Plot
When a Las Vegas bodyguard with lethal skills and a gambling problem gets in trouble with the mob, he has one last play...and it's all or nothing.
Release Year: 2015
Rating: 6.8/10 (577 voted)
Critic's Score: 39/100
Director: Simon West
Stars: Jason Statham, Michael Angarano, Dominik García-Lorido
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. From two-time Academy® Award-winning writer William Goldman (Best Original Screenplay, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, 1969; Best Adapted Screenplay, All the President's Men, 1976).
Writers: William Goldman, William Goldman
Cast: Jason Statham -
Nick Wild
Michael Angarano -
Cyrus Kinnick
Dominik García-Lorido -
Holly
Hope Davis -
Cassandra
Milo Ventimiglia -
Danny DeMarco
Max Casella -
Osgood
Stanley Tucci -
Baby
Jason Alexander -
Pinky
Sofía Vergara -
DD
Anne Heche -
Roxy
François Vincentelli -
Benny
Chris Browning -
Tiel
Matthew Willig -
Kinlaw
Davenia McFadden -
Millicent
Michael Papajohn -
Pit Boss
Taglines:
Never bet against a man with a killer hand
Trivia: William Goldman's first screenplay in eleven years. See more »
User Review
Author:
Rating: 4/10
Jason Statham movies come with certain, modest expectations. "Wild
Card," in which Jason Statham plays a character named Nick Wild, only
adds to those expectations. And so, it's a bit baffling that this
second attempt (the first is a mostly forgotten 1986 Burt Reynolds
vehicle) at bringing William Goldman's novel "Heat" to the big screen —
adapted by the legendary screenwriter himself — seems uncertain what to
do with the star, or the material. Trying to find a middle ground
between an action packed Statham vehicle, a '70s style mood piece, and
a '90s era character-actor packed crime tale, "Wild Card" is not
surprisingly an unsuccessful marriage of those ill-fitting genres that
strains to fill the already meagre, barely ninety minute run time with
anything of substance.
"...do not waste the audience's time. Bring the Inciting Incident into
the story as soon as possible," screen writing guru Robert McKee told
Storylink in 2009, and he would certainly disapprove of how long things
take to get rolling in "Wild Card." After a mostly unnecessary opening
sequence which serves little purpose except to show off Sofia Vergara
in a very form fitting sweater, the film unhurriedly establishes that
Nick Wild is one of those Las Vegas guys who drifted into town and
never left, knows everybody, but is going nowhere. He works as a
security consultant for lawyer Pinky Zion (Jason Alexander), and while
he has some casual acquaintances — the closest being diner waitress
Roxy (Anne Heche) — he mostly keeps everyone at a distance, and harbors
idle drams of leaving Nevada and sailing in Corsica. But two people
enter his life and shake things. The first is Cyrus (Michael Angarano),
a quiet, verbose, and wealthy young man who hires Nick to show him
around town and double as his bodyguard. The other is Nick's friend,
Holly (Dominik García-Lorido), who has a far more important request —
find the men who raped and beat her, "soften them up," and then lead
her to them so she can exact revenge.
As the nifty "The Bank Job" proved, Statham is capable of working in a
much more dialed-down mode when required, but he's not an actor who can
elevate material. It needs to be there on the page first, and it's just
not there in Goldman's script. What's more frustrating is to see the
array of talent (which also includes Stanley Tucci, Hope Davis, and Max
Casella), most of whom show up for one or two scenes and exit the
movie, so thoroughly wasted, particularly when the characters are this
promising. "Wild Card," mostly taking place in second-rate casinos and
in establishments far off the main strip of Las Vegas, creates a great
world for this film, but forgets to deliver a story worth telling, or
even attempts to give any meaning or weight to certain creative
decisions, like setting the film around Christmas, another tired genre
trope trotted out for no significant purpose. Should someone even dare
a third attempt with this material, I'd advise taking it to television,
ditching Goldman's script, keeping the characters, and turn it into an
old-school flavored weekly procedural, with Nick tackling a fresh
assignment each week. "Wild Card" certainly didn't need to reinvent the
wheel, but the film doesn't even bring a full deck of cards to play
with.
Even if the content of "Wild Card" leaves much to be desired, visually
the film is at least a bit more inspired. Cinematographer Shelly
Johnson ("Captain America: The First Avenger," "The Expendables 2")
avoids the usually glossy depictions of Las Vegas, and opts for a look
that captures the grimier feeling of the off-the-beaten-path corners of
the hedonist mecca, with the daytime exteriors sun baked and
desaturated, and the interiors feeling palpably like the kind of places
that are cleaned once a week instead once a day. But it's still not
enough to hide the fact that "Wild Card" doesn't even have enough chips
to play at the lowest stakes table.
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