It may have taken a little longer than we liked for Shane Black to return with a new movie after the failure of The Predator, but his first film in seven years has proven to be a decent hit. In fact, Deadline reports that Play Dirty has garnered 57 million worldwide viewers in 28 days, becoming one of Amazon MGM Studios’ Top 10 most-watched streaming movies of all time.
Based on Donald E. Westlake’s The Hunter, Play Dirty is a crime thriller starring Mark Wahlberg as Parker, a professional thief, who, after being double-crossed and left for dead, sees his hunt for revenge bring with it a shot at the biggest heist of his career. But even with the help of his partner, actor-slash-con artist Grofield, he’ll still need to outsmart a South American dictator, the New York mob, and the world’s richest man if he hopes to stay alive. LaKeith Stanfield plays Grofield, and the rest of the cast includes Rosa Salazar, Tony Shalhoub, Keegan-Michael Key, Nat Wolff, Chukwudi Iwuji, and Thomas Jane. Black directs from a script he co-wrote with Charles Mondry and Anthony Bagarozzi.
The film premiered on Prime Video on October 1 and quickly found itself in the #1 spot on Nielsen’s Movie chart, with 788 million minutes streamed.
The project was originally announced with Robert Downey Jr. in the lead role (a long-awaited Kiss Kiss Bang Bang reunion), but he had to drop out. You have to wonder how that would have played out.
Unfortunately, Play Dirty isn’t the grand return to form for Black that fans were hoping for. The film has received mixed reviews, but our own Alex Maidy found enough to enjoy. “Had this movie been a straight heist thriller with comedic elements, it likely would have worked better, but that does not prevent the film from being a fun ride,” he wrote. “Black has always had a knack for dialogue that crackles, and there is plenty of that in Play Dirty. The best moments in the film come from the rapid-fire back-and-forth between characters, especially the leading trio of Wahlberg, Salazar, and Stanfield. But witty one-liners and comebacks only get you so far when the plot is virtually impossible to make sense of.” You can check out the rest of his review right here.
What did you think of Play Dirty?
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