are allergic to wood and Bud makes special bullets with garlic and wood pellets.
- Uber Vamps are a type of vampire that can come back to life after being decapitated
- Uber Vamps can be killed if you stake them or shoot them with wood in the heart and then decapitate them with silver. Uber vamps can also be killed by fire.
- Juvies are a type of vampire created when a young vampire turns someone else into a vampire. Juvies are not as strong as regular vamps, cannot regenerate, and look more dead than alive.
- In total there are five types of vampires: Southern, Easter, Spider, Uber and Juvies. So the main question is “The fuck is a spider vampire?!”
Bud and Seth head out on a hunt and track several Juvies to an abandoned bowling alley. Bud tells Seth to stay in the car and the two argue as Seth says he has to follow him at all times. Bud refuses and hands Seth a gun but he rejects it saying he doesn’t ‘believe’ in guns calling them killing machines… what? How did he expect to hunt the vampires?
We cut to Troy’s pawn shop where he hears gunfire coming from the front and then sees one of his workers thrown through the door of his office. Before he can reach for a weapon, Audrey comes in with super speed and drives a knife through his hand pinning him to the table.
During her monologue (because villain) we learn that vampires die without their fangs and it’s the one thing they can’t regenerate. Troy also questions how it’s possible that she is out in the daytime but she doesn’t answer.
Audrey finds the male-vamp’s fang that Bud sold him and gives Troy a choice, he can either tell her who sold him the fang or she can torture and kill him. Troy refuses to tell her and… we cut away.
Back with Bud, he enters the bowling alley, finds several Juvies, and just starts blasting with his shotgun. He’s then tackled by another Juvie causing him to drop his shotgun. Meanwhile outside, Seth gets a call from Seegler who demands he go inside and keep and eye on Bud. Seth reluctantly goes in and starts freaking out at the sight of Bud fighting a Juvie. After some yelling he kicks over the shotgun allowing Bud to kill the Juvie.
We cut to Bud and Seth outside with Seth vomiting and having pissed his pants from the experience. The two call it a day and Bud drives Seth home giving him some of the orange paste from earlier.
We learn that when a vamp is killed, they release a gas that other vamps can smell and track. The orange paste is Bud’s own mixture meant to remove the smell. You would think the ‘Union’ would already have something for it but I guess not.
That night as Bud is walking up his steps he sends Jocelyn a message telling her he almost has half the money they need. Why doesn’t he just fill out the new hire paperwork? He’d have more than enough for the tuition. He also just collected like four pairs of Juvie fangs, that’s gotta be work some money.
Not seeing where he’s going, Bud bumps into his new neighbor, Heather (played by Natasha Liu Bordizzo) carrying several loads of laundry. He apologizes, they introduce themselves, and he helps her bring her laundry into her apartment which happens to be next to his. I’ve never been more certain that someone was secretly a vampire in my life.
The next day Bud picks up Seth for a new day of hunting. Before they leave, Bud reveals Seth left his notebook in the car the day before and he took a look inside. The book documents the codes Bud violated the day before, including not alerting the ‘Union’ of the vamp kills and breaking and entering without ‘Union’ sanction.
The two argue with Bud defending his actions and claiming that if he hadn’t violated the codes they would be dead, which is not true, at least not based on the violations we, the audience, just heard. Bud asks Seth to give him a few days before reporting him and Seth agrees.
The two head out for another hunt but first they stop by Troy’s pawn shop which has seen better days. And by that I mean days where everyone inside was still alive. In the backroom they find a dead Troy with all his teeth removed spelling out ‘Bud’ on the table. As they leave the backroom, Bud grabs his ‘snake-eyes’ gun and tosses Seth a gun which he promptly drops.
Bud then tries to leave the shop but Seth stops him. He demands they inform the ‘Union’ offices since Code 233 states ‘Any hunter who encounters a suspicious civilian death must be placed under a 30 day suspension’. I played that scene back a few times to make sure I heard it right because that is an unbelievable rule. You have to assume that as a vampire hunter you come across suspicious deaths all the time, how many cases does the ‘Union’ actually solve?
The two once again argue and Bud reveals that he needs the money so he won’t lose his family. He wants Seth to report the murders but he just wants him to wait a day. Bud then asks Seth to give him a few days and Seth agrees, which just feels like rehash of the previous scene.
