Film Review: Jason Statham’s ‘Wild Card’ doesn’t pay off
It’s been roughly 15 years since Jason Statham surfaced in Guy Ritchie’s first two films, “Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels” and “Snatch,” and he hasn’t looked back since. With Stallone, Schwarzenegger and Willis reaching a “certain age” after dominating Hollywood action cinema for more than a decade, there was a vacuum in the Action Hero, Subclass: White locker room, and Statham moved right in to fill it.
He has all the needed qualities: actual martial arts prowess, tough-guy looks, and adequate — probably more than adequate — acting skills. It’s no wonder that he’s a regular in three successful franchises — the “Transporter,” “Expendables,” and “Fast and Furious” series.
The latest of his non-franchise starring vehicles — which also include “Parker,” “Crank,” and “The Mechanic” — is “Wild Card,” directed by Simon West (“Con Air,” “Lara Croft: Tomb Raider”). Statham plays Nick Wild — hence the title, get it? — who, like most Statham characters, is hardened and cynical but not totally devoid of emotions or principles. A former Special Forces warrior, he’s set himself up as a security expert in Las Vegas.
Nick lives in a motel and operates out of a desk in the office of an attorney (Jason Alexander, blink and you’ll miss him). Everybody in town seems to know and respect Nick, so at first it appears odd that he lives such a shabby lifestyle. It stops being odd when we realize that, while he might be making a nice living, Nick suffers from the worst compulsion you can have in Las Vegas — gambling.
The film has two plot threads, which will, of course, converge by the end. In one, a baby-faced, fabulously wealthy computer geek (Michael Angarano) wants Nick to teach him how to be cool and brave and heroic. In the other, one of Nick’s old girlfriends (Dominik Garcia-Lorido) is raped and beaten by highly connected mobster (Milo Ventimiglia); she wants him to locate the guy so she can take revenge.
If you’re old enough, the plot may be familiar. That’s because “Wild Card” is a remake of the 1986 Burt Reynolds film “Heat,” not to be confused with “The Heat” (2013) or Michael Mann’s “Heat” (1995) or, for that matter, Fritz Lang’s “The Big Heat” (1953). The Reynolds film was just one of the bad decisions that fueled that star’s meteoric slide from Number One to something a good deal less grand.
William Goldman, who was the most celebrated and successful screenwriter of the period, wrote the script for that one, based on his own novel, and he does so once again. Based on my 29-years-after-the-fact memory, the changes appear to be minimal.
Veteran Hong Kong filmmaker Cory Yuen — who has worked with Statham half a dozen times before — staged the film’s three fight scenes, which are short, brutal, and sometimes hard to follow because of the insanely fast cutting. Even harder to follow is Statham’s dialogue: between his accent and an affectation of mumbling, it’s easy to miss some important stuff.
Stanley Tucci shows up toward the end and manages to bring some lightness to the otherwise humorless project. The whole affair is moderately entertaining but more than moderately forgettable. The details will fade by the time you make it to the lobby.
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ANDY KLEIN is the film critic for Marquee. He can also be heard on “FilmWeek” on KPCC-FM (89.3).