Wizard-8 I like watching genre movies made by low budget filmmakers, because not only do they often try harder to deliver the goods so their films will stand out from the crowd, you can often find a love of filmmaking absent from many big budget Hollywood films. But "Play Dead" reminded me that there are a lot of BAD movies made by low budget filmmakers. The script is bewildering - it often plays like each scene was written by one person part of a large committee, with each subsequent filmmaker often ignoring what was written before in order to do their own thing. There's a lot in this movie that makes no sense. The movie suffers in other aspects as well, ranging from underwhelming acting to incompetent cinematography. Obviously made on the real cheap, you have to wonder how director / co-writer / producer Jason Wiles managed to convince the semi-famous cast to appear in this shabby production. The only explanation I can think of is blackmail.

8ung I'd classify it as a Drama and nothing more. The story is a drama, the acting is a drama, the script is a drama, ...The worst thing is that the scenes do not fit together. The characters act upon knowledge they cannot possibly have acquired or just plainly cannot have. If you take away reason then everything seems arbitrary.Someone here compared it to the Three Amigos. The only thing in common is that there are three guys and *nothing* else!And the end? One of the worst ever! A failed statement of "Everything is fine, everybody is happy". Spoiler warning: In the end a useless arm is whole again and even someone shot dead miraculously stands up, walks around and smiles.

dbborroughs 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.

curbsquerl 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.