That night Bud passes by Heather’s apartment and sees a strange man arguing with her. The man sees Bud and closes the blinds. If you have subtitles on you’ll see that Heather says “he’s gonna suspect something.” and if you don’t have subtitles, you can kind of still hear it.
At this point they’re hinting so hard that she’s working for the vampires that I’m starting to think it’s a fake out and its all going to be some comedic misunderstanding. Either way, Bud does suspect something and enters his apartment, locking all 6 locks behind him.
The next day Bud gets a tip from Big J and he and Seth go stake out a house with some possible vamps. While they wait, Bud shows Seth a new grenade weapon that will shoot out garlic and sawdust. They’re interrupted when a couple of famous hunters known as the Nazarian brothers pull up next to them.
The brother’s suggest a team-up with the four splitting the fangs at the end. Bud agrees and the group suit up including Bud forcing Seth to wear a neck brace and handing him a gun. I guess Seth is cool with guns now.
Approaching the house one of the Nazarian brothers chews on garlic so his spit will be acidic to the vamps, he then asks his brother for a piece of gum and his brother spits gum into his mouth. Apparently they share everything…
The group break in and kill two vamp kids calling the attention of an adult vampire who is immediately killed by Bud. Searching the house, Bud hears chittering in the walls and he realizes the house is home to a hive of vampires.
Immediately after announcing it’s a hive, over a dozen vampires break through walls and cabinets and start attacking. It was nice of them to wait until someone announced them instead of surprise attacking everyone. It’s action set piece time!
Everyone has their moments during this sequence. As the Nazarian brothers skewer some vamps in the kitchen, Bud decapitates one with a television and tells Seth to stay away from the walls as he, himself, steps in front of a wall.
Unsurprisingly he’s pulled through the wall by a vamp. Another vamp crawls out of a random living room vent and attacks Seth. He promptly pees himself and can’t figure out how to take the safety off his gun.
By the end of the sequence there’s about two dozen vamps killed, some pretty impressive action, some ridiculous pieces, a bit of comedy, and about a dozen different weapons used.
The hunters regroup in the living room to celebrate. One vampire straggler runs out of the house into direct sunlight but doesn’t get burned to the Nazarian’s surprise. Bud tells them there are rumors of a sunscreen that protects the vampires up to 20 minutes in direct sunlight.
Seth realizes there are some of every type of vampire in the house which is odd as they would never cohabitate. Before the group can ponder further, Bud’s alarm goes off and he has to leave to pick up Paige.
In the car, Seth mentions he can’t help but to think about how the vampires were human at one time. Bud shuts that idea down claiming that all vampires are liars and murderers which leads into a Twilight conversation and joke.
Bud then randomly says he really thinks Seth could be a real hunter which makes absolutely no sense for Bud to say at this point. In the previous sequence Seth didn’t kill any vampires and barely made it out of alive. He also peed himself… again!
After dropping Seth off, Bud picks up Paige from the house to take her to a birthday party. Despite his hesitation due to being hunted by the vampire that killed Troy, he takes her to the party where he gets a phone call from Audrey. Audrey threatens to kill Jocelyn and Paige and appears to know where Bud is.
Bud then sees the same strange man from Heather’s apartment drive past him very slowly as if he wants him to know he’s a bad guy. Bud quickly grabs Paige and puts her in the car instructing her to wear her headphones. As he goes around the other side of the car, Bud easily kills the strange man and jumps in the car initiating a chase sequence.
Bud dodges vamps in motorcycles, cars, and trucks while Paige, who is completely distracted with a video game, doesn’t seem to mind the explosions and swerving.
Bud calls Jocelyn and apologizes for keeping secrets but tells her she is now in danger and has to pack a bag. After hanging up, Paige takes off her headphones, stops playing her game, and is amazingly chill about all the destruction going on around her. Bud is eventually able to lose the vamps and drives Paige home.
Unfortunately Audrey is there and her men grab the two. Audrey tells him to beg for his life but Bud refuses and Audrey reveals that Seth also refused. She points over to the other side of the room where we see a dead-looking Seth laying there. Was Seth at the house already or did they attack him at his house and then brought his body to Jocelyn’s?
Bud apologizes to Jocelyn and reveals he hunts vampires which she doesn’t believe because he sounds like a crazy person. Audrey reveals her fangs which, I think, was nice of her to do in order to prove Bud right.
Audrey’s men take Jocelyn and Paige away while another two drag Bud to Audrey. She tells him she plans on turning Paige and then forcing her to kill Jocelyn. She also reveals she’s turned Seth into a vampire and is going to leave Bud there to let Seth kill him. Before she leaves, Audrey’s men knock Bud out.
