Prime Video's queuing up the sort of action movie that some critics claim doesn't get made any more – there's been a lot of chatter in recent years about the slow death of mid-budget movies. By that, we mean movies that star established names, but don't cost hundreds of millions of dollars to make, and therefore don't need to earn hundreds of millions at the box office to succeed.
Now, streaming presents a twist on this, obviously, since most of its movies don't ever come to physical cinemas. Still, Prime Video's newest Wahlberg-starring action movie, Play Dirty, is relevant here. It's from director Shane Black, who's made multiple films that some actors have used as examples of great mid-budget projects.
The trailer you can watch above mentions one of these, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, and The Nice Guys definitely stands as an equally valid example, too. Both are action-oriented mystery flicks, and both form part of a filmography that makes Black a bit of a cult hero to fans of quick-witted, darkly funny action flicks.
This time around, with Prime Video (and Amazon's MGM) on board to fund the project, Wahlberg will play an expert thief who's forced to go for his biggest ever score when a job goes wrong. His entanglements with another pro lead him to shoot for a huge score of underwater, literally buried treasure, and it's very clear that he won't be the only one trying to secure it.
One very welcome bit of casting comes in the form of Wahlberg's sidekick, or accomplice, in the movie, who'll be played by the ever-laconic LaKeith Stanfield, who's one of my favourite performers. His work across multiple seasons of Atlanta raised his profile massively, and deservedly so.
How Stanfield and Wahlberg dovetail in terms of chemistry is likely to be what makes Play Dirty sink or swim – the back-and-forth between lead actors has always been what Shane Black movies do best, in their best moments. I'll be extremely interested in how this one reviews when it arrives on 1 October, although I'd expect it to climb Prime Video's charts rapidly at that point regardless.
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