With: Jamie Foxx, Dave Franco, Natasha Liu Bordizzo, Meagan Good, Karla Souza, Steve Howey, Scott Adkins, Snoop Dogg, Peter Stormare
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Written by: Tyler Tice, Shay Hatten, based on a story by Tyler Tice
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Directed by: J.J. Perry
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MPAA Rating: R for strong violence and gore, and language
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Running Time: 113
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Date: 08/12/2022
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Fang for the Buck
By Jeffrey M. Anderson
Most of Netflix's summer releases have been rather generic, mild diversions, but forgettable. Day Shift may or may not be another one of them, but it has a goofy sense of humor that sneakily creeps up on you. In the San Fernando Valley, Bud Jablonski (Jamie Foxx) poses as a swimming pool repair guy, but in reality, he's a vampire hunter. In the opening scene, he has a whiz-bang, CGI-laden fight with a little old lady vamp that only works because it goes on way longer than it should have. (It's the directing debut of former stunt guy J.J. Perry.) Bud has been kicked out of the vampire hunter union and can't make much money selling vampire teeth. When his ex-wife (Meagan Good) threatens to move away with his young daughter (Zion Broadnax), he asks a favor of Big John Elliott (Snoop Dogg) to try to get back in the union's good graces. As a condition, Bud must have an untrained office drone, Seth (Dave Franco, complete with shirts buttoned up to the collar), tagging along at all times. It's a bit long, as it goes through all the familiar necessary beats, but Day Shift seems to know precisely what it is, and is charmingly comfortable with that.
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