Play Dirty
What’s it rated? R
When? 2025
Where’s it showing? Prime
Shane Black (Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, The Nice Guys) co-writes and directs this heist flick based on the Parker book series by Richard Stark (aka Donald E. Westlake). In this go-around, we’re dropped into the middle of the story as professional thieves Parker (Mark Wahlberg) and Philly (Thomas Jane) lead a heist at a racetrack count room that’s interrupted by one of the track’s employees.
The kinetic and violent opening is merely the setup for the larger story about a heist involving the Outfit and its plans to steal $1 billion in shipwreck treasure on display at the U.N.
The whole affair is overly complicated and runs too long, and while I like Wahlberg in many of his films, here he doesn’t really muster the gravitas of the Parker character, who was much better handled in Point Blank (1967) by Lee Marvin and in Payback (1999) by Mel Gibson. Parker is ruthless and murders without compunction when called for, but he has a moral code.
Considering the source material and the cowriter’s and director’s bona fides, Play Dirty should have been better. But hey, if you’ve got Prime and like action and heist films, it’s fun enough. (125 min.)
—Glen Starkey
This article appears in Oct 16 – Oct 23, 2025.