Watch Sleepless For Free

Sorry, this movie sucks

One of my all time favorites.

Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

Dario Argento finally returns to his giallo roots, after years in the wilderness spent making films in America, his unorthodox version of Phantom of the Opera and an obsession with casting his daughter, Asia, in all of his movies. SLEEPLESS is a breath of fresh air and a more than watchable movie, although not without its fair share of flaws and niggles. Compared to his old classics of the '70s, SLEEPLESS is pretty poor in many respects. A lot of the cast are of the young, fresh-faced and utterly banal Italian actors who seemingly fill Italian cinema these days. The old days are long gone and we have no Neros, Hemmings, or even Steffens or Hiltons to lead us through the films anymore. Max von Sydow is a welcome presence as the retired detective and puts in an excellent performance but he does feel a little out of place in an Argento film, perhaps because he is just too famous. There's another flaw in regards to von Sydow, which includes major spoilers for obvious reasons so stop reading now if you must.The plot is fairly predictable and throws in the usual bunch of bizarre, unwieldy ingredients including poetry-spouting dwarfs, killer instruments (an English horn!), homicidal puppets, animals, and lots of gruesome murders. In many ways Argento goes back to his first films and rehashes a lot of the plot elements, lacking originality and focus at key points. The murders are even more vicious than before and for the first time Argento borders on cold misogyny. The opening sequence involves a naked prostitute being gorily hacked to pieces on a train (the most frightening scene in the film) and the rest of the murders focus on attractive women losing their lives in fantastically gruesome ways (the nastiest being a face-bashing that goes on for an age and includes flying teeth). The finale is appropriately bloody but feels a little contrived, like cod Shakespeare, and leaves the film on an unsatisfying note.Stylists will be pleased that Argento is full of his usual tracking shots, sweeps and even Goblin have returned to supply a quality soundtrack just like in the old days. But something is missing in the heart of this film. What's the point of a two minute long tracking shot of a stretch of carpet other than to show off his new digital effects and the like? Sure, it's watchable enough and even recalls the old days at times, but the film has no soul. It never really grips you and the deaths seem predictable and, dare I say it, clichéd, like Sergio Stivaletti is desperate to try out his newest and most realistic effects yet. This is why no two deaths are ever the same. The fact that von Sydow's leading character gets killed off twenty minutes before the end of the film is a mortal sin, leaving us to follow some faceless and boring young heroes for the supposedly exciting finale. Still, the film could be worse, and it's stylish enough to surpass the most brain dead of modern US slashers. It's also better than his last film, but at the end of the day I think I prefer THE STENDHAL SYNDROME.

When you watch a Dario Argento flick, you know what to expect. Still, being a sucker for a good slasher pic, I still give these movies a chance. You get the gore, you get ... Well, that's about it. The acting, of course, is awful. The script? Well, I wonder if there ever was one. Seems like they improvised this one over some good pot. Thrills? Not really. Even the killings are fake as hell. I know, that's what Argento stands for, but one has to wonder: why has this guy gathered such a reputation? Is it because "it's so bad it must be good"? I read someone's comment here that if you don't like this film, you know nothing about movie making. No kidding?

I actually felt the need to make an account just to submit a review on "Sleepless". I honestly do not believe the current reviews do this movie justice, it is an inconsistent, B-grade, incredibly boring, badly made movie.Every single review on here is either from fans of the director, or Italians trying to support their film industry. This movie is not unique, neither is it interesting, and the acting is terrible.Everything i saw in this B-grade slasher i had seen previously in other, better movies.Yes, I have seen worse, but currently this movie is sitting very low on my list. Nothing interesting happens, the "murder" scenes made me laugh out loud, and the story was absolutely ridiculous.Holy Jesus batman! its a killer dwarf! hes gonna knife us!

Dario Argento returns to the form that made him famous, that of the giallo. The results are certainly decent although not quite up to the highs of his earlier works like Cat O'Nine Tails and Deep Red. As in previous films, there are red herrings galore and Argento fills the screen with his trademark camera shots and ultra violence. One scene in which a victim has their face smashed against a wall is particularly gruesome, complete with teeth falling out of the ruined mouth and face. Like many of Argento's films, the dubbing is truly horrific. I can't speak Italian so I'm assuming that the dialogue sounded much better in its native tongue than the overacted and pulpy English dub that I viewed. Max Von Sydow is great as the detective who worked on the case 17 years ago and now must return to the one that got away and try and solve it. The film is certainly well done and better than the director's last few films, but the only real problem that I had with it was it overstays its welcome. Shorn of perhaps 20-30 minutes, the film would have been much tighter and worked a bit better.