Wild Card (2015)
2015
R
92 Minutes
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.
User Review
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Wild Card gambles its drama for pointless action. Just when I thought Statham was choosing better roles as he got older and more experienced, he still settles for annoyingly dull rubbish like this. Now, that might sound harsh, but there was potential here for decent drama given the themes of gambling addiction and alcoholism. Alas, we get a muddled narrative that delivers a royal flush in actually delivering nothing. An ex-bodyguard attempts to escape Las Vegas but keeps getting drawn back to the flashing lights of its grand casinos. There's a useless introductory scene involving a terrible performance from Vergara, that highlights the alcohol addiction of Statham's character. A wealthy boy, yet another terrible performance from Angarano, shows up and wants a tour of the casinos. A woman gets assaulted, to which Statham confronts the abuser. Tucci is in it for two minutes. A plethora of pointless slow motion snoozefests. And yet here I am thinking to myself "these scenarios mean nothing!". There is absolutely no narrative cohesion whatsoever. Just random scenes stringed together set in Las Vegas. It was as if the screenwriter was playing "52 card pickup". Potential was present though, as there is a decent twenty minute scene with the main character winning half a million dollars and unable to escape the temptation of gambling it all away. If the theme of gambling was prevalent throughout, this could've been an excellent character study. Statham gives a good performance, but director West just had to put action in it. I can't believe I'm saying this, but for the first time in a Statham flick there should not have been any action. It detracts from the realism and drama of the whole story. It's frustrating, as the production and the pacing are absolutely fine. Decent even! But the story, supporting cast and themes were poorer than an individual losing all of their hard earned money on a roulette wheel. The box office numbers evidently show this.0 member like this review.
