Wild Card (2015) [Blu-ray]
Action | Crime | Drama | Thriller

Tagline: Never bet against a man with a killer hand

Nick Wild (Jason Statham) is a Las Vegas bodyguard with lethal professional skills and a personal gambling problem. When a friend is beaten by a sadistic thug, Nick strikes back, only to find out the thug is the son of a powerful mob boss. Suddenly Nick is plunged into the criminal underworld, chased by enforcers and wanted by the mob. Having raised the stakes, Nick has one last play to change his fortunes... and this time, it's all or nothing.

Storyline: Nick Wild (Jason Statham) is a Las Vegas bodyguard with lethal professional skills and a personal gambling problem. When a friend is beaten by a sadistic thug, Nick strikes back, only to find out the thug is the son of a powerful mob boss. Suddenly Nick is plunged into the criminal underworld, chased by enforcers and wanted by the mob. Having raised the stakes, Nick has one last play to change his fortunes...and this time, it's all or nothing. Written by Lionsgate

Reviewer's Note: Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman, March 31, 2015 -- It's more than a little tempting to utilize the graphic that appears when this Blu-ray is first loading and simply call a spade a spade when it comes to this latest Jason Statham scowl-a-thon. It becomes at least a little more difficult to just casually dismiss Wild Card, though, when one has to come to terms with the fact it was written by William Goldman, one of the most iconic screenwriters of all time (Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid , All the President's Men, Marathon Man and The Princess Bride, to name only a few). Goldman, who has never been shy about offering his sometimes trenchant critiques of both the theater and film industries courtesy of his books The Season and Adventures in the Screen Trade, is obviously not a stupid man, and yet Wild Card, which is based on Goldman's novel Heat (filmed previously, and eponymously, in 1986 as a Burt Reynolds outing), is resolutely dumb a lot of the time. The basic plot details Statham as a Las Vegas based bodyguard of sorts named Nick Wild. Wild becomes involved with both a young gambler who wants protection as he plies his trade on the vaunted Vegas Strip, as well as a young woman who has been brutally raped by a local gangster. The fact that Statham only gets to strut his action hero stuff in a couple of admittedly visceral fight scenes is just one problem the film struggles to overcome. When a film resorts to a cameo by the inimitable Sofia Vergara, one where she actually continues her shill work for Pepsi products, there's probably more than enough evidence that even a screenwriter of Goldman's inestimable talents is on something of a losing streak.

When the original screenplay for Heat was published, Goldman was typically unvarnished in assessing his own achievement, calling the film a "major disaster." That may have been one reason he wanted to revisit the property, though it would be hard to classify Wild Card as anything much better than a "disappointment," if not an outright catastrophe. Wild Card is a bit more streamlined than Heat, but presents pretty much the same scenario as the first film, albeit with a slightly more vigorous eye toward some of the smarmier elements of the plot.

A not very surprising prologue of sorts seems to set Nick up as a kind of idiotic interloper in a dispute between a pretty young woman (Vergara) and a dope named Osgood (Max Casella). Director Simon West telegraphs that it's all a facade, though, long before Goldman's screenplay does similar service. This odd first glimpse at Nick in action, which frankly has virtually nothing to do with the main plot, at least lets the audience know that Nick is a basically decent guy who is trying to do the right thing. That doesn't prevent Nick from occasionally exaggerating his skill set (not that it needs much exaggerating, mind you), as in his first interchange with the entitled young gambler named Cyrus Kinnick (Michael Angarano) who wants to hire Nick, ostensibly to be his bodyguard as he marauds through a series of casinos.

Meanwhile a badly beaten young woman is dumped at an emergency room and keeps repeating "Nick" as a kind of mantra as frantic medics attend to her disturbing array of wounds. She turns out to be Holly (Dominik Garcia-Lorido), a woman with a history with Nick (of course), who turns to him for help in exacting her revenge on the goons who raped her and then beat her senseless. While Nick is initially unwilling to help, his conscience gets the better of him, and he starts asking questions, which ultimately leads him to a smarmy gangster wannabe named Danny DeMarco (Milo Ventimiglia). The first real fight scene breaks out in DeMarco's luxe hotel room, when DeMarco unwisely thinks that Nick can't contend with DeMarco's two improbably huge bodyguards. Of course Nick prevails, and ultimately Holly shows up to exact her revenge, which she evidently took from the Lorena Bobbitt playbook (at least in intent if not in actual outcome).

Playing out against all of this interrelated melodrama is Nick's history with gambling addiction and his desire to get out of Vegas for good. The DeMarco and Kinnick plot arcs of course intersect, with each actually offering Nick a golden ticket of sorts to achieve his dreams. The second of two rather brief if visceral fight scenes finally brings a measure of justice to Nick, and things seem poised for a happy ending of sorts. Wild Card trundles through its paces without much in the way of actual drama, with Statham's typically laconic persona colliding at times with Goldman's overwrought dialogue. The film has a number of interesting (and brief) supporting turns by folks like Stanley Tucci (as a Vegas mob boss), Hope Davis (as a blackjack dealer) and Anne Heche (as a waitress), but there's nothing here that ever really commands attention. In fact, Wild Card in its own way is a lot like a Vegas vacation—it's loud and occasionally demands attention be paid to it, but there's very little that resides in memory once it's over.

One might be tempted to point William Goldman toward George Santayana's famous quote, "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." Heat was certainly not one of Goldman's finer achievements, but unfortunately Wild Card isn't much, if any, of an improvement. Probably too talky for the typical Statham fan who may want nothing but nonstop action sequences, but similarly not smart enough to convince those without a Statham fixation, the film is ultimately the cinematic equivalent of a fold. Technical merits are generally very strong for those considering a purchase.

[CSW] -2.8- Not bad for a remake of the old Burt Reynolds movie Heat. Kept much of the original plot, but with Jason you get better action. Bert did decent in his, but he was already beyond his ability to convince the viewers he was capable of that type of fighting. Jason is very believable. Good story with good action/revenge. Slows down during a much too long black jack scene, but before and after is entertaining. The philosophy is a bit thin as part of the ending storyline but then the action takes over and you forget everything else. It is a great popcorn movie for any time of day.
[V4.0-A4.5] MPEG-4 AVC - D-Box .../10. There are supposed to be motion codes for this title but they could not be found for this edition.


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