‘Play Dirty’ movie review: Rosa Salazar sizzles in a middling crime comedy

The explosive pre-credits sequence sees a robbery at a racetrack count room go terribly wrong. After a horrifying getaway (hope the horses were safe), master thief Parker (Mark Wahlberg) manages to escape with his life, while the rest of his crew is decimated by the duplicitous getaway driver Zen (Rosa Salazar).

Mark Wahlberg and LaKeith Stanfield in ‘Play Dirty’
| Photo Credit:
Jasin Boland

Swearing to avenge his co-conspirator, Philly (Thomas Jane), Parker sets out to find Zen with help from Grofield (LaKeith Stanfield), another career criminal, who runs a theatre to no success as his day job. After many bullets and sudden deaths, Parker finds Zen but defers his revenge plans as Zen is working another job, for much higher stakes, planning to rob a country, no less.

The middle portion of the film sags with loads of running and fighting, but not much actually happens. Zen belonged to a death squad in a Latin American country — we are not told which, so it should be right next to Somewhere-istan.

Her country can be placed squarely on the path of progress thanks to the discovery of a sunken Spanish galleon from the 16^th century filled with all manner of treasures, including the figurehead, The Lady of Arintero, which is itself worth half a billion dollars.

However, the evil, corrupt dictator for life, De La Paz (Alejandro Edda), plans to bring the treasure for a special exhibition to the UN in New York. He then plans to have it stolen so he can play the victim while enjoying the fruits of his cunning plan.

Zen and the other good people of her country, led by Colonel Ortiz (Hemky Madera), plan to steal the loot from De La Paz and save the country. There follows double and triple crosses, shootouts and a rather thrilling runaway garbage train.

Parker’s crew includes the usual band of eccentrics, from stoner getaway driver, Stan (Chai Hansen), to the chatty couple, Ed (Keegan-Michael Key) and Brenda (Claire Lovering). Parker, who always walks “where the ice is thick,” has run afoul of the local crime syndicate boss, Lozini (Tony Shalhoub), who is served by the inept, bitcoin-leaning Kincaid (Nat Wolff). There is also a revolting billionaire, Phineas Paul (Chukwudi Iwuji), and an unbreakable, time-locked safe.

Claire Lovering and Keegan-Michael Key in ‘Play Dirty’
| Photo Credit:
Jasin Boland

Director Shane Black has also written the screenplay, based on Richard Stark’s 1962 crime thriller The Hunter, which incidentally has been adapted to film twice before — 1967’s Point Blank and the 1999 Mel Gibson starrer, Payback.

The film is mildly engaging but unnecessarily violent. Wahlberg struggles to invest the amoral Parker with any redeemable qualities, and so we are not particularly invested in his plans. The only portions of Play Dirty that are engaging are some outrageous chases, and ones that feature Salazar, who lights up every frame she inhabits.

Play Dirty is currently streaming on Prime Video