There must be a disconnect between critics and movies, at times. At least, in my opinion. This comes to mind when I think about 2017’s Sleepless. The American remake of the French movie Sleepless Night, this Jamie Foxx-led film only got a 5.6/10 from Rotten Tomatoes. A rating that, in my opinion; that doesn’t properly represent how enjoyable Sleepless was.
Available on Amazon Prime, I recently checked it out, and it’s a lot better than I thought it would be. It stars Foxx, Michelle Monaghan, Scoot McNairy, Dermot Mulroney, David Harbour, T.I., and Gabrielle Union. Sleepless keeps you on your toes for the whole movie, where you are unsure who you can trust and who is a dirty cop. Quick warning/spoiler: don’t trust anyone.
Foxx, who plays Vincent; is initially a part of a large drug acquisition with his partner Sean Cass, who is played T.I. If I could probably point out one negative about the film, is that T.I. just did not act well. I didn’t think he gave a bad performance in the Ant-Man movies, but there was some weak delivery from the artist/actor in Sleepless. Regardless, this is Foxx’s movie and we are completely unsure of what side he really is on. Is he a dirty cop? Is he working for someone else? You never really know until later in the movie.
While Foxx is seemingly a dirty cop, you have Monaghan as Jennifer Bryant and Harbour as Doug Dennison. Both are Internal Affairs, who lock onto Vincent quickly in the film. Bryant is a strong-willed cop, who doesn’t let a recent mishap hold her back. While her partnership with Dennison is perceived as quirky, yet supportive, something isn’t right with the latter. While Harbour didn’t have much of a part in the first half of Sleepless, he really picked up in the second half, and you can see Dennison might be the only one with the guts to go up against the real big bad of the movie.
Speaking of which, McNairy is absolutely terrifying as Rob Novak. While he initially may not look like the most opposing bad guy, he quickly establishes himself as someone not to cross. Seriously, he’s intense. Crazy. The movie really was able to flesh out the heart-pounding consequences of Foxx’s actions once Novak came on screen. I’m completely impressed with how good McNairy was in this role and how much better Sleepless got with him in it.
I need to point out that the fight choreography is extremely impressive. Between the fight scenes with Foxx against Monaghan and Foxx against Harbour, I was really enjoying the fight scenes.
Sleepless is honestly not as poor as the ratings reflect. Sleepless only made $32 million, with a $30 million budget. So, I doubt that Sleepless is getting a sequel, even though it set up for it. Make sure to check out on Amazon Prime and let me know what you thought!