Movie: Play Dirty (2025) Caution Spoiler Alert

 

Play Dirty

Came out; 2025

Time; 2 hours 5 Minutes

Watched: Amazon

Rated: R for strong violence, pervasive language, some sexual content and nudity

IMDB Rating; 5.9/10

Rotten Tomatoes:

Tomato Meter 44%

Popcorn Meter 43%

Caution; Spoiler Alert

Staring;

Mark Wahlberg as Parker

LaKeith Stanfield as Grofield

Rosa Salazar as Zen

Keegan-Michael Key as Ed Mackey

Chukwudi Lwuji as Phineas Paul

Nat Wolff as Kincaid

Tony Shalhoub as Lozini

Story Line;

An expert thief rolls out the biggest heist of his life in Play Dirty, an action-packed thriller from director Shane Black. Parker (Mark Wahlberg), along with Grofield (LaKeith Stanfield), Zen (Rosa Salazar) and a skilled crew, stumble onto a score that pits them against the New York mob in this gritty, clever caper.

Thoughts:

This was decent, it had a different story line than most heist movies. My only issue is if the entire crew was killed and the whole point was revenge, why did we agree to work with someone, no matter what the circumstances.

Like most movies made now, it was too long with too much middle. It gets a little over done.

CAUTION; Spoiler Alert

Professional thieves Parker and Philly lead a heist at a racetrack count room, but an employee kills one of the thieves and wounds Philly, driving away with the stolen money and his family. Parker pursues him onto the racetrack and shoots him dead, bribing his wife and escaping with the score. The thieves are betrayed by getaway driver Zen, who shoots Philly and the others as a wounded Parker falls into a nearby river. Recuperating at a motel, Parker promises Philly's widow Grace to avenge her husband.

With help from fellow thief Grofield, who runs a struggling theatre company, Parker tracks down Zen's associate Reggie, who reveals Zen was a member of a death squad in her home country. Her fellow mercenaries kill Reggie and his driver, but Parker forces the surviving gunman to bring him to Zen. Killing her contact Bosco, Parker confronts Zen, who admits she used the racetrack score to fund a new score: Her country's corrupt President De La Paz has hired a crime syndicate, the Outfit, to steal treasure from a shipwreck De La Paz will be displaying at the UN, in order to sell the $1 billion treasure himself.

Parker and Grofield meet with Zen and her comrades, led by Colonel Ortiz, who plan to seize the treasure on behalf of their fellow citizens. Parker, exiled from New York City by the Outfit's leader Lozini, suggests they steal the treasure once the Outfit has stolen it from the UN. Parker and Zen question Bosco's boyfriend, fighting off the Outfit's men, and Parker drops Lozini's lieutenant Kincaid from a window while retrieving Bosco's plans for the UN robbery, hidden inside a stuffed elephant.

Married thieves Ed and Brenda Mackey and getaway driver Stan Devers are recruited for the heist: The Outfit will transport the stolen treasure by automated garbage train, which Parker's crew will derail. Zen attempts to seduce Parker, but her jealous comrade Mateo delivers him to the Outfit. Mateo is killed instead as Zen rescues Parker, and a phone call from Lozini reveals the Outfit is robbing the UN that night, forcing Parker's crew into action.

Posing as MTA workers, Ed and Brenda subdue the Outfit's inside man and hijack the train's switchboard. A drunk Stan crashes the getaway truck and nearly runs over Grofield, who shoots the failsafe brake, derailing the train. Parker, Zen, and Grofield discover the containers of treasure have been replaced with rocks, and Stan is shot in the leg as they flee in a stolen police car.

The crew turn on Parker for being outsmarted by the Outfit, but he convinces them to go after the shipwreck's figurehead worth $500 million. Grofield poses as a suicidal jumper as he and Parker lure Kincaid's bodyguard to the roof, throwing him to his death, and question the injured Kincaid, whose girlfriend reveals the figurehead is being sold to billionaire Phineas Paul. Parker kidnaps Phineas, shooting Mark Cuban in the process, and learn the figurehead is inside a secure facility in Green Brook Township, New Jersey.

Phineas escapes from an inebriated Stan and warns Lozini, who arrives at the facility just as Parker's crew drive off with the figurehead. The thieves escape in a snowy chase but lose the figurehead, which Phineas discovers is a replica. He informs De La Paz, who assumes Lozini has double-crossed him. Lozini and his men return to the facility, where Parker waited until the time-lock on the real vault opened. Destroying the genuine figurehead with explosives rather than let it fall into the wrong hands, Parker kills Lozini and escapes as De La Paz's guards slaughter the Outfit.

Leaving the crew with valuable jewels he saved from the figurehead, Parker confronts Zen, who suggests he join her for a simpler life in her home country, but Parker kills her to avenge Philly and the others. As Phineas and De La Paz's crimes are made public and Ortiz is named the new president, Parker delivers a share of the jewels to Grace, and he and Grofield return to their lives of crime.