“Day Shift” Poster
Director: J.J. Perry
Cast: Jamie Foxx, Dave Franco, Snoop Dogg, Natasha Liu Bordizzo, Meagan Good, Karla Souza, Steve Howey, Scott Adkins, Oliver Masucci, Peter Stormare
Running Time: 114 min.
By Paul Bramhall
One of the biproducts of the John Wick franchise being so successful is that producers are now more willing to back experienced players from the stunt community who want to have a crack at directing. When stuntmen turned directors David Leitch and Chad Stahelski unleashed the original John Wick in 2014, it proved that not every action movie needed to be a superhero flick, and that there was indeed an audience for authentic action that kept things gritty and grounded. Both have gone on to have successful careers in the director’s chair, which in Stahelski’s case has included helming 3 sequels, and one of his most recent credits is producing the directorial debut of another long-time stuntman – J.J. Perry.
Anyone who’s familiar with American action cinema, particularly DTV action cinema, will have heard of J.J. Perry. Making his debut performing stunts in 1987’s They Still Call Me Bruce, Perry got his first fight choreographer credit on 2004’s long forgotten Sunland Heat, in which he replaced a certain Loren Avedon after he walked away in pre-production. Just 2 years later he’d secure his sophomore fight choreographer gig for Isaac Florentine’s Undisputed 2: Last Man Standing. Forever known as the movie which introduced Boyka to the world, a character played by British martial arts wunderkind Scott Adkins, it would lead to the pair collaborating a number of times together. Perry has stuck more to being a stunt coordinator in recent years, including on the likes of F9: The Fast Saga and Bloodshot, and in 2022 he’s taken on the directional reins for Day Shift.
The plot sees Jamie Foxx (Django Unchained) masquerading as a down on his luck pool cleaner, when the reality is he is in fact a down on his luck vampire hunter. Expelled from the vampire hunter’s union because of his reckless ways, he’s instead forced to work solo, and cash in the teeth of the vampires he’s eliminated (which apparently there’s a market for) at a pawn shop in L.A.’s Korea Town. Foxx’s vampire hunting activities frequently result in the usual cliches like him being late to pick up his daughter from school, whose mother he’s separated from. Such habits have turned out to happen frequently enough that, combined with financial issues, they’re now planning to move to Florida to live with his ex-partner’s mother.
Desperate to keep them where they are, Foxx vows to bring in the dough, and calls up his old vampire hunter buddy (and union member) Snoop Dogg (Bones) to convince the union boss to let him back in. Snoop fizzles the shizzle enough that the boss agrees, but there’s 2 conditions – he has to have a union rep accompany him on his hunts, and he can only work the significantly less fruitful day shift (hence the title). However a significant threat emerges in the form of a ruthless vampire played by Karla Souza (The Sleepover), who not only has an evil plan involving vampire real estate ownership (it makes sense onscreen), but also has a personal grievance with Foxx that will put his nearest and dearest at risk.
What’s most interesting about Perry’s involvement in Day Shift is that he’s decided to stay hands off when it comes to the action, with fight choreography duties going to the trifactor of Felix Betancourt (The Gray Man), Michael Lehr (Extraction), and Eric Brown (Bruised), and stunt work taken care of by Justin Yu (Gemini Man) and Troy Robinson (xXx: Return of Xander Cage) in the capacity of stunt coordinators. Thankfully he’s left the action in good hands, and proceedings get off to a suitably impressive start when Foxx hunts down a granny vampire in the property we see him cleaning the pool of in the opening.
After being taken by surprise Foxx (and no doubt his stunt double) is left to face off against a mixed martial art performing, body contorting nightmare in the form of stuntwoman Shai Debroux (Isabela Merced’s stunt double in Sweet Girl). It’s a thrilling sequence, taking place in close quarters and involving plenty of wince inducing impacts before ending on a suitably blood splattered note. However it also results in Day Shift suffering from what I call John Wick-syndrome, in that it unleashes its best action sequence upfront right at the start. Sure the action gets bigger, more bloodier, and higher stakes – but nothing that comes after matches the intensity and ingenuity (the part of the fight shot in the mirror is genius) of the initial confrontation, and it takes place even before the opening title has appeared onscreen!
