Play Dirty is the latest in Prime Video’s conveyor belt of glossy but weightless action titles. You can feel the intentions are different this time, since Shane Black aims for a straighter crime caper rather than the snarky crackle of The Nice Guys or Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. On paper, the package looks sturdy. Mark Wahlberg plays Parker, LaKeith Stanfield plays Grofield, and Rosa Salazar plays Zen, a trio of professional thieves drawn into a job that pits them against the New York mob and the president of Zen’s South American home country. In practice the movie is mostly table setting that never pays off.
Black has built a career on tough talk, jazzy rhythms, and action that moves with personality. Here the script leans on dense exposition and long briefings that drain the pulse. Scenes exist to explain other scenes. When the guns finally come out, the set pieces are coated in digital gloss that makes everything feel airless. A snowy car chase late in the film should be a showstopper. Instead it has the smeary, weightless look that has come to define too many direct-to-streaming spectacles.
The cast does not rescue it. Wahlberg gives another snoozy star turn, coasting on gruff charisma without finding an edge for Parker. LaKeith Stanfield tries to inject some sly energy, but it is hard to spark chemistry when the lead is barely awake. Rosa Salazar has presence and a few sharp moments, yet the movie keeps pushing her to the background right when her perspective could complicate the heist in interesting ways.
There are grace notes. A handful of Shane Black quips land, and for a scene or two you can glimpse the clockwork caper this might have been. The problem is momentum. Play Dirty keeps promising a big swing, then retreats to another briefing or another lifeless CGI volley. Even the texture is off. Black’s best work feels tactile, whether it is the smoggy Los Angeles of The Nice Guys or the Christmas soaked neighborhoods of Iron Man 3. This world feels unfinished, built on green screens and placeholder energy.
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Shane Black’s last outing was The Predator, a misfire that still had personality. Play Dirty is more competent than that, yet somehow just as thin. It wants the clean lines of a Parker yarn, but it forgets to give the jobs a pulse or the thieves a spark. As a piece of the 2025 Prime Video slate that has also included G20, Heads of States and The Pickup, Play Dirty is not the worst, just another placeholder that makes you wish the platform would back fewer action movies and demand more life from the ones it does.
Score: 4/10
Play Dirty (2025)
- Cast: Mark Wahlberg, LaKeith Stanfield, Rosa Salazar, Keegan-Michael Key, Chukwudi Iwuji, Nat Wolff
- Director: Shane Black
- Genre: Action, Crime, Thriller
- Runtime: 128 minutes
- Rated: R
- Release Date: October 1, 2025
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