Sleepless Red Band Trailer (2017)

Red band trailer for Sleepless showcases a compilation of R-rated footage from the film.

Sleepless stars Jamie Foxx as undercover Las Vegas police officer Vincent Downs, who is caught in a high stakes web of corrupt cops and the mob-controlled casino underground. When a heist goes wrong, a crew of homicidal gangsters kidnaps Downs’ teenage son. In one sleepless night he will have to rescue his son, evade an internal affairs investigation and bring the kidnappers to justice.

When Open Road films decided to move up the film's release from February 24th to January 13th, they placed Jamie Foxx amongst a ton of competition. Sleepless is hitting theaters along with Monster Trucks, Bye Bye Man, Silence, Patriots Day and Live by Night. Just about every Genre is having a release during the weekend, forcing Sleepless to push along the Taken niche.

Hence the last-minute red band trailer. Open Road is giving us their version of the marketing Hail Mary. Will it work? Hopefully, but the opening weekend box office expectation is only $10 million just the same.

While I'm reasonably pessimistic about any film released in January, the red band trailer for Sleepless does show something that could be worthy of a theatrical visit. At least, if you are a fan of ultra violence ala Taken.

But I still do have a few issues with this R-rated preview. First off, its duration. Sleepless is relatively short movie clocking in at just a few minutes over an hour and half, so I guess it makes sense to keep the previews short. That's fine, but don't give away what looks to be at least one character twist/betrayal.

And, to top it off, this is a red band and we do see some sort of strip club. If you are going to market yourself as hard R, go all the way. In short, where's the boobs?