Wild Card

An adaptation of William Goldman’s novel Heat, Wild Card follows Jason Statham’s Nick Wild, a Las Vegas bodyguard with a gambling problem, as he agrees to help a friend (Dominik García-Lorido’s Holly) get revenge on the man (Milo Ventimiglia’s Danny) who brutalized and raped her – with problems naturally ensuing after said man and his goons return for vengeance of their own. Though billed as just another mindless Statham actioner, Wild Card ultimately comes off as more of a slow-paced character study than anything else – as filmmaker Simon West, working from Goldman’s screenplay, offers up a surprisingly uneventful first half lacking in elements designed to lure the viewer into the lackadaisical narrative. It doesn’t help, either, that Goldman’s episodic structure prevents the movie from working up any real momentum, with this reflected prominently in the film’s general tendency to lurch from one barely-engrossing sequence to the next (eg there’s far too much emphasis on Nick’s efforts to protect a less-than-macho gambler). The far-from riveting atmosphere persists right up until Nick confronts Ventimiglia’s brash, thoroughly villainous character, with the inevitable confrontation that ensues injecting the proceedings with a much-needed jolt of energy and electricity. And although West throws in a couple more equally enthralling fight sequences – there is, for example, a fantastic skirmish late towards the end that’s nothing short of riveting – Wild Card is, even in its second half, dominated by sequences in which Nick attempts to battle his gambling and drinking addictions. A late-in-the-game, scene-stealing appearance by Stanley Tucci as a feared mob boss ensures, at the very least, that the movie ends on a positive note, and yet it’s difficult not to have expected something more given the strength of West and Statham’s first collaboration, 2011’s The Mechanic.

**1/2 out of ****