Play Dead (2009)

Wow! Such a good movie.

Don't listen to the Hype. It's awful

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

Why did I watch this movie all the way through? All, all, dreadful all? Because I wanted to write a review of it for you nice people at IMDb , that's why. Begin with something positive? Okay: like Desperation and the several Texas Chainsaw Massacre movies, this one is a valuable reminder to big city folks like me … well, Topeka is a sorta-big city … to ride clear of isolated small towns. Especially ones without cell- phone service (nor internet service!). Folks in them can be kinda inconsiderate. Negatives? Well, starting with a little one, even in my rootin'-tootin'-backpackin' days, had I suffered even a small part of the beatings that some of the characters received I would have been out of things for the rest of the hour and a half. A bit more serious: repeated use of the f word, including in seemingly-unwarranted incestuous accusations. Much more serious: again and again I was baffled by what motivated both the behaviors and failures to do anything of both the Good Guys and the Bad Guys. No spoiler, but this bafflement reached Bottomless Pit depths with the Bad Guys' behavior at the film's climax. The one exception was the behavior of the Retard,who was also portrayed by the only good actor. Couldn't this last say more about me than the movie? Maybe, but it seems only fair to warn others. When I was a lad there was a famous often-banned novel about ladies who chose to live an Alternative Lifestyle. It was called The Well of Loneliness. This movie is the Sump of Emptiness.

Once big action star who fell off the face of the earth ends up in a small town with a problem with drug dealers and a dead body of a federal agent. Reuniting with some former co-stars to clean up the town.Low key, often to the point of blandness, "action" comedy mostly just doesn't work. Part of the problem is the casting Chris Klien as a former action hero. he's not bad, but he's really not believable as some one who was taken to be a tough guy. As I said he's not bad, he's just just miscast for what his back story is. The real problem here is the combination of the script, which really isn't funny and seems artificial at times, and the direction which is pedestrian to the port of dullness. There is no life in the way things are set up. Its as if the director had a list of shots and went by that list. It makes for an un-engaging film. And yet the film occasionally springs to life, such as the in the final show down that ends the film. That sequence works, but because the earlier parts of the film floundered its drained of much of its power.I can't really recommend the film. Its worth a shot if you're a fan of the actors or are a huge fan of independent cinema in all its forms, but otherwise this is just a disappointment.

If you're like me, the mix of Chris Klein, Jake Busey, and Fred Durst doesn't exactly spell success. As such, I popped this movie in with few expectations. What I got was a bit of a pleasant surprise, but not much of one. That being said, after I saw the laugh-out-loud awful performance of Chris Klein in Street Fighter: The Legend Of Chun Li, I had pretty much counted him out for good. So I suppose it's always good to see someone get back up and at least dust themselves off.The premise of the film is pretty basic. A washed up TV actor (Klein) falls on a streak of bad (really bad) luck and gets stranded in a small town in the middle of nowhere. Problem is that the town is basically run by a small group of guys running drugs, so it's up to Klein and his old TV show buddies to save the day. That's all fine and good, but it's basically the same plot from Three Amigos and, let's face it, there's little chance anyone will ever do a movie similar to that and do it better. But, with that in mind, it's not too bad. Fred Durst does a good job as the (perhaps appropriately cast) idiot and everyone seems like a total doofus with the exception of Klein and the main antagonist. There really isn't a whole lot of action here so I'm not sure why that's listed as the primary genre, and the comedy isn't so much laugh-out-loud as it is the kind that will give you a chuckle and make you say "What the...?".All in all it's not bad...I certainly don't think it deserves it's current 2.9 rating. It's not great but you've seen far worse. But then again that's just me. I'd say it's not a bad way to waste an hour and a half.

I was very surprised at how good this film was. First of all, anything with Jake Busey deserves to be watched. Anytime he was on screen I laughed out loud. Chris Klein was very funny as usual, and the plot was original. But the very best part of this film was the character Ledge, played by Fred Durst. That man can act... and Ledge is possibly one of the quirkiest characters I've seen in a film. Great stuff! I laughed, I cried.... well, I didn't cry at all, but I did laugh. I will be surprised if this movie doesn't become a cult classic, in the vein of Donnie Darko, or Boondock Saints. Any movie that makes violence as funny as this movie gets an A in my book.