To help solve his money problems, Bud turns to his old pal, master vampire hunter Big John (Snopp Dogg, having a lot of fun playing the most badass character in the movie), to get back into the Union. Bud is given a chance to prove himself a changed man — if he can survive a week being overseen by a Union rep, he’ll be allowed back in, and can start making serious money again. Unfortunately for Bud, the Union rep happens to be the nerdy, nervous, overly chatty Seth (Dave Franco), who is absolutely not suited for the dangerous field work Bud drags him to.
Again: all of this is solid, in theory. I quite enjoyed the hierarchy and hints of politics that go on in the vampire/hunter world. But “Day Shift” doesn’t spend enough time on any of this, and instead relies heavily on unfunny quips and a rushed script. Audrey’s plot is maddeningly vague (and it doesn’t help that Souza’s performance is unconvincing), as is a subplot involving one of Bud’s neighbors, Heather (Natasha Liu Bordizzo, who gets to kick some butt but is still ill-served by an underwritten part). Franco’s fish-out-of-water character is consistently annoying, to the point where he starts to hurt the film. And it doesn’t make much sense for Bud to be so relentlessly cruel to Seth at every turn as he is here, since Seth is the guy evaluating him and his only chance at getting back in the Union.
Where “Day Shift” succeeds, however, is in its action. The vampire gore is suitably gooey, but the movie itself is never scary (nor is it as funny as it seems to think it is). But when it comes time for Bud to take on some vampires, Perry delivers. The filmmaker has a 30-plus-year career as a stuntman and second unit director, and he’s taken his knowledge of action scenes and created a wealth of fist-pumping moments. Best of all: for the majority of the time you can actually see the action — it’s not rendered ineffective by quick cuts and needless close-ups. The vampires are incredibly limber and flexible, which means they’re constantly flipping and twirling all over the place while Bud fires his guns (which are loaded with wooden bullets, of course) in their direction.
