Shane Black is back! But what is Play Dirty worth on Prime Video? (critical)

The scriptwriter and cult director takes over service, 7 years after his predator, with a robbery thriller, which summons the old 90’s cinema which made him a legend. Cool or outdated?

It is a name that still resonates in Hollywood. Shane Black, director of The Nice Guys (2016) and Iron Man 3 (2013) – But who had also missed his Predator (in 2018) – is back with this robbery film which smells good the old old -fashioned thriller. Play Dirty Take the Guns of the cool and stylish action film, around a strip of thieves who fly thieves, with a jackpot with biblical proportions. So is the new Prime Video blockbuster up to the task?

We would have liked to find the paw of Shane Black, but this thriller only keeps appearance, without biting or irony. The result is sorely lacking in personality, as if the filmmaker had lost his mojo.

Play Dirtyit is the story of Parker, which was doubled by the pretty Zen. He will track it down in New York and understand that she has a vast plan in sight: stealing $ 1 billion to the corrupt president of her small country in South America – from a treasure of a Spanish galleon that sank in the ocean 500 years ago – to eat to his people. Of course, Parker will decide to help him, and for that, will have to face his former enemies of the local mafia …

Everything sounds a little biscornn in this thriller with unnecessary convolutions. It almost has the impression of seeing a parody of Shane Black, as her parker has everything of an empty shell. The fault, largely, in Mark Wahlberg, totally devoid of charisma. His version of the character is so tasteless that she tends to fade behind this absurd scenario. The character imagined by the American writer Donald E. Westlake (hero of 24 of the 28 novels of the saga) had much more relief when Jason Statham embodied him in 2013. His tango with Rosa Salazar (Alita), his pair with Lakeith Stanfield (The Book of Clarence), his confrontation with Tony Shaloub (Monk) … Everything seems vain, in this story of thieves without tail or head, and without much suspense.

We are clearly not in Shane Black to his bonus, even if the film tries, as he can, to summon the spirit of an action cinema that has long been missing. A bloody and jazzy film, with a few trumpet notes that both arise to give yourself a cool air. Play Dirty East Old School Until the marrow. Offdered limit … but at the same time strangely comforting, for moviegoers who continue to venerate the golden era of The fatal weapon… Even today the most beautiful creation of the great Shane Black.

Play Dirty, to be seen on Prime Video from October 1, 2025