Let me start by saying that I like gritty neo-noir thrillers, Jamie Foxx and dramas that are set in a compressed time frame. The trailer to "Sleepless" promised all of this and I was sold. I didn't expect anything outstanding, but something a little bit like Mann's "Miami Vice" or "Collateral".
The digital cinematography by the talented Mihai Malaimare Jr. ("The Master", "A Walk Among The Tombstones", "Tetro") is better than this kind of movie deserves and creates a moody, but still realistic Las Vegas setting using grey, black, blue, green and purple color tones. No color is there only by coincidence. The frame is always beautifully composed. Some of the action footage looks spectacular.
So, why doesn't it work?
The screenplay by the Oscar-nominated Andrea Berloff is very conventional and full of cliché, but so are other good B-pictures with a less stellar cast. It's surprisingly flat and without any originality at all. You've seen every twist before in better movies. But it's not as bad, that it needs a Razzie nomination. It might have worked if directed by some talented guy, but...
The direction is a mess. It's not only weak directing, but incompetent directing, because Baran bo Odar makes mistakes you usually only see in student films, where the filmmakers don't really care about realism too much. Some of the actions of the characters don't make any sense and are staged in an unbelievable manner. My favorite example is the moment when one of the bad guys aims with his gun at Jamie Foxx. He could easily kill him now, but what does he do? He walks a few steps back. Then suddenly Foxx' son in the movie drives into him with his car, without making any noise first, so the bad guy is surprised by his death. Another big thing that bothered me was the son: Why didn't he leave the building after his unrealistic-escape-by-coincidence ? No, he prefers to stay in the disco. Really? These things would not happen in real-life, only in movies, where the director is not able to block and stage a scene in a believable manner. Or he simply doesn't care for realism or logical actions by motivated characters. The whole showdown is ridiculous and unintentionally funny because of the bad direction and the mediocre writing. Maybe good editing could have fixed some errors and save the movie from its ridiculousness, but even then it would still be only an uninspired B-picture.
What we have here is proof of disregard for the audience and intelligent storytelling. Maybe Baran bo Odar once showed some promise at the beginning of his career, but based on "Sleepless" I would never hire this guy for anything except maybe a car commercial.
I only give it 4/10 because of stylish cinematography. A waste of talent.
The digital cinematography by the talented Mihai Malaimare Jr. ("The Master", "A Walk Among The Tombstones", "Tetro") is better than this kind of movie deserves and creates a moody, but still realistic Las Vegas setting using grey, black, blue, green and purple color tones. No color is there only by coincidence. The frame is always beautifully composed. Some of the action footage looks spectacular.
So, why doesn't it work?
The screenplay by the Oscar-nominated Andrea Berloff is very conventional and full of cliché, but so are other good B-pictures with a less stellar cast. It's surprisingly flat and without any originality at all. You've seen every twist before in better movies. But it's not as bad, that it needs a Razzie nomination. It might have worked if directed by some talented guy, but...
The direction is a mess. It's not only weak directing, but incompetent directing, because Baran bo Odar makes mistakes you usually only see in student films, where the filmmakers don't really care about realism too much. Some of the actions of the characters don't make any sense and are staged in an unbelievable manner. My favorite example is the moment when one of the bad guys aims with his gun at Jamie Foxx. He could easily kill him now, but what does he do? He walks a few steps back. Then suddenly Foxx' son in the movie drives into him with his car, without making any noise first, so the bad guy is surprised by his death. Another big thing that bothered me was the son: Why didn't he leave the building after his unrealistic-escape-by-coincidence ? No, he prefers to stay in the disco. Really? These things would not happen in real-life, only in movies, where the director is not able to block and stage a scene in a believable manner. Or he simply doesn't care for realism or logical actions by motivated characters. The whole showdown is ridiculous and unintentionally funny because of the bad direction and the mediocre writing. Maybe good editing could have fixed some errors and save the movie from its ridiculousness, but even then it would still be only an uninspired B-picture.
What we have here is proof of disregard for the audience and intelligent storytelling. Maybe Baran bo Odar once showed some promise at the beginning of his career, but based on "Sleepless" I would never hire this guy for anything except maybe a car commercial.
I only give it 4/10 because of stylish cinematography. A waste of talent.