Day Shift Is Another Mediocre Production from Netflix

Vampire action films have been done over and over, and Day Shift is certainly offering nothing new on any level. Netflix has recently been spending huge amounts of money on the budgets for these mediocre films that are simply forgettable. The one good thing about these films is always the cast. Big Hollywood names are always attached to these productions. Surely, that’s where a decent proportion of the budget goes because it clearly isn’t on the visual effects. You can’t fault these big stars for giving half-asleep performances as the scripts aren’t exactly Oscar-worthy either. 

The Plot

Bud Jablonski, a pool cleaner to the outside world, hunts vampires so he can sell their fangs for cash. When his ex wants to move with their daughter to another city due to budgetary reasons, it’s up to Bud to get the financial needs covered in any way he can so he can still spend time with his daughter. Through horrible effects and lots of boring fights, the movie lulls you to sleep more and more minute by minute.

Day Shift starts out well enough, there’s an interesting fight between Jamie Foxx’s Bud and a seemingly innocent old lady. She’s, of course, a vampire who’s very hard to kill. You may feel entertained after this opening sequence but don’t get your hopes up. Snoop Dogg makes a very funny appearance or two but besides that, you’ve basically seen all that’s good with this film. Dave Franco for some reason is still stuck playing inexperienced young adults even though he’s 37 now. Director J.J. Perry certainly offers nothing new to the table either in terms of vision. 

This very much feels like a corporate film that, unfortunately, many people will get seduced into watching on a rainy night, and then Netflix will think that people actually liked it. When in reality, although the film isn’t offensively bad or anything, no one will have this film anywhere near the top of the list for their best movies of the year, or even summer. And yes, you could say that this is a ‘turn-your-brain-off’ kind of film but that’s just an excuse to get away with bad filmmaking nowadays. 

The Aftermath 

Day Shift obviously has had and will continue to have zero impact whatsoever on the film world. The reviews are mixed-to-negative which is something you could say about every big Netflix production this year. Don’t get fooled by the natural talent and comedic timing of Jamie Foxx in the lead, the writing is atrocious all the way through, At some point, somebody realized that making middle-of-the-road films with big actor names attached to them will turn into profit and now we are living in movie hell. 

A number of critics and some audiences will fall for Day Shift’s attempts at charm citing it’s not worth taking it too seriously for sure. That’s just how it always is and also the reason why these movies keep being made too. Once you allow mediocrity to turn a profit then everything will turn grey in no time. Though this film isn’t remotely close to being the worst thing on Netflix out right now, it’s also not the kind of production that needs more encouragement to duplicate. 

No one is surprised at the outcome because no one was expecting anything good. But as they say, if you’ve had a bad day that you want to forget by watching a film then Day Shift is the easiest choice. Not because it will provide comfort, but because you’ll forget you ever watched the film in the first place. That way perhaps your memory might clean out that entire bad day with it too. Give it a chance, who knows? 

Photo courtesy of Netflix

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