Play Dirty

3 outta 5

Writer and director Shane Black makes generally zippy, pop entertainment like Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang, The Nice Guys, Iron Man Three and The Predator. His latest film, Play Dirty, isn’t quite as zippy as Black’s previous films have been, but it is still a fun caper flick with quippy dialogue and gunfire. It is (very loosely) inspired by the Parker novels as Mark Wahlberg is amusingly irritated. There’s a bunch of action, a few twists, and a dash of hard-boiled revenge story that the movie itself basically forgets about. Play Dirty is kind of haphazard, and probably could have been shorter, but it is mostly entertaining.

Parker (Wahlberg) is running a robbery at a horse racing track that goes awry when a random guy steals their cash and shoots at his crew. But back at their hideout, things go even more awry when one of his crew, Zen (Rosa Salazar), starts shooting, kills Parker’s buddy Philly (Tom Jane) and steals their take. Vowing revenge for Philly to his widow, Grace (Gretchen Mol), Parker eventually finds Zen and she tells him about a crazy heist to steal a billion dollars worth of sunken treasure. This job is very complex involving a jerk billionaire, Phineas (Chukwudi Iwuji), who wants a piece of the ship carved like a mythical warrior lady that is encrusted with jewels. And there’s also Lozini (Tony Shalhoub) who runs a criminal empire that will ruthlessly take people out for the prize. Now with Zen and a new crew, including Ed (Keegan-Michael Key) and Grofield (LaKeith Stanfield), Parker has to pull off a very complex heist as everyone wants a piece of that jewel covered lady.

There is some shoddy plotting here, like the opening scene where some random dude starts shooting and steals their robbery money. It’s just bad luck they ran into a guy greedier than them. It does set up a car chase through a horse racing track which is very chaotic. There’s a side plot about how Zen is really a revolutionary and constantly telling stories about her country. Parker gets visibly annoyed with the stories which is funny but also kind of a bad thing to remind the audience how superfluous all this backstory is. The whole plot of Parker vowing to kill Zen for Grace feels rapidly forgotten as he is helping with her cause. When the revenge plot comes back in the final few minutes, it feels forced. Usually, Shane Black scripts are fairly tight, so these narrative slip ups are more noticeable.

Wahlberg fits rather well into the Shane Black style quippy protagonist role. He talks very fast and looks very annoyed, which is something he usually does anyway, and the best stuff is just in his comedic angry reactions. There’s a story he tells about how as a kid he got revenge on a bully which sounds like any sort of Wahlberg action hero backstory about growing up in the streets. He gets quite a few sidekicks throughout the film. Jane’s Philly is a grizzled old guy who seems like he should stick around longer, he is probably one of the more well-known actors here aside from Wahlberg, so him getting popped in the first 10 minutes is a decent shocker. But Jane does well with what he has, like how he’s irritated he got clipped during the robbery. Mol as his widow just looks sad as Grace rightfully blames Parker for getting him killed.

The other main sidekick is Stanfield’s Grofield and he basically quips back at Parker throughout. There’s a funny running gag that he is the owner of a playhouse that doesn’t make any money so everything he wins on heists goes into keeping the place open. He says at one point he’s thinking about starting a puppet show with no audience as an experimental piece. Salazar as Zen has some great bits like when she initially turns on Parker’s crew with expert marksmanship. When Parker finally catches up with her, there’s a funny bit where Parker shoots down a guy that she needed to make the heist, and Parker keeps on repeatedly shooting the guy to her frustration. Another fun scene she has is when Parker and Zen must get information from someone and Parker reveals the guy’s boyfriend is dead and the guy just starts sobbing hysterically. As Ed, the other sidekick, Key has all the best one-liners. Iwuji as Phineas the billionaire is totally insufferable, and he has a funny bit where he is aghast when Parker shoots Mark Cuban. Shalhoub as the crook kingpin has a lot of great, snarling bits as he is constantly irritated by his underlings and says nasty stuff. His final scene with Parker is great as he’s shocked at what Parker does to get an upper hand.

Black has made more banger films than this, and this is definitely one of his weaker ones. The action scenes do have some impact, the blood spatter from the gunshots are plentiful, even if bits like them trying to flip an elevated train goes on too long. Play Dirty is a decent diversion from a writer/director who has done better, but this still manages to be enjoyable.