87Eleven Productions has come quite a long way since its inception. The studio — founded by David Leitch and Chad Stahelski — made a name for itself with the 2014 film John Wick, with critics and audiences refreshed by their careful yet imaginative approach to fight choreography. The film was a hit and has since been credited by some with revitalizing the stagnant action genre. Today, 87Eleven is almost through its biggest year yet, having worked on the Brad Pitt feature Bullet Train, Netflix’s Jamie Foxx vampire flick, Day Shift, and the forthcoming Christmas film Violent Night, which is set to star Stranger Things’ David Harbor as Santa Claus. Indeed, 2022 seems to be preparing the combat-focused production studio to become the new standard in action-packed entertainment — for better or for worse.
The first of its films to arrive in 2022 was Bullet Train, a film adaptation of the Japanese novel Maria Beetle, written by Kōtarō Isaka. Brad Pitt starred as “Ladybug,” an unlucky former assassin who must survive an onslaught of killers while on board one of Japan’s infamously fast trains. The film boasted an almost overwhelmingly star-studded cast, with the roster of Hollywood A-listers consistently extending throughout the film. Bullet Train has been a modest box-office success, though it has remained polarizing among critics. Day Shift, on the other hand, was released on Netflix soon after Bullet Train debuted in theaters. Joining Foxx in this action comedy about Los Angeles vampire hunters were The Disaster Artist’s Dave Franco and rap legend Snoop Dogg. Despite a promising cast, it received too mixed reviews.
With both films released in such quick succession, it paints a clearer picture than ever of the trademark style of 87Eleven Productions — and perhaps the subsequent homogenization of it. To be abundantly clear, 87Eleven remains at the top of its game when it comes to action set pieces. Bullet Train is almost balletic with its fluid, continuous stream of inventive fight scenes that dance expertly up and down the aisle of the titular locomotive. Meanwhile, Day Shift is almost exclusively watchable — if not required viewing — for its astoundingly crafted second-act combat masterpiece featuring the vampire-hunting duo “The Nazarian Brothers.” Watching them team up with Franco and Foxx’s characters to clear a vampire hive disguised as a San Fernando Valley mansion is truly one of the most exciting scenes of 2022. It’s when the bullets, fists, and various bizarre-edged weapons stop flying that the cracks begin to show.
As noted by numerous critics, the scripts for both Day Shift and Bullet Train are lacking the same care afforded to their fight sequences. Bullet Train’s story is so needlessly complex it borders on the contrived, while Day Shift fails to develop or track any of its many eccentric characters in a meaningful capacity. In fact, both Bullet Train and Day Shift display heightened characters, styled almost like comic book heroes and villains with nicknames, overly individualized personalities and off-beat gimmicks. These traits in and of themselves are neither good nor bad, but in both films, they feel like a crutch to simulate character development that happened off-screen, as opposed to growing their subjects within the action of the story. In addition to this, the films struggled with unnatural dialogue that even the performers themselves seemed to have a hard time selling.
It is truly exciting that such a vibrant force in the modern action-movie landscape seems to be gaining and maintaining its footing in Hollywood, but in what seems to be its first year as a multi-film production company, script, story and character are slipping through the cracks. The excitement of its rise to prominence as the Hollywood standard of action would be gravely overshadowed by a transformation into a formulaic conveyor belt of action sequences stitched together by loosely written scenes, returning the genre to stagnation once more. John Wick was a simple but effective story that spawned one of the biggest contemporary action-movie franchises; perhaps it’s time for the kings of action to take things back to basics once more.
To see 87Eleven Productions’ latest films, Bullet Train is in theaters and Day Shift is available to stream on Netflix.
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