A short time later, Bud and Seth wake up at the same time and Seth realizes he’s a vampire when he looks in a mirror.
Seth loses control and lunges at Bud but Bud easily decapitates him. As Bud apologizes, Seth’s head comes back to life and his body places his head back on. Turns out Seth is an uber vamp. Luckily he’s returned to his senses and apologizes for trying to eat Bud.
Despite Bud earlier saying that all vampires are liars and murderers, he seems completely cool with Seth being one and doesn’t even have a moment of internal conflict or debate. Arriving at his apartment complex, Bud tells Seth to wait in the car as he goes to pay Heather a visit to get some information.
Bud enters Heather’s apartment and points his shotgun at her. She quickly kicks it away while revealing herself to be an uber vampire. She asks him to let her explain and says she didn’t have a choice. But, Bud doesn’t care and says it’s her fault his family was kidnapped which makes no sense. They’ve only ever met that one time, how that would lead to her being the reason Jocelyn and Paige were kidnapped?
Heather tells him Audrey is her maker and forced her to get close to Bud so she could learn how to hurt him. Were there some cut scenes? Heather never gets close to Bud and she wouldn’t have known about his family from that one scene, specifically because he doesn’t mention any family.
Heather reveals that the vamp-granny from the start of the movie was Audrey’s daughter from before she became a vampire. Audrey left her behind at some point and after turning into a vampire, she went back to find her but by the time she did, she was a sweet old lady who was totally cool with becoming an undead creature. Seth then enters the apartment saying he feels weird as his head falls off.
Meanwhile back with Audrey, she and Klaus are dragging Jocelyn and Paige through some tunnels when Audrey tells Jocelyn she should be grateful for what she’s about to do; there is a war coming and Paige (as a vampire working for Audrey) will be on the winning side.
Back with Bud, Heather feeds Seth blood from a blood bag which instantly heals him. She tells the two about Audrey’s master plan of buying up all available property and moving in vampires that are loyal to her. Within a year Audrey will be able to take over Los Angelas with her vampire army.
Bud vows to stop her and Heather volunteers to show him where her hideout is. Seth jumps at the opportunity to help and Bud reluctantly agrees. The group suit up, gather weapons, and head out to stop Audrey for good.
The group arrive at an abandoned retail store filled with heavily armed humans and a fight breaks out instantly with Seth getting shot within moments. He’s fine though since they are using lead bullets.
At first I did think the store was filled with vamps but they bleed red and previously, all vamps have bled black. Also turns out Heather wasn’t holding a bat, it’s a badass katana(?) that she uses to, pretty easily, kill a lot of people.
The three are overwhelmed by the armed guards and take cover behind some cement barriers. Just when Seth yells out that they’re surrounded, a truck busts through the doors and Big J steps out carrying a minigun.
After Big J clears out all the guards, Heather instructs him and Bud to head down to Audrey’s tunnels using the back staircase while her and Seth will take a deadly shortcut. The group split up and Bud and Big J find the manufacturing room for the protective sunscreen which… hasn’t really played a part in this movie to be honest.
Using his minigun, Big J clears the room and the two find cases of weapons and silver tipped wood bullets. It appears that the war Audrey referred to earlier, is one she is waging against vampires. Bud wonders if Audrey is actually ‘El Jefe’ but Big J rejects the idea. The two find a hidden door leading to the tunnels and proceed forward before they’re ambushed by vamps.
The two fight their way through and although they clear out the vamps, Big J gets bit in the neck. Approaching a gate door, Big J pushes Bud through to the other side and shoots the chains holding the door open. With more vamps approaching, Big J tells Bud to go get his family as he reveals a UV bomb.
Why isn’t the ‘Union’ supplying their members with UV grenades, also… where the fuck is the ‘Union’? Audrey is raising an army and earlier Seth said he texted Big J but neither one of them thought to tell the ‘Union’?
Proceeding through the tunnels alone, Bud finds a tomb but is attacked by Klaus. Heather and Seth then jump down from an opening in the ceiling and tell Bud they’ll handle Klaus.
Hearing Bud approaching, Audrey growls, lifts Jocelyn in the air, and slams her back down. I guess she was just making a point. Bud arrives and Audrey reiterates her plan to kill him, turn Paige, and use her to kill Jocelyn. Bud shoots but misses due to Audrey’s super speed. She then rushes at Bud and kicks him around like a ragdoll.
