Director: Baran bo Odar
Writer: Andrea Berloff (Screenplay) Frederic Jardin, Nicholas Saada, Olivier Douyere (Original Film)
Starring: Jamie Foxx, Michele Monaghan, Scoot McNairy, Dermot Mulroney, T.I., David Harbour, Gabrielle Union
Plot: A cop with a connection to the criminal underworld scours a nightclub in search of his kidnapped son.
There may be spoilers the rest of the review
Verdict: Forgettable Actioner
Story: Sleepless starts in Las Vegas as dirty cops Vincent (Foxx) and his partner Sean (T.I.) are taking down their latest score from the mob in the city. Things don’t go as planned which brings in Internal Affairs pairing Bryant (Monaghan) and Dennison (Harbour) to look at the case.
Vincent’s day continues to get worse as he once again lets down his ex-wife Dena (Union) and his son Thomas (Johnson) before casino boss Rubino (Mulroney) has Thomas kidnapped, promising to hand him over to Novak (McNairy) the drug lord if the product isn’t returned in three-hours.
We are left to see how Vincent tries to clean up the mess he finds himself in, he must deal with the drug lord, the casino owner, the internal affairs agents and his angry ex-wife all in one night inside the casino.
Thoughts on Sleepless
Characters/Performance – Vincent is the dirty cop that has been stealing from criminals for his own personal gain, this has left his personal life in ruins and now he has one night to save his career and his relationship with his son. Bryant is Internal Affairs that has recently found herself assaulted with everyone trying to nurse her back into her job even though she is ready to return. Novak is a drug lord reluctantly working with casino boss, he is ruthless like you would expect him to be. Rubino is the casino who has everything but has dived into the drug world to keep his guest happy. The rest of the characters are also who you expect without being anything special.
Performance wise, Jamie Foxx is good enough in the leading role without being a great action star, with Michelle Monaghan doing a good job in here role, being the star of the film. Scoot McNairy gets to have a lot of fun in the villainous role which he always delivers in. some of the supporting roles are left questioning how capable the stars really are though. With Gabrielle Union doing all she can with the generic concerned mother that only moans a lot role.
Story – The story is fine, it has twists and turns along the way as you must figure out who is good, bad, dirty or criminal all while seeing how a drug bust can go wrong. This does have plenty going on and if you blink you might miss a beat but otherwise it doesn’t leave too much to the imagination.
Action/Crime – The action is always going to be hard to find anything new or original which is why the action turns out slightly flat. The crime world created is solid enough though.
Settings – Nearly the whole film is set inside the casino which does show things happening near real time.
Final Thoughts – This is fine action film, it isn’t great or bad it is just average.
Overall: Average film that is easy to watch but never pushes the boundaries.
Rating
