Sleepless

Sleepless (2017)

11% on Rotten Tomatoes (out of a whopping 19 reviews)

Runtime: 95 minutes

Directed by: Baran Bo Odar

Starring: Jamie Foxx, Michelle Monaghan, Dermot Mulroney, Scoot McNairy, Gabrielle Union

From: Open Road

I got to see this yesterday; it was in the Orlando area and I made it a double-shot with a revival screening of Aliens, as it's one of my favorites and for years I've been anxiously awaiting to see that theatrically. The experience was awesome. Sleepless... not so much. I explain why below: 

Yesterday I was at a cineplex and I saw a pair of movies. The second one was a revival screening of Aliens; I've given it a nice review before so I'll just say that it's one of my personal favorites and I've been wanting to see it theatrically for years, so I wasn't going to turn down this opportunity. The first movie was this one. It may not even be common knowledge around these parts but it's a remake of a 2011 French movie called Sleepless Night, which I had seen beforehand as someone on a messageboard I frequent LOVES that film. I don't swoon over it like he does, but it is a pretty entertaining picture which-while ridiculous-is fun and has quality action scenes. I say it's well worth renting from Amazon Video if you are able to and you are an action fan.

The plot: it revolves around dirty cops and one of them is Jamie Foxx, who makes a big mistake and the result of that is that his teenage son is kidnapped and he has to go to a Las Vegas casino to exchange something in order to get him back... but Michelle Monaghan is part of Internal Affairs and she has her eyes on him so it quickly becomes complicated. Now, while this isn't awful and I am sure it's better (at least quality-wise; I am not sure about the unintentional humor factor) than dreck like Monster Trucks or The Bye Bye Man... Sleepless Night (while preposterous on its own) did it a lot better. That goes for such things as the action scenes and how they're shot-both have the camera shake around too much and yet it was done better in the original-the characters and the plot. I don't remember Sleepless Night having such telegraphed "good guys are actually evil" moments. To steal a phrase from a random Letterboxd user, the score seemed like leftovers from Sicario; it was fine but not exactly revolutionary.

There are talented actors in this movie (besides the names mentioned), such as Gabrielle Union, Scoot McNairy, Dermot Mulroney, and David Harbour; they all deserve better than this generic nonsense which isn't even great as a B-movie. As I did not have high expectations going in and heard beforehand from reliable people that this wasn't even good, I was not let down. Then again I expected this to be a typical American remake of a worthwhile foreign movie, meaning that the remake would be lackluster, as many of them are. Even with some gleefully stupid moments and random wanton violence, this movie isn't pulse-pounding excitement (although it's not so dreadfully dull that its title becomes bitterly ironic) and if you feel like you MUST watch this, wait until it becomes a rental, and the original should be seen first.