Grade (C)

“SLEEPLESS” stars; Jamie Foxx, Michelle Monaghan, Gabrielle Union, Dermot Mulroney and Scoot McNairy. It’s directed by Baran bo Odar and follows a cop with unsavory ties to the criminal world who goes on a search for his kidnapped son.

I was really excited to see this movie. I think Jamie Foxx has endless possibilities in the action genre and he has been surprisingly absent in recent years. Given I am already a fan of action movies, even more so, cop related ones like these, I had high hopes and moderate expectations for this one. But unfortunately it failed to live up to either of those facets for me.

Now that is not saying this is a bad movie because it wasn’t. But it wasn’t a very good one either. In the end this one took a solid cast and a plot with potential, and created an average film out of it. When it had the recipe for something much more savory than the bland finished result.

But there was some good in this movie. The performances were all pretty solid and the casting was well selected for the characters. Jamie Foxx was a capable lead and carried the film on his shoulders. You could feel his effort and sense the charisma in his performance, but he was only able to elevate the generic material so much. Plus, with the structure of the story flow, it was hard to get behind his character for too much of the film to generate enough interest in wanting to follow him throughout the story-line.

Michelle Monaghan was also good in her role but she was simply a cut-and-paste character and with the material she had there was little chance of making a memorable performance out of it. Dermot Mulroney was also very good, but simply just another serviceable character in a predictable script.

Scoot McNairy delivered a fun performance and me makes the most out of his moments. But as the story progresses and the character is forced, through the writing, to become too eccentric and over-the-top. A potentially ominous villain, turns into a laughable one. Again however, serviceable enough for a turn-your-brain-off action film.

The action sequences had their moments. It did hold the over-edited theme, but Foxx comes across as capable enough to make the fight-sequences fun enough to watch. But nothing to make you come back to see it again. There were also some fun shoot-outs and some car-chase sequences that keep the action coming from different directions.

This film as a whole however just felt like an assembly line action with a glaring lack of ambition to be a film that could make a lasting impression. But it holds a swift pace and doesn’t wear out its welcome. It isn’t a bad watch at all, just not a very intriguing one either.

Time: 95 min

Rating: R (For strong violence and language throughout)