A reunion with Scott Adkins admittedly comes close, here working together for the first time since 2009’s The Tournament (in which Perry was fight choreographer and clocked in an onscreen appearance). Adkins plays one half of a pair of prestigious vampire hunters called the Nazarian Brothers, with the other played by Steve Howey (Stuber). The role not only gives Adkins a chance to revisit his Eastern European accent, but he also gets to unleash during a raid on a property which turns out to be a ‘hive’ of vampires, allowing him the chance to do what he does best. As a bonus the sequence offers the rare chance to see him briefly let loose with a pair of nunchucks, in what I believe is only the second time since 2001’s Extreme Challenge, over 20 years ago! For fans of the British star though, and there are many, it’s worth pointing out that his screen time only amounts to around 10 minutes, so it’s by no means a significant role.
Outside of the action it’s a mixed bag. The script struggles to stay on the right side of clunky, with a self-aware sense of humour that often feels overly forced. I’m not sure even Tarantino could pull off a conversation discussing the merits of the Twilight Saga movies, and here it’s as cringe worthy as you’d expect. Likewise when Foxx is attempting to convince the union boss to reinstate his membership, lines like his promise to “cut out pork, cartoons, and minimal white women” feel like they’re trying too hard. On the flip side, even though there’s arguably more misses than hits on the comedic front, when it does hit it’s genuinely funny. Dave Franco (6 Underground) gets the majority of the biggest laughs, with the squirrel impersonation and speed bump scenes being legitimate laugh out loud moments, and it’s a shame such scenes are the exception rather than the rule when it comes to Day Shift’s attempts at humor.
Far more than the inconsistent comedic beats though, Day Shift’s biggest problem is Karla Souza as the villain of the piece. She simply doesn’t feel all that threatening, and why exactly her plan is so important to stop is never really clear, other than that she’s developing real estate which she intends for vampires to live in. If anything, it perhaps isn’t, as really the reason why Foxx eventually ends up going head-to-head with her is because his family is in danger more than any greater need to prevent her plans for vampire community integration. It makes for a strangely underwhelming finale, not helped by the fact that Snoop Dogg re-enters the fray, essentially playing a vampire hunter version of himself (only with an added minigun).
Despite these gripes though, Day Shift maintains a fun and breezy tone. It would be a crime not to mention Natasha Liu Bordizzo, who here finally gets a chance to show off her taekwondo skills in a way that her 2016 debut, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: Sword of Destiny, completely disregarded. In case you’re wondering, taekwondo versus vampires is just as much fun as it sounds. For a directorial debut J.J. Perry does an impressive job overall, creating a vision of L.A. that seems to exist in a permanent shade of golden hour orange, and when it works – mixing kung-fu vampires with lashings of Evil Dead-esque humor – it really works. For vampire fans there should be plenty to enjoy, from differences in vampire species to garlic loaded hand grenades, and for fans of J.J. Perry the stuntman, here he proves he’s able to handle action from the director’s chair just as much as he’s able to perform it.
Paul Bramhall’s Rating: 6/10
they should make a movie nazarian brothers vs vampires
I’d watch a Nazerian Bros spin off in a second. Best scene in this movie by far
I thought is had extremely mediocre action and terrible script writing. 3/10
Day Shift is by no means a good movie. It has severe pacing issues, the plot is inconsistent and poorly structured, the villain is unscary, ineffective and forgettable (didn’t even register her name), all characters save for Bud are not fleshed out enough to be more than charicatures, and the moving family storyline is as pedestrian as it gets.
But God does it feel good to see Scott Adkins get so much attention, praise and hype over his (still rather short) contribution. From general appreciation of his set-piece as a major highlight to social media being flooded with demands for a Nazarian Bros spin-off, without forgetting many now discovering him for the first time and finding out what a whirlwind of awesomeness he is, it is all just very satisfying.
I liked the movie quite a bit. Jamie Foxx was great with a gun, but I was disappointed that he didn’t do much in the way of hand to hand combat. I don’t know if it was time constraints or something like that, but I thought he was getting shown up by his co-stars in that regard. I didn’t expect him to be a dynamo, but it would have been nice to see some more punches and kicks.
I’m all for a Nazarian Brothers spin-off, and they can certainly expand the universe of the vampire hunting organization. (Which seems someone similar to the Continental from John Wick.)
as Foxx’s character would say: works every time.
and that’s pretty much all about the flick, that and the faint hope in a future Nazarian bros spin off.