Day Shift (2022) Review

I am still wondering what the hell I just watched because this movie is so, so, so dumb. *Sigh*, Here we go.

Day Shift is about a vampire hunter who needs to kill enough vampires to earn $10,000 to pay for his kid’s school so her mom doesn’t pack up and move to Florida with her. But he accidently kills the daughter of a super vampire and then his family (oh no) get kidnapped and he has to get together a rag tag group of people to save them.

The first thing I want to ask is why this film is set in California? Like, if I was a vampire, the desert wouldn’t be my number one choice of home. There’s always sun every day, no shade and nowhere to hide if a vampire hunter comes for you. The movie says at some point that the vampires have this sun cream that gives them the ability to be outside for like 10 minutes in the sun, but it’s never really used, and 10 minutes isn’t a long or reliable way to stay alive in the day time desert. In fact, the much more believable thing that happens is the villain using an umbrella out in the sun as shade.

Questionable vampire choice of home aside, I find it hard to relate to a guy who doesn’t want his beloved family to move away from a city infested by vampires. I’d be like ‘sure, go to Florida, it’s safer than here!’ And because he convinces his partner not to go and tries to earn more cash to pay for his daughter’s school, they are endangered and it’s 100% his fault.

There’s also a vampire hunting union who have Snoop Dog in it. Snoop Dog turns up at the beggining to get our hero in the union and at the end to use a minigun. He then dies and comes back to life so he can look into the the camera and say ‘that’s what I love about LA’, and then the movie ends.

Jamie Fox plays the hero, whatever his name is. Fox is charasmatic and funny. And to be fair, so is Dave Franco as Seth. The film is also a buddy cop movie with Fox being the gritty and experienced vampire hunter, and Franco being the newbie who pees his pants in the first two action scenes he’s in.

The humour is hit or miss and very obnoxious. But when Fox and Franco are together it mostly works. Both just have the ability to make the material laughable. For most other characters, the film is only funny because of how poorly written it is though, and theblaughs become unintentional. Like one guy who gets killed by a vampire in an indoor area with no windows in a secret underground room, who says ‘you can’t be here, it’s day time!’ Buddy, there’s no light here and it’s been established already the vampires have access to sun cream and umbrellas. There’s no reason to assume the vampires can’t be anywhere during the day.

The only real reason to ever watch this movie is the action which is simultaneously tongue-in-cheek cool and painfully over choreographed. There’s one too many spins but when the hits land, you feel them.

Would I recommend Day Shift? Well I did enjoy it in a ‘this is so bad it’s funny’ kind of way, so I guess I would if you like that level of crap movies. Otherwise… No, no I wouldn’t recommend it.