Variety Calls Samuel L. Jackson and Eva Green's 'Just Play Dead' a Misfiring Crime Comedy
Samuel L. Jackson and Eva Green team up as a crook and his wife who fake his death in Just Play Dead, a crime comedy that Variety has judged "dated" and "tortuous" in a review published on 27 August 2026.
Martin Campbell, the director behind Casino Royale and GoldenEye, helms the film from a screenplay by Dan Gordon — the writer of Wyatt Earp and Rambo: Last Blood — adapting his own 2016 novel of the same name. Highland Film Group, a Los Angeles-based production and international sales company, produced the project and handled overseas rights. The story follows Jack Wolfe, played by Jackson, a wealthy criminal hiding out in the Canary Islands after an associate is caught with proof that his fortune was earned illegally. Eva Green plays Nora, Wolfe's wife and a former sex worker, who conspires with him to stage his death. The supporting cast includes Eoin Macken as Dani, a local cop who falls for Nora; Jason Fernández as Chad, a surfer Nora manipulates; and Maria Pedraza as Bianca, Dani's police partner. Irina Kotcheva served as costume designer.
The film's path to screens ran through the Cannes film festival, where distribution deals in key international territories were secured, according to a Variety exclusive published on 18 May 2026. Jackson, Green, and Pedraza were first announced as the leads just over a year earlier, on 13 May 2025, with promotional material at the time pitching the film as "provocative, sexy, and original — a perfect mix of clever storytelling and thrilling twists." A trailer released on 12 August 2026 through People billed the project as an action heist, with Jackson and Green shown as conniving spouses.
The Variety review, however, lands far from the marketing. Jackson's performance is described as "practically somnambulant" despite his naturally relaxed screen presence, while Green's turn as a femme fatale is called impatient, unconvincing, and going through the motions. The review also notes the Canary Islands production, suggesting the setting makes the film feel like a tax shelter — a pointed jab implying the location may have served financial rather than creative purposes.
For a film that arrived in Cannes with territory deals and a recognisable cast, the review amounts to a sharp course correction between what buyers were sold and what critics received. Whether Just Play Dead finds an audience will depend less on the festival market that launched it than on the verdicts now arriving with each review.
