Sleepless (2017)

[Ezen Baklattan]

Review, Discuss, Debate, Celebrate.

[rjones1325]

Sleepless is marketed as a Jamie Foxx action vehicle also billing Michelle Monaghan alongside with him. Out of the entire cast, the most obscure yet best performance through the entire film was from David Harbour. Ever since Black Mass, I’ve begun to become fond of David Harbour. Whether it would be in Black Mass, The Equalizer, and most notably Stranger Things, he manages to breathe life into characters even for the little screen time he gets. Here, Harbour is the one that brings out the charisma, humor, and life the film desperately needed. 

His character’s dynamic with Michelle Monaghan’s is by far more entertaining than the story centered on Foxx himself. They have good lines of dialogue as they riff off each other time to time. When the film is centered on them, it feels like a different/much better movie. The reason for this is mainly because these two characters aren’t even in the original film which explains a lot. You don’t really feel that these characters fit into this film until the stupidity of the screenplay kicks in with a twist.

For a film titled Sleepless there are a lot of sleepwalking performances. With the exception of Harbour, nobody is really trying in this movie. This is Jamie Foxx’s first film since Annie back in 2014 and yet somehow all of his charisma was sucked out of his soul in that time span. It is not really his fault though in all honesty. It is really both the film’s screenwriting. This film is directed like any given action film in a January slate by a European director. This isn't even directed by a French director but a Swiss one named Baran bo Odar. The way this film was directed, it easily could've been a EuropaCorp production produced by Luc Besson and you wouldn't tell the difference.


It’s disappointing knowing the screenwriter of this is Andrea Berloff, the half of the screenwriting duo that wrote Straight Outta Compton (and was nominated for an Academy Award for it) which was a well-scripted film. 

Because of the way Vincent was written, you don’t really get to like him. It is Vincent you don’t really like opposed to Foxx’s performance. With Vincent, you see him as both the worst father ever and the worst undercover cop ever. He constantly tells different characters [that he “don’t trust”] that he has been trying to crack this specific case for two years. He lies to nearly everyone he interacts with including his ex-wife, his son, the mob bosses that threaten him, etc. He makes excuses for nearly every action he does is one ill-conceived idea after another. Even when you’re supposed to feel for him you truly can’t. The majority of the film you see his ass constantly handed to him

Whatever good intentions I had for this film quickly faded away for its true colors begin to show by the end. It’s just a run of the mill action film with the true intention to franchise itself. Yeah, the movie sets itself up for a sequel that it doesn’t either earn or deserve. With something like Taken or Die Hard or even John Wick, you had an original concept with enough action, story, and character to keep audiences entertained even when it had an open-ended conclusion that can stand on its own. We got sequels to all of those films because the first film stood on its own as both great action flicks and overall good movies. This has the nerve. This had the audacity to set itself up a sequel while being a bad remake, a bad action flick, and overall a pretty dull movie. The original film has numerous action sequences that look a lot of fun. This only has four. Albeit they are somewhat well choreographed they are nonetheless unmemorable.

Hampered with unnecessary add-on characters that are more interesting than the unlikable central character, Sleepless is a dumb and dull action remake that vaguely resembles its original film.

Rating: 1/5 |27%

Full Review: https://rendyreviews.com/movies//sleepless-review

[dxmatrixdt]

Another good one.  B.  Just like Triple 9.

 

Spoiler

hopefully they make a sequel

 

[Maxmoser3]

This wasn't very good. Jamie Foxx seems out of place in the film, and there have been taken place in one day action thrillers. The film is very choppy, and the villain was very annoying "I want my fuckin drugs." how about you just shut the fuck up you fuckin retard!  Very predictable and cliched, and also the ending felt very out of place. The only good part was the shots of Las Vegas that's about it.

D-