Open Road Films and Riverstone Pictures’ Sleepless is an exhilarating, action-filled, bad ass ride driven in the seat of Las Vegas cop Vincent Downs played by Jamie Foxx and obstinate Internal Affairs investigator Jen Bryant played by Michelle Monaghan (Mission: Impossible III, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang).
Downs attempt to hijack a shipment of coke with his partner Sean, played by T.I., from a dope dealing Vegas casino boss, turns into an all day affair of searching for his kidnapped son by said boss. Bryant on the heels of Downs mixed with the impending pressure to bring his family back together repackages a motif that moviegoers will find familiar. We know how this story goes. We’ve seen it a million times. In fact, since 2008 we’ve seen it in the form of Taken three times.
It’s the Oscar Award-winning Jamie Foxx though so it’s worth seeing him in this kind of renegade role after about three years of missing him on the big screen since playing a much softer role in 2014’s Annie.
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Being directed by European filmmaker Bo do Odar, this Sleepless Night rendition gets that Euro, kind of slower paced, story-focused camerawork. The clean cut, action packed scenes that are scattered throughout the film is certainly worth noting.
The high-intensity fight sequence between Bryant and Downs in the hotel casino might as well had been a calculated dance number the way it was cut. The casino hotel showdown reportedly took 12 hours to film resulting in Michelle sparring so hard she ended up chipping Jamie’s tooth.
“I was on top of him and I just connected and I immediately I felt it,” Michelle gloats. “My knuckle kind of split and then his tooth.”
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Luckily his chipped tooth was a non-problem, that was quickly fixed before filming the next day. Good thing Jamie has porcelain teeth.
“She did clock me in the tooth,“ Jamie concedes. “Which actually is not my tooth. This is all porcelain but you know [Michelle] chipped that a little bit…I don’t know if you guys have ever lived the porcelain life but you know when you taste that little chalk? I called my guy. My best friend is a dentist, we actually grew up together and he lived in Atlanta so he put a little spackle on it and got me back.”
All praises go to Hollywood stunt coordinator Jeff Imada (Fight Club, Hanna) who brought in all the jaw-dropping fight action.
Tear The Club Up: Watch Jamie…excuse us, Vincent Downs wreck shop in this DXclusive.
This high-risk thriller sees the evolvement of exceptionally elusive characters. The life of Vincent Downs is seemingly falling apart. Between his restrained relationship with his kidnapped son and wife Dena Downs, portrayed by Gabrielle Union (Being Mary Jane, Top Five), while his job intensely under fire — it’s the kind of “I-need-to-get-my-shit-together” type of moment that we get to witness on screen that perhaps resonates in to answering why we love these cat-and-mouse chase movies whose story gets retold over and over again.
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Overall, Sleepless comes with lots of surprises and it’s pretty cool to watch T.I. and Jamie on screen together too. Jeezy also makes an appearance. As the movie was filmed in Atlanta, they had plenty of fun enjoying all that the Peach State has to offer in between all that hard work including Tip’s restaurant Scales 925 before its official closing.
“I was out with T.I.,” Jamie recalls. “We was at his restaurant. He got some great food at that restaurant. Fried everything.”
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Photo: Open Road Films
Sleepless debuts in theaters today, Friday, January 13.