Meanwhile Seth and Heather aren’t doing too well against Klaus who is beating them pretty easily. After he grabs both of them by their necks, Heather tells Seth to pull and they both rip off his arms.
Audrey continues to kick Bud across the room, for some reason not killing him immediately. Finally she grabs him and is about to bite his neck but she’s given Jocelyn enough time to grab a wooden pole and stab her through the heart.
Audrey breaks the pole and smacks Jocelyn across the room, she then kicks Bud to the other side of the room through a doorway… why not just kill him? Oh right, plot armor.
Audrey starts to walk over to Jocelyn, despite her super speed, and gives Bud enough time to shoot her with his gun hoping to decapitate her. Unfortunately he misses her neck and it goes through her head allowing her to catch it with her teeth. She taunts him for using his last bullet and then uses her super speed to run towards him. It’s like she can’t make up her mind whether to run or walk.
Turns out Bud placed the metal wire trap between the doorway and was hoping she would run so she would decapitate herself. Audrey falls for it almost too easily and Bud catches her head before her body falls away.
Audrey’s head curses Bud one last time and it withers away as she dies. The heroes reunite and Bud finds Big J’s hat, giving it to Seth. Leaving the tunnels the ‘Union’ including Seeger have arrived.
Seeger attempts to reprimand Bud with violations but Seth counters each one. Seeger tells Seth to forget the promotion and Seth happily states he no longer wants it as he is now Bud’s field partner. I guess in the ‘Union’ you can just give yourself whatever job you want.
The film ends with the groups each heading home and, as the family drive off, Big J climbs out of a maintenance hole appearing completely fine.
Review:
Day Shift is okay. At almost 2 hours it’s a bit too long and honestly at times feels more like the first episode of a tv show. I get that they were trying to do the John Wick thing of building a whole universe with a company that oversees the hunters but it just fell flat. The main problem was Day Shift trying too hard to set up things for a potential future instead of just focusing on this story. El Jefe, the sunscreen, the vampire war, using the Nazarian brothers for a fight sequence then forgetting about them in the end, all of this stuff didn’t have to be in this movie at all.
On a positive note the acting from everyone was great and the action/fight scenes were impressive except for the car chase sequence which felt a bit boring. Though I’m not a fan of car chase sequences to begin with so that’s just me. But the rest of the fight scenes are the highlight of the movie, every single one is great and there are barely any cuts during them. The Nazarian brother’s sequence specifically is something I watched multiple times because of how fluid and impressive the choreography was.
Day Shift is considered a comedy and while some jokes do land especially when delivered by Jamie Foxx and Dave Franco, most jokes don’t. Some quick scenes feel built specifically for a joke and actually do more harm to the character than help the movie.
For example, Seth refuses to use a gun calling them killing machines and says he’s traumatized from when he was a child and accidentally shot a squirrel. He then reenacts the sound the squirrel made as the joke of the scene. But a few scenes later, although he doesn’t know how to use it, he’s okay with using the gun with no character development showing him getting over the trauma.
The same thing happens a little later in the movie with Bud believing that all vampires are liars and murderers which leads into a joke on Twilight. While the joke is funny, it establishes Bud’s black and white view on vampires. But by the end of the movie he’s working with two of them without a moment of debate or internal conflict. This is unearned character development in the story.
This also happens without the jokes, for example when Bud randomly thinks Seth can now be a hunter despite him not having killed any vampire and pissing his pants twice.
Finally, Day Shift does have a plot hole in Heather’s character and how it connects with Audrey finding Jocelyn and Paige. I think there were some cut scenes involving Heather and Bud getting to know each other which led to him giving her information on his family.
It makes sense why the director felt those scenes could be cut since Audrey was in real estate and Jocelyn was trying to sell the house so it’s not a stretch that she found her through other means. But, the plot hole comes along when Bud blames Heather for his family’s predicament and Heather claims to have gotten close to Bud, this is never happens in the movie creating the plot hole. Without those ‘getting to know each other’ scenes Bud and Heather only met once and never had another interaction.
Overall I would recommend Day Shift for those who just want to watch a vampire action movie and not think too much about the story. The most important facet of the story; a vampire hunter trying to save his family from monsters is entertaining and the buddy-cop aspect with Dave Franco and Jamie Foxx works. If you need a movie in the background that can distract you every once in a while, this is it.
Cast IMDB