The quickest way possible is to kidnap Downs’ kid, forcing him to deliver the coke in exchange for his son - but if only it were that easy. Apparently Vegas has a limited coke supply, even for an amount we are told is peanuts, and soon local kingpin Rob Novack ( Scoot McNairy) calls upon his father’s old pal, casino boss Stanley Rubbino ( Dermot Mulroney) to fill an order.
Big mistake - the kid is captured in broad daylight, Downs stabbed, and the plot set in motion. Jamie Foxx stars as Vincent Downs, a hard-nosed narcotics detective who knocks off a trafficker with the help of his partner Sean ( T.I.) before picking up his estranged son Cortez ( Markell Watson) for basketball practice. Unfortunately, Sleepless runs on auto-pilot for much of its 95 minutes, despite its glossy cinematography by Mihai Malaimare Jr. ( The Master) and the presence of a cast that deserves better. He’s one example of a filmmaker that can surely turn a pedestrian blueprint for a direct-to-video/cable movie into a crackling, unforgettable experience with an attention to detail and character. One sequence involving a stabbing had me nostalgic for Park Chan-wook and what he might have brought to the table. Swedish director Baran bo Odar helms from a script by Andrea Berloff ( Straight Outta Compton) that, truth be told, could have been adapted into a tense little thriller in the right hands. As often happens, something is lost in translation, even if the absurd hand-to-hand combat and action “thrills” in a contained setting remain intact. It’s just not a terribly original film, one that seems to suffer a fate like many Hollywood-ized imports taken on by foreign directors: they bring all the style, but leave behind the substance and wit.
A remake of Frederic Jardin’s 2011 thriller Nuit blanche ( Sleepless Night) rebooted as a low-rent Luc Besson-style affair with half the wit, Sleepless isn’t an unbearable experience. If Sleepless doesn’t seem like it is doing anything new it’s, well, not.
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