Thursday, January 12, 2017

Sleepless - Las Vegas Movie - The Luxus

I'm always on the lookout for Las Vegas movies and TV shows, so when I heard one was opening this weekend I thought I'd check it out.

Sleepless stars Jamie Foxx as a Las Vegas cop with a connection to the criminal underground that puts his son's life in danger. It also features Michelle Monaghan, Dermot Mulroney, Scoot McNairy, and Gabrielle Union.

The movie is under the radar with a modest 1800 theater release. I just happened to see a commercial for it which had a throwaway line about Foxx being "one of Nevada's finest" which led me to do some research revealing the Las Vegas setting.

Sleepless opens with a wide shot of the Las Vegas valley and several high quality aerial photography establishing shots of the Las Vegas Strip are seen throughout the movie. Other scenes feature cars driving on the Strip and Downtown (or "Old Downtown" as one of the cops calls it).

Much of the movie takes place at a fictional Las Vegas hotel resort - The Luxus.

The fake hotel is located in the middle of CityCenter crammed in-between Aria and Mandarin Oriental. Seeing a completely fictional resort reminded me of the 2015 TV show The Player which featured a few fake Las Vegas hotels.

Made-up hotels in Las Vegas movies and TV shows tend to move around though. When the characters are inside The Luxus overlooking the Strip the location looks to be closer to The Mirage with views of The Palazzo across the street.

The Las Vegas scenery continuity in Sleepless isn't terrible though. There weren't many obvious gaffes of a character being at one end of the Strip only to be at another end of the strip seconds later. The 2010 movie Get Him To The Greek and last year's Jason Bourne both suffered from these types of mistakes.

Sleepless
isn't a great (or even good) movie, but if you're someone like me who likes to watch anything Las Vegas related you might want to check it out sometime.