Sleepless review: Jamie Foxx is in full-on action mode for the massively unbelievable action movie.
Sleepless review by Paul Heath.
Jamie Foxx leads this mindless action thriller, a remake of the 2011 film Nuit Blanche from French director Frédéric Jardin. Foxx plays the role of Vincent Downs, an undercover police officer caught in a web of dodgy cops, murdering gangsters and hardened drug dealers.
The setting is present-day Las Vegas, and Downs is introduced to us by way of a high-octane opening street chase through the streets of downtown Sin City. We see him teamed with partner Sean (rapper turned actor Tip ‘T.I.’ Harris) apparently getting away with a ton of cocaine which, unfortunately, has been lifted from casino boss Rubino (Dermot Mulroney), who has already promised it to a drug kingpin named Novak (Scoot McNairy). Now, Novak is a nasty piece of work and the last person in the world you want to screw with, so, when Rubino gets wind that Downs stole the drugs, he immediately kidnaps the cop’s son, Thomas (Octavius J. Johnson), and holds him to ransom in order for the bad guys to get the drugs back. In a relentlessly stressful night, Downs must do everything in his power to get his son back, which includes going after said gangsters, avoiding the sniffing cops from internal affairs (Michelle Monaghan and David Harbour), and dealing with his bossy ex-wife (Gabrielle Union) who wants to know why young Thomas has missed football practise.
Absurdity is the name of the game and the theme that runs all the way through Sleepless. Foxx is decent as the main player, the actor apparently having a hand in the film’s development, but its laughable scenes and many plot holes demote the movie to just another average action affair. Ultra-violent and sweary as you like, the film is obviously going after a certain audience, and sure, there is a little enjoyment to draw from the picture, notably its well choreographed action scenes. The problem with Sleepless is that there are so many contrivances when it comes to the plot that it is easy to pick holes in it. Read baffling coincidences, forced plot devices and even Monaghan’s miraculous recovery from a gunshot wound near the end.
I’m a big advocate for riding the wave and tucking into the absurdity of films of this nature (you only have to look at my Fast and Furious 8 review for proof), but this movie teeters on that very delicate edge of being totally over the top, playing for laughs action and a serious, bent-cop movie. As the former it kind of works, and I can see that certain members of the cast (looking at Scoot McNairy and Dermot Mulroney in particular) are having fun with their cartoon-like bad-boy characters, but it’s not enough for redemption for its other issues.
Sleepless review by Paul Heath, May 2017.
Sleepless is released in UK cinemas from Friday 7th May, 2017.
