Film
Vincent (Jamie Foxx – A Million Ways to Die in the West, The Amazing Spider-Man 2), a seemingly corrupt cop with connections to the criminal underworld, lands himself in deep trouble when his son is taken. Investigated by internal affairs officer Bryant (Michelle Monaghan – Patriots Day, Pixels), chased on all sides by crime families, Vincent is in a race to rescue his son, and save his family.
Sleepless is a fast paced, tense, and exciting film. The plot provides the viewer with clues, but these are always clearer with hindsight. There are enough twists and turns to keep one guessing, and escape the “same old” feeling of action films. And action the film provides, from chases, to shoot-outs, fights and trashed hotel rooms, Sleepless does not let up one bit.
The film dives right in, establishing Vincent as the main character, beset with troubles on both sides of the law. And as his day gets worse, we learn more about those he works with, and does business with.
Along comes the ass-kicking Bryant, skeptical and by-the-book. Soon their paths cross, and an intense stand-off ensues.
Sleepless is a fun film, with a talented cast, all bundled together with a good story. Certainly an action film to enjoy.
Disc
Overall, the disc is of a decent technical quality, with an enjoyable main feature.
Sleepless is available now, to purchase on disc, in South Africa.
Video
Video for the main feature is encoded at a high average bitrate, with no visible artefacts on screen, nor any visible colour bleed. Colours are vibrant in the relevant scenes, with detail maintained in the several darker scenes.
Viewers with the necessary hardware or software can scale up to a larger or higher resolution screen, should they wish.
Audio
Audio for the main feature is encoded at a high average bitrate. The soundtrack is presented in a Dolby Digital 5.1 mix, with a stereo 2.0 downmix available. Strangely enough, the stereo mix is the default track selected, so a visit to the setup menu, or use of the DVD player controls, is needed.
Dialogue is clear via the centre speaker, with much of the weight of the soundtrack carried by the front channels. A great deal of use is made of the surround channels though, either for filling out the space with music, atmospherics, or just expanding the on-screen world for the viewer, further drawing them into the action.
Navigation
Navigation is simple, and easy to use, with a static main menu, and three text links to play the main feature, chapter selection, or audio setup.
The chapter selection sub-menus have four large, colour, still thumbnails. While these are numbered, they are not labelled, meaning that an amount of guesswork would be required in order to navigate to a specific spot in the film.
The setup sub-menu allows the viewer to choose between the 5.1 or 2.0 soundtracks. Note, that the 5.1 mix is not the default soundtrack, so a visit here before watching the film is a good idea.
Bonus Features
There are no bonus features on the disc, other than trailers for The Hunters Prayer, Brimstone, and the game Prey. These autoplay at the beginning of the disc, and can be skipped or fast-forward individually, but are not accessible again from anywhere on the disc.
