I honestly don't even know whether to laugh, complain, or just say “what did I just watch?” ...
This movie had Samuel L. Jackson, Eva Green, a tropical island, $30 million, murder plans, insurance money and enough double-crossing to make you suspicious of everybody and somehow… it still managed to be boring at times...
The story follows Jack Wolfe, played by Samuel L. Jackson, a wealthy criminal who is in serious trouble with the authorities but Instead of facing the consequences, Jack comes up with a brilliant, or completely crazy plan...
He wants to fake his own death, collect a massive insurance payout with his wife Nora, and make it look like Nora's lover Chad was responsible... Simple, right? Not really, because Nora already has plans of her own...
She doesn't exactly love her husband... In fact, she wants him dead for real and intends to keep the money for herself... So now you have a husband planning to fake his death, a wife planning to actually kill him, and a lover who has absolutely no idea how deep into trouble he has walked and At this point I was like, “Okay, this could actually be fun.”
The biggest reason I kept watching was Samuel L. Jackson... The man just has that presence.. Even when he's not doing anything particularly impressive, you still feel like something is about to happen..
His character is arrogant, manipulative and clearly enjoys being the smartest person in the room and Samuel L. Jackson seems to have had fun playing him... He brings a little bit of personality to a movie that desperately needs it..
Eva Green was also good as Nora, Her character has that dangerous, mysterious energy where you're constantly wondering what she's thinking... The chemistry between her and Jackson is probably one of the better things about the movie because they feel like two people who absolutely cannot stand each other but are still trying to outsmart one another..
The problem is the movie tries too hard to make the plot complicated.. At some point I stopped trying to figure out who was manipulating who and just decided to enjoy the madness and that's probably where the movie lost me...
The basic idea is actually interesting... A married couple trying to kill each other while also trying to make money from a fake death sounds like something that should be ridiculously entertaining but the execution isn't always exciting...
There is a lot of talking and explaining.. Sometimes characters explain things that I felt the movie could have simply shown us. The nonlinear storytelling also makes things more confusing than they need to be..
The tropical island setting looks beautiful though. The movie has that sunny, expensive holiday atmosphere, which is funny considering almost everyone on screen is thinking about murder..
I also think the movie feels like something from another era.. It has that old-school crime thriller feeling, but without quite having the same charm.. Some of the humour works, while some of the darker jokes definitely didn't land for me and that's the frustrating thing about Just Play Dead... You can see the movie it wants to be.. A clever, sexy, darkly funny crime thriller where everyone is playing a dangerous game but it never completely gets there... Still, I wouldn't say it was all terrible...
There are some fun moments, Samuel L. Jackson is entertaining, Eva Green gives the movie some attitude, and the whole “who is actually going to die?” mystery kept me watching..
It's just not as clever as it thinks it is.. I went into this expecting a crazy crime thriller with Samuel L. Jackson doing Samuel L. Jackson things, and I got some of that but I also got a lot of unnecessary explanations and twists that made the movie feel longer than it actually was. Would I watch it again?.. Probably not.
For me, this was one of those movies where the idea was better than the final product..
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Rating: 65/100