This adaptation of the hard-boiled, noir crime-thriller ‘Parker’ novels is the perfect material for writer/director Shane Black’s snappy dialogue and twisty plotting, while Mark Wahlberg balances the charm and icy ruthlessness of author Donald E. Westlake’s iconic professional thief.

Premise: When a heist at a racetrack goes awry, master-thief Parker (Mark Wahlberg) gets drawn into a criminal web involving double-crosses, a femme fatale, a vengeful mob boss, an entitled billionaire, a corrupt military dictatorship, and sunken treasure.

Review:

In terms of the films that Shane Black has written and directed (as opposed to his scripts that were directed by others), the bar to beat is 2005’s Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, which is genuinely one of my all-time favourite films. In 2016, he returned to the hard-boiled private detective genre with the excellent The Nice Guys (which has become a cult movie after being under appreciated on release), but his latest foray into world of noir crime thrillers is an unusual hybrid – an original Shane Black story that’s inspired by an existing book series.

The ‘Parker’ novels have been a popular series of crime thrillers for over six decades (the first of his 24 novels was published in 1962), and there have been several movie adaptations since then, including Point Blank in 1967 starring Lee Marvin and Payback in 1999 starring Mel Gibson (both of which were based on the same novel), and 2013’s less well received Jason Statham vehicle, Parker. But for Play Dirty, Shane Black opted for writing an entirely new, modern story that embraced the spirit of author Donald E. Westlake’s creation, rather than making a direct adaptation of one of the existing novels.

“…Mark Wahlberg strikes the perfect balance between charming & ruthless professionalism…”

The result does, to a certain extent, feel like viewers get the best of both worlds. Shane Black’s original story feels fresh and up-to-date, and avoids most of the plot tropes that audiences have seen too many times before – but his love for the hard-bitten, pulpy crime genre still shines through in Play Dirty (just as it has in so much of his other work). The snappy dialogue, dark humour and witty one-liners that Shane Black scripts are known for are all present in Play Dirty, but the character of Parker himself still remains as cold and ruthless as ever, operating in accordance with his own code of honour while also not hesitating to kill those he deems deserving of it. Some of the previous adaptations of the ‘Parker’ novels have been accused of lacking humour and of being too dark, but Shane Black gets around that problem by having most of the quippy humour come from the characters around Parker, which allows Mark Wahlberg to ensure that Parker himself retains his cold edge.

Mark Wahlberg is one of those actors who some are quick to dismiss (and there’s no doubt that he has made some stinkers in his career), but when he’s paired with the right material, he can be great. In Play Dirty, Shane Black provides Mark Wahlberg with some of the most entertaining material that he’s had to work with in years, and he strikes the perfect balance between charming and ruthless professionalism in his portrayal of Parker.

“…the movie’s biggest strength is its character interactions…”

As with most heist films, to a certain degree this is an ensemble movie (despite Parker being the lynchpin to everything), and a big part of the film’s success is the strength of its supporting cast. There are so many twists and turns in this deliberately knotty plot that I don’t want to say too much about any of the supporting characters, but I will say that LaKeith Stanfield, Keegan-Michael Key, Claire Lovering and Chai Hansen are all a lot of fun as members of the crew that Parker has to put together for his latest heist, while Rosa Salazar also made an impression in the first thing I’ve seen her in since her lead role in 2019’s Alita: Battle Angel. Tony Shalhoub, Thomas Jane and Chukwudi Iwuji also appear to be having a great time playing their roles in this enjoyable crime caper.

The films isn’t without its flaws, but none are enough to spoil the overall fun. Perhaps its biggest problem is that there are a couple of big action sequences that are hamstrung by subpar CGI (presumably a budgetary issue) – but the irony is, this isn’t the kind of film that needs big, CGI-fuelled action sequences. Presumably, the studio notes were “needs bigger action sequences”, but the film would have benefited from losing those scenes (and their distractingly poor CGI) altogether and focusing instead on the movie’s biggest strength, which is undoubtably its character interactions.

“…a pulpy, hard-boiled crime thriller shot through with a vein of dark humour…”

But despite a couple of quibbles about bad CGI, the positives far outweigh the negatives, and this is a great way to spend a couple of hours if you’re a fan of pulpy, hard-boiled crime thrillers shot through with a vein of dark humour, delivered in a slick package of snappy dialogue and neo-noir style. If this ends up as a one-and-done for Mark Wahlberg as Parker, then it was a fun ride – but if Amazon MGM fancy making more Parker movies, I hope they can entice Shane Black back to work his magic on the script again, because I feel that it’s his input that elevates this from a lot of the other films in this sub-genre.