Every Shane Black Movie, Ranked Worst To Best (Including Play Dirty)

There are a few key hints that you are watching a movie featuring the involvement of Shane Black. The biggest tip-off is the narrative taking place during the Christmas season while others include snappy, bantering dialogue, twisty plotting, and an overall pulp crime noir fiction vibe. Now, for the purposes of this list, we’re focusing solely on his directorial output, but there’s a strong argument to be made that his previous work as a screenwriter was just as compelling if not more so. After all, he was the highest-paid screenwriter in the world in the ’90s, first breaking the record with his $1.75 million sale of The Last Boy Scout before then breaking the same record with the $4 million sale of The Long Kiss Goodnight.

Even still, we left out the five movies he wrote before making his directorial debut. Specifically, the aforementioned The Last Boy Scout and The Long Kiss Goodnight as well as Last Action Hero, The Monster Squad, and his debut, Lethal Weapon.

5) The Predator

While Black is mostly known for his behind-the-scenes work, he has acted on occasion. The most notable example of this is as Hawkins in Predator, aka the joker paramilitary team member who finds himself at the business end of the Yautja’s wrist blades before his teammates face the same fate. Black also contributed a few jokes to the script and, considering Hawkins is the only one who really jokes in Predator, it’s somewhat fair to say that Black was often speaking his own dialogue.

31 years after Predator seamlessly merged action and horror, he got his chance to craft a Yautja movie from top to bottom and the result is, quite unfortunately, a disaster. On one hand The Predator was torn apart by studio interference, resulting in a final product that is both incoherent and far from what Black intended. On the other hand, what’s here never shows many signs of having been one of the IPs better installments even if it had been front to back Black. The baffling autism plot thread alone makes one question just how good this movie could have been if it were released as intended.

Stream The Predator on Hulu.

4) Play Dirty

Like Parker (2013) starring Jason Statham, Play Dirty is based on the “Parker” novel series by Donald E. Westlake. And, while tonally different, Play Dirty is just about on the same level as Parker. It balances a heist, revenge, and comedy fairly well but never rises above a one-time-viewing Saturday afternoon movie.

This movie was originally supposed to be led by Robert Downey Jr. (whose Team Downey is still one of the production companies behind it) and it’s fairly hard to imagine if even he could have saved it from mediocrity. If anything, this is actually a more than suitable Mark Wahlberg vehicle. He gets to have swagger, he gets to plan a heist Italian Job-style, and he sells his camaraderie with LaKeith Stanfield’s Grofield. But at the end of the day the movie belongs to Rosa Salazar, whose Zen is the only truly layered and compelling character of the lot, and per usual Salazar does a wonderful job of making her a complex but likable individual.

Stream Play Dirty on Prime Video.

3) Iron Man 3

Your mileage may vary when it comes to Iron Man 3. When it comes to the first two phases of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (perhaps even beyond that) there is no installment more divisive than the first follow-up to The Avengers.

It’s only fitting that Iron Man 3 ends up at the middle of our list here. It’s not as horrendous as its most ardent detractors would have you believe but it does suffer from a few key issues. Its pacing can be a little uneven, Tony Stark’s dynamic with Ty Simpkins’ Harley Keener comes across as too mean-spirited, and the fire-breathing Guy Pearce moment is dangerously close to the MCU’s first true shark jump. Even still, points for Black and Downey Jr. trying something new with such a highly anticipated trilogy capper.

Stream Iron Man 3 on Disney+.

2) Kiss Kiss Bang Bang

Black is never better than when he’s creating an off-beat noir mystery from the ground up. The only thing that gives that particular talent a run for its money is his ability to create two characters who both get on one another’s nerves but also hold a certain type of begrudged respect for their newfound partner.

Both of the top two spots on our list fit both of those bills. Why does Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, Black’s directorial debut, come in second? The mystery isn’t quite as compelling as the one from the film listed just below. The camaraderie between Downey Jr. and the late Val Kilmer, however, is just as top-notch as the dynamic we’re about to cover.

1) The Nice Guys

The Nice Guys is Black firing on all cylinders. But it’s not just his airtight direction and sterling script that make this film such a rewatchable treasure.

The auteur’s biting sense of humor and firm grasp of curveballs is what gives the movie its perpetual forward momentum, sure, but it’s the unlikely pairing of a quivering Ryan Gosling and a tough but run over by life Russell Crowe that really sells every ounce of Black’s vision. Other shoutouts are due Black’s meticulous reconstruction of late ’70s Los Angeles and Angourie Rice, who at 13 years old showed herself more than capable of holding the screen alongside two Hollywood legends.