I watched this film as a huge, huge fan of the French original, SLEEPLESS NIGHT, which came out back in 2011. That's one of my favourite thrillers of recent years and I was under no illusions that this Hollywood remake would be anywhere near as good, and indeed it isn't. However, it turns out to be not too bad at all, all things considered. It has a fast pace and plenty of action, enough to see it through in most respects, and Jamie Foxx is a suitably tough protagonist. I liked the fact that certain facts and sequences have been changed around from the original movie which makes this more fun for those of us with a good knowledge of the French film, keeping us on our toes throughout. The action is nowhere near as intense, although inevitably bigger scale with machine gun shoot-outs and the like. This film seems unfairly maligned to me.

In Las Vegas, Vincent Downs (Jamie Foxx) and partner Sean Cass (T.I.) steal a shipment of cocaine. They turn out to be police detectives and Vincent volunteers to investigate the battle in the street. Jennifer Bryant (Michelle Monaghan) and Doug Dennison (David Harbour) from Internal Affairs are brought in on the case. Vincent is estranged from his son and his ex Dena Smith (Gabrielle Union) is newly engaged. He is surprised to find out that Stanley Rubino (Dermot Mulroney) and mob-related Rob Novak (Scoot McNairy) are the owners of the drug shipment. Then his son is kidnapped by them.

This is a crime action thriller in the vein of a Michael Mann movie. There are some good action with one particularly fun fight scene. The cast is good enough and it has the potential to be a solid crime thriller. The problem is that the movie never makes me care about Vincent and I never do. There are also some logic problems although logic may not be a big sticking point. This has all the parts but fails to put them together.

Jamie Foxx is a cop. When his son is kidnapped, it's a good thing he has connections to the criminal underworld, because there's going to be a lot of drugs,shooting and shaky-cam work before the bad guys get taught a lesson about being dead.

Foxx is, of course, one of the finer actors of contemporary cinema, and he has the Golden Globe and Oscar to prove it. But so much cinema these days is about movement and explosions and how many bodies can the hero pile up. So this by-the-numbers remake of Belgian film NUIT BLANCHE hits all the marks and adds nothing new, except for large paychecks for Foxx. That's fine. But there's nothing here that adds luster to anyone, except possibly director Baran bo Odar; it's his English-language premiere, and undoubtedly crucial to his resume.

Some decent performers are involved in this, and I suppose they needed the work. I will mention that I am surprised that Dermot Mulroney is among them.