'Sleeping Dogs' Review
- Tiffany McLaughlin
- Mar 22, 2024
- 1 min read
Release Date: 03/22/24 [Cinemas]
Genre: Crime. Mystery. Thriller.
MPAA: Rated R.
Distributor: The Avenue.
The Verdict: A Maybe
Russell Crowe leads as a retired homicide detective, who is undergoing an experimental treatment for Alzheimer's. He is tasked with revisiting an old case that he can't remember in order to save the guy he put in prison from execution. The truth he seeks versus the truth he unveils is far beyond what he imagines.
Sleeping Dogs works if you treat it with the same logical integrity as you would an extended Law & Order episode (and I LOVE Law & Order). It most definitely could have benefitted from a shorter runtime and another pass or two on the script. Most of the characters come off aggressively one-dimensional. At one point, three of the main players are talking to each other as if they were given different scripts from three different movies.
I was stoked to check out a film with a cast this strong, but between a drawn out plot and a watery third act, Sleeping Dogs clearly was not written to showcase the talents of the actors. If you're into lighter fare and want a simple mystery to kill two hours, you could certainly do worse. For me, it's a maybe.
