In today’s world of modern movie making and CGI effects, few movies deliver on the hype for which they were given before each film releases. The percentage of successful remakes or sequels shrinks by half per film, making originality still the best avenue in producing movies. With that being said, let’s take a look at Sleepless which is a remake of the 2011 French thriller that was originally titled Nuit blanche.

Sleepless leads to drowsiness

Jamie Foxx stars as Vincent Downs, a Las Vegas police officer that from the outset of Sleepless, appears to be mixed up with a lot of shady characters and situations.

Foxx has a moment when his career and personal life cross, as the mafia, kidnaps his son looking to get back the 25 kilos of cocaine he and his partner Sean (TI the rapper) have in their possession.

As it turns out Sleepless has no shortage of main-character lowlifes. Casino owner Rubino, played by Dermot Mulroney, and mafia-son/drug pusher Novak, played by Scoot McNairy, already had a deal in place for the 25 kilo’s Vincent and Sean now possess.

Vincent spends most of Sleepless moving from one section of the dimly-lit casino in the fictional Luxus Las Vegas hotel to the other side in a jam-packed night club, all while dealing with severe stab wounds and multiple secrets.

Internal affairs officer Bryant, played by Michelle Monaghan, makes things even more complicated when she gets involved. While the movie is not thin on certain eye-catching genre extras, it is light on character development and strength of overall story. Outside of Jamie Foxx and Monaghan, the other actors in Sleepless were borderline ‘b-movie’ status in terms of overall quality.

The movie just had a feel of 'walking through the motions', only it never truly got to where it was going.

Another average movie?

Those who judge Sleepless based on the performance given by Jamie Foxx will walk away from this one satisfied, albeit realizing it wasn't his best performance either. The rest of those who watch this 95-minute Baron bo Ober film may be left wondering what more the producers could have done with the storyline.

Of course, that's the back-ended part about remakes, you only have so much space to work with before you start to change the original story, and most don't want that messed with, to begin with. At the end of the day, Sleepless has its moments, but it's truly safe to say it won’t be winning many Academy Awards this year. Sleepless had a $30 million budget, and only brought in $28.7 million at the box-office making it a semi-entertaining, but borderline bust. ★★★✰✰
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