Throughout the weekend and into mid-August, Netflix’s new vampire-hunter comedy Day Shift has won over the internet — drawing tons of fans and even sparking discussions of sequels and spinoffs.
One review in particular, from Twitter user @MagicHandz, garnered the attention of lead star Jamie Foxx, who stars as LA vampire hunter Bud Jablonski. The actor, who has been on a solid streak of films such as Soul and Spider-Man: No Way Home , decided to simply repost the review on Instagram, letting the reaction speak for itself:
The film focuses on the life of Foxx’s Jablonski, who cleans pools as a front for his vampire-slaying gig. His union rep, played by James Franco, tells him to only work the day shift — without bypassing the many codes set down by whatever organization manages the activities of professional vampire hunters. Hopeful to earn the extra dough to help send his daughter to a private school, Foxx’s character finds himself backed by Big John Elliot — a union veteran played by none other than Snoop Dogg.
Snoop’s addition is particularly fun. Not only is Snoop pretty hilarious on camera, but he also comes in with a surprising late-runtime scene that sets up an interesting premise for future films. This isn’t his first rodeo with supernatural films either — the star played a vengeful, good-hearted specter in 2001’s Bones. Given that both musicians are in the film, it boasts a pretty slick LA hip-hop soundtrack as well, featuring a long list of classic rap anthems.
The cast also features Karla Souza, Megan Good, Natasha Liu Bordizzo, and Steve and Scott Adkins as the Nazarian Brothers, a hunter-duo who fans have deemed worthy of a spinoff series. Fans gushed about the film in general, and were particularly excited at the prospect of a sequel:
#DayShift is a fun and entertaining film with some of the best action from a Netflix Original Film. The buddy cop duo between Jamie Foxx and Dave Franco is great, its campy but still good nonetheless.
— The Hollywood Handle (@The_HollywoodH) August 7, 2022
Full review on August 11th! 🧛 pic.twitter.com/GCSivAF2Ze
Some even compared it to other Netflix projects such as The Gray Man:
Day Shift >>>> The Gray Man and Red Notice. Day Shift isn’t anything amazing but it has that special home video B action movie feel to it that is so much fun. It’s very campy and the action scenes are surprisingly entertaining. Netflix please do more of this.
— Jerome! (@JeromeM94Movies) August 13, 2022
Hey, @netflix, go ahead and greenlight both DAY SHIFT 2 and a Nazarian Bros spinoff. Right fucking now. pic.twitter.com/IzyoO3Wlet
— The Schlocketeer (@schlocketeer) August 13, 2022
Despite being perceived as a hit on social media, critics took the film with a pinch of salt. CinemaBlend’s, Eric Eisenberg slapped a low 1.5/5 stars on the movie, stating that it ‘fails to be entertaining in any way’, although he claimed that it would drum up a fanbase regardless.
Through a combination of Foxx and Dogg’s sheer charisma and fun action scenes, the team seems to have turned an otherwise predictable plot around, giving fans a pretty exciting, fun flick to watch this August.
At the very least, Day Shift is certainly worth a shot and is currently available to stream on Netflix. With Foxx slated to continue his streak of successful films through 2023, an under-wraps Mike Tyson series seems to be his next big acting venture.
Lead Image: Netflix
