Mark Wahlberg’s Flight Risk has been a critical and commercial dud – but his next film could offer redemption by remaking a brutal Mel Gibson thriller. Flight Risk’s ending didn’t exactly set up a sequel, but the Hitchcockian thriller was still expected to be a much bigger deal than it has proved to be. Flight Risk was roundly panned by critics, with Wahlberg’s performance as a repellent ᴀssᴀssin receiving mixed notices.
The film’s failure marks the latest in a line of Mark Wahlberg action movies to receive a green splat on Rotten Tomatoes, with the likes of The Union and Uncharted also receiving poor reviews. The film also marked the latest collaboration between Wahlberg and Mel Gibson, with the pair having previously collaborated on Daddy’s Home 2 and Father Stu. Flight Risk isn’t a crowning achievement for either, though both Gibson and Wahlberg have plenty of other projects in the works, with Wahlberg’s next being the action thriller Play Dirty.
Flight Risk Wasn’t Worth The 30 Year Wait For A Mark Wahlberg Villain Return
Wahlberg hasn’t played a villain since 1996’s Fear
While 1997’s Boogie Nights is often cited as the film that turned Wahlberg into a movie star, it was the success of Fear the previous year that really established his career. At the time, Wahlberg was trying to escape from the shadow of his Marky Mark persona, and his scene-chewing turn as a sociopathic stalker in Fear made filmmakers see him in a totally new light. Despite giving such a dynamic villain turn in Fear, Flight Risk marked Wahlberg’s first true antagonist role in almost 30 years.
… Wahlberg spends most of Flight Risk unconscious and tied up, and isn’t in the film nearly as much as trailers would have viewers believe.
His return to the dark side built some hype for Flight Risk – as did Walhberg shaving his head for the role – but the film just wasn’t worth the wait. Wahlberg is having fun hamming it up and going mega, but his evil pilot character isn’t neither as funny or as scary as he needs to be. In fact, Wahlberg spends most of Flight Risk unconscious and tied up, and isn’t in the film nearly as much as trailers would have viewers believe.
Flight Risk is (slightly) better than the critical pans it has received, but as Gibson’s first directorial outing in nearly a decade, it’s a big disappointment. The film can’t fully decide if it wants to be campy or serious, and balancing the tones often serves to cancel both out.
Mark Wahlberg’s Play Dirty Can Redeem His Flight Risk Failure
The new Parker movie can wipe the slate clean for Mark Wahlberg
Wahlberg’s next thriller is Play Dirty, an adaptation of the Parker books by Donald E. Westlake (written under the pen name Richard Stark). The film will take elements from several of the novels, including The Hunter, and will see Wahlberg’s Parker being sH๏τ and left for ᴅᴇᴀᴅ before seeking revenge. If Black’s adaptation is true to the Parker novels, Wahlberg’s thief will be a ruthless, cold-hearted killer who is essentially a bad guy that audiences are meant to root for.
In terms of personality, Parker and Wahlberg’s Flight Risk characters couldn’t be further apart. Parker is a professional and a man of few words who never exposes his emotions; Flight Risk’s Booth, on the other hand, is a hyperactive motormouth who just enjoys torture and killing. Parker will be a different type of villain for Wahlberg, who will need to dial back his natural charisma and tendency to crack gags to stay true to the pulp anti-hero.
Before Mark Wahlberg signed on up for Play Dirty, Robert Downey Jr was set to play Parker.
One of the most exciting things about Play Dirty is that it marks the return of director Shane Black for the first time since 2018’s The Predator. Black is a scholar of the types of pulp paperback thrillers that Parker was born from, as Kiss Kiss Bang Bang or The Nice Guys prove. Play Dirty is a perfect project for Black, who has also ᴀssembled a great cast around Wahlberg, including Rosa Salazar, LaKeith Stanfield and Nat Wolff.
Play Dirty Is A Stealth Remake Of Mel Gibson’s Payback
Mel Gibson played “Porter” in this 1999 thriller
Many actors have played Parker onscreen, including Lee Marvin in Point Blank, Robert Duvall in The Outfit or Mel Gibson himself in Payback. This issue with these adaptations is that Westlake refused to allow the name Parker to be used unless producers committed to adapting all the books. That’s why the character is renamed in each entry, with Marvin portraying “Walker” while Gibson played “Porter.” It should be noted that both Point Blank and Payback adapted the debut Parker book The Hunter, which Black’s new movie will also cover.
That makes Play Dirty a soft remake of Gibson’s Payback, though the new film is said to take elements from more than one book. For instance, Stanfield will play Parker’s ally Grofield – who doesn’t appear in the original book at all. Since The Hunter has been adapted more than once, Black will likely make changes to the source material, but the nasty beating heart of the book will likely remain.
Payback was heavily reworked by Mel Gibson before its release, with a new third act written and sH๏τ to make it feel more commercial. In 2006, director Brian Helgeland ᴀssembled his director’s cut Payback: Straight Up, which dropped the reshoots and restored the film’s original darker intent.
In The Hunter and its various adaptations, Parker is sH๏τ and left for ᴅᴇᴀᴅ by his wife and accomplices and leaves a trail of bodies in his wake recovering his stolen money. Payback has laughs, but it’s one of Gibson’s darker action thrillers as Porter is willing to punch, torture and kill to get what’s his; the poster even came with the tagline “Get ready to root for the bad guy.” Play Dirty may take a similar approach to Parker, by making him uncompromising and vicious – though still kind of likable.
Mark Wahlberg’s Play Dirty Could Finally Launch A Parker Movie Series
A franchise has eluded Parker so far
The first movie to finally use the name Parker was the fittingly тιтled Parker from 2013. This starred Jason Statham as the тιтular thief and was very much intended to spawn a series. The Jennifer Lopez co-starring thriller received an overall tepid response though, and while it received a small cult following, sequels didn’t follow. ᴀssuming Play Dirty lives up to its potential, it could finally launch a series of Parker films as Westlake always envisioned.
There’s no shortage of great novels to adapt in this regard, from The Outfit – which formed the basis for the 1973 Robert Duvall film of the same name – or Slayground, which could be summarized as “Die Hard in an abandoned amusement park.” Play Dirty will almost certainly make up for the letdown of Flight Risk; whether it’s popular enough to break the Parker sequel curse is another question entirely.
Source: Rotten Tomatoes
