Based on the book series “Parker” by Donald E. Westlake, Play Dirty (2025) is directed by Shane Black, who also wrote the film alongside Chuck Mondry and Anthony Bagarozzi. It stars Mark Wahlberg, Rosa Salazar, LaKeith Stanfield, Keegan-Michael Key, Tony Shalhoub, Chukwudi Iwuji, Nat Wolff, Thomas Jane, Gretchen Mol, Chai Hansen, Hemky Madera, Alejandro Edda, and Claire Lovering. The film follows international thief Parker (Wahlberg) after his crew is betrayed by Zen (Salazar), the newest member of their team. As the only survivor, Parker vows to find Zen and exact his revenge. Once located, Zen offers to provide Parker with his most lucrative heist yet, but only if they can set their past aside and work together. Parker reluctantly agrees, proceeding to form a new ragtag team of his former associates. Against the odds, the team comes face to face with NYC’s criminal underworld, who also have eyes on a similar prize. Can Parker and Zen trust each other long enough to pull it off, or will their past get in the way of a retirement-worthy payday? 

 The cast of A-listers has a lot of fun with Shane Black’s energetic, escapist dialogue, but Wahlberg is the exception. I’ve never read any of the “Parker” books, and it’s still clear to me that Wahlberg is horribly cast as the series’ title character, who essentially works as a more capable version of John Wick. Does that sound like someone who a thuggish Bostonian could believably portray? Thankfully, the entire supporting cast is a lot of fun, with each character receiving focus proportional to their importance. They’re ridiculous/cartoonish, but well-drawn enough to be memorable. 

The dialogue here is a lot lazier than some of Black’s previous efforts, like The Nice Guys (2016). However, it similarly prioritizes its comedic punchlines above all else. Logic, morality, and general character consistency are thrown straight out the window if it allows for a funny punchline. This results in a film that’s consistently fun but stops making sense as soon as the viewer decides to ask questions. Supposedly intelligent characters consistently make needlessly risky decisions, have unclear motivations, and are seemingly willing to risk their lives for no good reason.

These characters are also morally inconsistent, sometimes executing people when they clearly don’t have to, and other times saving or even teaming up with people they should probably dispose of. They have zero moral consistency, which completely undermines moments when the script wants us to see them, Parker especially, as people with a strict set of principles. This inconsistency even extends to the action, which often completely shuns the laws of physics, leading to some comically jarring, over-the-top CGI you’d expect from only the crappiest Marvel films. 

Overall, this is one of the more inconsistent, shoddily-made efforts from director Shane Black, often emulating his crappy Predator film as opposed to something like Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (2005). That being said, the many fun, energetic interactions between the various characters save it from being an unpleasant two hours. If you expect this to be a stupid, inconsistent, but charmingly silly experience, it mostly delivers. However, if you choose to think critically even once, everything starts to fall apart. It’s often comically bad, but it’s never dull. That alone places it above most straight-to-streaming action-comedies (but not by much). C