Wild Card (2015) Jason Statham, Michael Angarano, Dominik Garc?a-Lorido, Hope Davis, Milo Ventimiglia, Max Casella, Stanley Tucci, Sof?a Vergara Movie Review

Wild Card (2015)   2/52/52/52/52/5


Jason Statham in Wild Card (2015)

A Flawed Shuffle

Nick Wild (Jason Statham) is a recovering gambling addict who does a variety of jobs around Las Vegas from providing protection to helping another guy impress his girlfriend. When Nick gets a note to visit a friend, Holly (Dominik Garcia-Lorido), he learns that she was raped and beaten by three men and wants Nick to find out who did it. The thing is that Nick learns that Danny DeMarco (Milo Ventimiglia), a gangster was behind the rape and attack, which makes things very messy for Nick and leads him being called in to see Baby (Stanley Tucci), the mafia boss of Las Vegas.

Imagine you have made a movie about a flawed tough guy who finds himself in deep trouble with the Las Vegas mob when he attempts to help someone who was raped and attacked. And having made and put that movie together you realise that it is a bit too generic, too stereotypical of the good guy hard man taking down the bad guys so you decide to edit it. You cut the storyline up and re order it to almost a point of being completely random whilst throwing in some close up scenes from someone talking on a cell phone to a needle being pulled through a piece of fabric. Surprisingly in the case of "Wild Card" the end result isn't artsy or even that confusing just messy, uninteresting and a bit pretentious with at times the observational camera work making this style over substance.

Of course with this being a Jason Statham movie we have some action and of course Statham growling his way through various scenes acting mean, moody and at times troubled. But whilst there is certainly a graphic nature to the violence with dirty slow motion being used to heighten the impact of blood being spilled and some suggestive scenes which as a man made me cringe it didn't entertain me like a Jason Statham movie would normally do. Even a supporting cast which has the likes of Milo Ventimiglia, Anne Heche and Stanely Tucci can't make this movie come together despite playing their parts well.

What this all boils down to is that "Wild Card" doesn't work as in being entertainment with an engaging storyline and characters. But dissected it is a movie with blood, violence, action and some styling.


LATEST REVIEWS