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MOVIE REVIEW: Sleepless

Garth Cremona (RIP)

Police Drama set in Las Vegas.  When two dirty cops steal 25KG of cocaine from a sleazy Las Vegas Casino manager, they get tossed into the middle of a sale to a crime family.  Add to this that Internal Affairs are on their case too.  The Casino manager kidnaps one of their children and holds him hostage until the product is returned.

I love movies, I love action movies, and don’t mind the silly nature of some of them.  As long as the characters are likeable and the action shows us a little something new each time I’m usually okay and I’ll add it to the collection.  That is all when the film is good.  I have to remind you that I hate bashing movies but lazy cliché ridden films that make no sense what-so-ever make me get the bashing stick out of the closet and I go at the film like it’s a long staying Walking Dead cast members head.  I also from time to time will point out that a film is not terrible, just out of its time, like most action movies made now, some of them should have been released in the 90’s and would have been fine back then.  However no matter when this was released it would have been terrible. 

Jamie Foxx is the cop that is walking both sides of the line, trying to bring down the corrupt cops while protecting his friend of 20 years and stealing drugs to boot.  Michelle Monaghan is the Internal Affairs cop that is has a single focus to change the Las Vegas police department.  Then we have Dermot Mulroney as the Casino Manager, he could do this role in his sleep, but it’s a nothing part.  Finally we have Scoot McNairy playing the criminal who wants to buy the 25KG’s of Cocaine, I think this is the one mark that I’m giving the film.  Scoot does what he can do with the lazy script.

You’d think with a cast of dependable performers like this you’d have something rock steady, when the exact opposite is the truth.  There are so many cliché moments that you just cower behind the seat and wonder why you are sitting there when there are so many other films on your list to get through.  I started to write the script as it went along, and was 99% accurate, when you can guess every single moment of the film two minutes before it hits then you are going to hate the time in the theatre.  That is a problem, a huge problem, but then you have characters that are always unlikable, even noble characters trying to do the right thing, you just want to take off your socks and shove them into their mouths.  With my socks that is a harsh, but fair, punishment.

In the end I spent most of the run up to the credits thinking of better films in this style over the last few years, like Triple 9, which I think was last year.  There was a great way of telling the story of the line that corrupt and decent police walk every day.  That film kept me gripped from start to finish.

Sleepless, and I’m going to put down the stick, is more a cure for insomnia.  I’d watch this again to help me sleep at four in the morning.  Only if I couldn’t find anything else to watch, or there is no paint to watch dry.

[yasr_overall_rating size=”large”]

Director: Baran bo Odar
Writers: Andrea Berloff, Frédéric Jardin, Nicolas Saada, Olivier Douyère
Stars: Jamie Foxx, Michelle Monaghan, Dermot Mulroney

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Garth Cremona (RIP)
Comic book creator and movie reviewer. You can find out more at www.dublinwriter.com
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