Gee, I sure wish I could see crime story set in Las Vegas, don’t you? Given the frequency of film topic, I would assume over half of the population of Southern Nevada is employed in law enforcement and 80% of them are dirty cops. And Nicolas Cage is all of the above.
Turns out Nicolas Cage isn’t in this film, but it sucked anyway. Sleepless is a film constantly in search of a hero and/or a point. It mostly revolves around the antics of dirty cop Vincent Downs (Jamie Foxx) who hijacks a cocaine shipment for … reasons? The cocaine belongs to casino boss Stanley Rubino (Durmot Mulroney) who can apply pressure to make cocaine return. However, the cocaine was promised to gangster Rob Novak (Scoot McNairy) who can apply even more pressure to make cocaine return. Finally, there are Internal Affairs cops Michelle Monaghan and David Harbour, who can apply no pressure whatsoever, but wanted to hang around the movie all the same.
In addition to being a bad cop, Vincent is also a shitty father and a lousy husband. His ex-wife Dena (Gabrielle Union) needs him to take their son Thomas (Octavius J. Johnson) to his “game,” not realizing that Vincent has picked this moment to insert himself into mob business. IA doesn’t know Vincent is dirty, but the mob knows exactly whom to pressure to get their drugs back … how?! I especially like the part where the kidnapping of Thomas happens exactly as the victim is examining his father’s gun. Yeah, yeah. “We will trade the drugs for your son … yadda, yadda, yadda.” The rest of the film is essentially antics in Stanley’s casino.
Jamie Foxx has at least five fist fights in the film. He fights with David Harbour; he fights with the drug mules; he fights with Stanley’s goon (twice); he fights with Michelle Monaghan (yes, he does); pretty sure he also fought with the pit boss, the valet and the harbor master (even though Nevada is land locked). I wouldn’t necessarily call him the victor in any one of them, including the one where a guy almost dies. Why stop there, Vince? Want to duke it out with your ex- or your son while you’re at it?
There are moments which define a movie. The one from Sleepless is easy to peg. Michelle and David essentially hang out in the casino for half a film while the action goes on around them. At one point, they need to keep an eye on Vincent, because Michelle has deduced Vincent is not on the level. Several shots of them continuing to 
overlook the casino floor later, she says something along the lines of: “we’ve been all over this casino and can’t find him.” No, you haven’t. The correct line is: “We’ve been standing in this exact same spot for hours and have not seen him; we should probably give up.” And you should, too. At this moment, I honestly cannot believe Jamie Foxx was Django; exactly zero of the charisma, timing, camera appeal, and positive energy he brought to that role is on display here. 30 minutes in I didn’t care about his character or what brought him to dirty-cop-a-tude; this was a fail from shot one.
Sleeplessness has nothing to do with this film. Nothing. Zilch. Nada. It’s possible, I suppose, that Vincent didn’t sleep the night after pulling the drug heist that starts the film, but kidnapping to resolution all takes place the next day, thus whether or not he slept the n ight before is both plot and title irrelevant. Sleepless is a remake of French film Nuit Blanche (“Sleepless Night”), which explains the title, but not the decision.
♪You gotta help me out
I wrote some crap last night
We need a spellcheck because your grammar is a joke
What the hell did you write? Is he in another fight?
Spare me your scripts-for-dummies books
No, don’t you shame me
We’re gonna cash in
And make the most of this town
Scribble inanely
Hey, don’t you “erudite” me
Shut up that copy of Strunk & White you got now
That’s what you get for setting stuff in Vegas
Put in another car crash and explosion
That’s all we think is happenin’ in Vegas♫
Rated R, 95 Minutes
D: Baran bo Odar (there’s a villain’s name if I’ve ever heard one)
W: Andrea Berloff
Genre: The unexamined world of Las Vegas police enforcement
Type of person most likely to enjoy this film: Dunno. Misunderstood deadbeat fathers? People who like seeing Jamie Foxx get his ass kicked? Not sure
Type of person least likely to enjoy this film: Internal Affairs
♪ Parody inspired by “Waking Up in Vegas”
