LouHomey From my favorite movies..

Beystiman It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

KnotStronger This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.

Erica Derrick By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

MarplotRedux 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.

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.

merklekranz Dumb is as dumb does, in this thoroughly uninteresting, supposed black comedy. Essentially what starts out as Chris Klein trying to maintain a low profile, eventually morphs into an uninspired version of "The Three Amigos", only without any laughs. In order for black comedy to work, it must be outrageous, which "Play Dead" is not. In order for black comedy to work, it cannot be mean spirited, which "Play Dead" is. What "Play Dead" really is, is a town full of nut jobs. Fred Dunst does however do a pretty fair imitation of Billy Bob Thornton's character from "A Simple Plan", while Jake Busey does a pretty fair imitation of, well, Jake Busey. - MERK

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.