Does Shane Black's ‘Play Dirty’ Mark the End of Wahlberg’s Flop Era?

Does Shane Black's ‘Play Dirty’ Mark the End of Wahlberg’s Flop Era?

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Shane Black ( Kiss Kiss Bang Bang , The Nice Guys ) is a good director — I’m sure of it — but there’s very little evidence of that in his latest, Play Dirty . He’s also a great screenwriter ( Lethal Weapon franchise), so good that even his bad films ( Last Action Hero , The Long Kiss Goodnight ) have managed to earn cult followings.

What Black has almost always had to elevate those scripts, however, were skilled actors with great timing — Robert Downey Jr., Ryan Gosling, Sam Jackson, and even Mel Gibson at the height of his career. In Play Dirty , he has Mark Wahlberg at the phone-it-in stage of his career and LaKeith Stanfield at the cashing-big-paychecks stage of hi