Wild Card

Gamblers watch. If you think that the percentages ar high that a Vegas-set mythical being Jason Statham pic – and one directed by Simon West (The Expendables 2) – can embody legion bone busting and coin machine smashing, then you will wish to lower your bets.

Not that Wild Card doesn’t have a couple of vintage Stathamanical beat downs, with such things as a mastercard, a tablespoon and a combine of garden shears employed in ways in which you may solely imagine. however the action otherwise takes a back seat to boilerplate dramatics and unconventional existential brooding during this underwhelming tho' glibly helmed crime flick, that was custom-made – and not for the primary time – by the good William Goldman (Marathon Man) from his own novel. discharged mid-January in France before going out Stateside at the tip of the month, the film ought to profit on Statham’s loyal fan base, however are going to be a disappointment to anyone longing for a true thrill ride. An opening sequence, wherever Sin town bodyguard Nick Wild (Statham) receives a serious whupping at the hands of a nebbech ladies’ man (Max Casella), reveals that this can not be your typical Statham actioner. There’s definitely nothing wrong therewith, though what comes next isn’t very better: a unconventional mixed bag of Mafioso-fueled plot cliches and vodka-fueled sorrow, as if going away city and hour two had been tossed into a mixer, shaken, stirred and served with manner an excessive amount of ice. Nick’s dream is to form $500K thus he will live to tell the tale a ship in Corsica, however given his defaulter job and depressing motor hotel flat, he’s a protracted manner from his goal. once associate degree previous galfriend (Dominik Garcia-Lorido) rings him up when being savagely ill-treated, Nick can’t facilitate however catch the wrongdoer – a visiting crook (Milo Ventimiglia) shacked up together with his cronies at the Golden lump (which receives some extremely uncomplimentary advertising here – as an alternative some excellent product placement, unfinished on whether or not your vacation plans embody rape, murder or complimentary drink vouchers.) The first brawl happens between Nick and therefore the baddies at round the 40-minute mark, and though it’s well choreographed by Corey Yuen (The Transporter series) and coated by refugee Shelly Johnson (Captain America: The First Avenger) in slow-mo, fast-mo and extreme close-ups, it doesn’t conjure for the general shortage of Adrenalin. Meanwhile, a subplot involving a fervent young American (Michael Angarano) World Health Organization hires Nick to protect him for an evening, isn’t complete enough and finally ends up obtaining born, then picked up once more, once Nick nearly strikes it huge. Indeed, the highlight of untamed Card might not be its trio of fight scenes however the extended gambling sequence wherever Nick bets his future on a couple of hands of blackjack (with Hope Davis cameoing as a musical rhythm native dealer). Statham is sweet at keeping his cards shut as associate degree actor, and manages to make tension here while not doing an excessive amount of. nevertheless even that scene is followed by a ridiculous one that has Nick staring deeply into his soul within the lavatory mirror, then beating the crap out of a hand appliance. Set in contemporary Vegas however entrenched in pic stereotypes (especially the mob stuff) that are around for many years, the script offers up associate degree incongruous  dance band of previous and (slightly) new, as if Emma Goldman stepped in to simply retouch a couple of scenes – of a 1986 book that was created into the psychologist Reynolds starrer Heat – so they might match Statham’s pedigree. The results come short of the latter’s previous collaboration with West, The Mechanic, whose doses of unreal combat created up for its general lack of subtlety. Here the team doesn’t quite deliver on the action front, whereas the story of Nick’s booze-soaked redemption fails to bewitch. By doubling down on a pic that yearns to be each self-examining and bone-crunchingly cool, Wild Card overplays its hand.

• Opens: Wednesday, Jan. 14, (in France); Fri, Jan. 30 (in U.S.)
• Production companies: SJ Heat Productions, in association with Sierra / Affinity, Cinema Seven Productions
• Cast: mythical being Statham, archangel Angarano, milo maize Ventimiglia, Dominik Garcia-Lorido, Anne Heche, Serdica Vergara, scoop Casella, mythical being Alexander, Stanley Tucci, Hope Davis
• Director: Simon West
• Screenwriter: William Emma Goldman, supported his novel “Heat”
• Producer: Steve Chasman
• Executive producers: Nick Meyer, brandy Schaberg, Cassian Elwes, Henry M. Robert peer, Brian Pitt, Jib Polhemus
• Director of photography: Shelly Johnson
• Production designer: Greg Berry
• Costume designer: Lizz Wolf
• Editors: MPadriac McKinley, Thomas J. Nordberg
• Composer: Dario Marianelli
• Casting director: Barbara Fiorentino
• Action choreography: Corey Yuen
• Sales: Sierra / Affinity
• R rating, 91 minutes

source:http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/review/wild-card-film-review-763588

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