With Day Shift, Netflix proves that it can do really good action

When a new Netflix film comes out on Fridays, it’s often forgotten after three days. I can’t promise that Day Shift with Jamie Foxx and Dave Franco will be any different. But one thing lifts that Vampire Killer Buddy Movie basically different from many (expensive) Netflix films of the last few months: It offers excellent action scenes.

Day Shift comes from the action forge behind John Wick and Bullet Train

JJ Perry, who is making his directorial debut, has had a long career in the film business. He even looks back on a stunt credit on Batman & Robin. Instead of ending his career on this early high, he plodded on and ended up in the orbit of John Wick directors David Leitch and Chad Stahelski. He has now shot the vampire film for their action company 87North Productions and what can I say: The Rubdowns in Day Shift beating out anything vying for attention in recent Netflix films like The Gray Man and even Leitch’s own Brad Pitt vehicle, Bullet Train.

Despite the vampire gore, Day Shift is less of a horror film and more of an action comedy, in which an unlikely duo (Jamie Foxx and Dave Franc) compete against extremely flexible undead. These jump, shoot and twirl through living rooms and caves, sometimes voluntarily, sometimes not. The result are highly creative and dynamically designed man vs. vampire combatwhich go far beyond the usual breast penetration with a hand-carved wooden stake.

The main attraction of the film is a species Mass battle in a family home, which also stars direct-to-video legend Scott Adkins (Accident Man). The whole sequence is a lot of fun due to its varied vampire kills. She also exudes a DTV charm all her own, best described as stuntmen and martial arts veterans doing what they love, regardless of big studios patting them on the knuckles.

The Netflix film entertains better than The Gray Man, but it also has weaknesses

Of course, Day Shift also has a story and, on top of that, a kind of mythology that is reminiscent of Derek Kolstad’s John Wick screenplay. Instead of a parallel society of contract killers, there is one Vampire hunters union with paragraph tabs and everything around it. Jamie Foxx plays Bud, who enters it and hunts vampires. With their fangs you earn a lot of money in the world of Day Shift. Dave Franco gives Seth the chair who is hired by the union to check Bud’s work for violations of the rules. Veterans and greenhorns don’t like each other at first, but they get a little closer with every undead slaughtered.

Story and characters are the film’s weak points, at least as far as the non-vampire hunters are concerned. Fox’ Bud gets a stereotypical nagging wife (Meagan Good), the villain (Karla Souza) remains undefined aside from her scheming gaze and generally they are Reasons for the vampire slaughter the least interesting thing about the film. Fortunately, the creators know that too, at least they don’t waste too much time on the details of the plot.

So if you’re looking for some crunchy action entertainment this weekend, don’t watch the ghastly The Gray Man or the over-the-top Bullet Train, but give Day Shift a shot. When else do you see a movie starring Snoop Dogg and (!) Oliver “He’s Back” Masucci?

Bullet Train podcast: action banger with Brad Pitt in the footsteps of John Wick

In the FILMSTARTS podcast on the screen love, moderator Sebastian and editor Björn talk about Bullet Train, the new film by John Wick maker David Leitch with Brad Pitt and many other stars. You can find out in the podcast whether it’s worth seeing the fast-paced train action hit in the cinema.

The screen love is the weekly cinema and film podcast of our colleagues from FILMSTARTS.