The last time Jamie Foxx got into action mode it was as an electric Smurf in The Amazing Spider-Man 2. Now it looks like he’s made a potentially better choice to get back into tough guy mode with a new action thriller called Sleepless. This one appears to be full of double crossing since it features Foxx playing an undercover detective named Vincent Downs, posing as a corrupt cop, who gets the raw end of a bad deal when his son is kidnapped by one of the gangsters (Scoot McNairy) Downs has been working with.
Watch the Sleepless trailer:
It’s a shame there’s no way to hide the fact that Foxx isn’t actually a corrupt cop so that the audience might be conflicted about rooting for him as the protagonist until it’s revealed in the trailer that he’s actually one of the good guys. I feel like the trailer gives just a little too much away. But at the very least, it looks intense and gritty like Law Abiding Citizen, one of Foxx’s superior forays into action thriller territory.
Based on this first trailer, this could be a solid action thriller, albeit one that’s extremely derivative. But the supporting cast makes up for that with Scoot McNairy as the opposing gangster who is trying to get Vincent taken down by his own brothers and sisters in blue, including Mission: Impossible III star Michelle Monaghan andStranger Things co-star David Harbour from internal affairs. Going down with him could be his partner T.I. (who may be a real corrupt cop) while Gabrielle Union just wants Downs to get their son back. And apparently Derbal McDillet Dermot Mulroney has a role in this movie too.
Swiss filmmaker Baran Bo Odar makes his American directorial debut with Sleepless, written by Straight Outta Compton scribeAndrea Berloff, and it’s actually a remake of the French film Nuit Blanche written/directed by Frédéric Jardin. Why are so many action thrillers always being lifted from overseas?
Sleepless stars Foxx as undercover Las Vegas police officer Vincent Downs, who is caught in a high stakes web of corrupt cops and the mob-controlled casino underground. When a heist goes wrong, a crew of homicidal gangsters kidnaps Downs’ teenage son. In one sleepless night he will have to rescue his son, evade an internal affairs investigation and bring the kidnappers to justice.
Sleepless hits theaters early next year on February 24, 2017.
Source: SlashFilm
