"Mild" Card

The Stath is all in

You can't blame Jason Statham for trying to break out into new territory. The guy has been doing action films yearly (yes, yearly; I checked) since he exploded as a bonafide action star in The Transporter 13 years ago. Since then, the gruff-voiced and chiseled Brit has turned out quite a list of notable films such as Crank, The Expendables franchise and recently the new Furious 7 . In the last few years,  he has ventured into the drama side lately such as Blitz and Hummingbird (Redemption in the U.S.) from the U.K, and now we have Wild Card from Simon West (director of The Expendables 2), a remake of the 1985 film Heat and based on William Goldman's novel of the same name. Here,

Statham stars as Nick Wild, a recovering gambling addict living in Las Vegas, working as a jack-of-all-trades and taking on several jobs to get by as he works to save up to leave the city for good. One day, Holly (Dominik Garcia-Lorido) a close friend of Nick contacts him and tells him that the previous night, she had a date with three clients at The Golden Nugget. She does not recall who the men were; only that they took advantage of her and beat her up, dumping her at a hospital afterwards. Because Nick knows every dark corner of the city as well having connections with the mob that run it, she wants him to investigate who the three men are so she can sue them. But Nick notices what Holly wants isn't retribution but revenge, and helping her could only put him further away from his wish to leave

Las Vegas forever. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy Jason Statham movies as much as the next guy (especially my dad who's a big fan of the Stath) but much like an oyster, Statham's movies don't always produce a pearl. Sadly, the ones that have had the least bit of success have been from the drama side of his repertoire and unfortunately Wild Card is no different. If you're like me and saw the trailer for this and thought it was an action-oriented type of film, then you were mistaken as well. The movie isn't a complete disaster; the plot did keep me interested but it all ends abruptly (it's less than 90 minutes long), and it reaches its ending by the standard Deus-ex machina method. This was a bummer because I felt the film could have gone on longer, exploring more on Nick's addiction or throw in a few more fight scenes, which brings me to my next point; the final fight is one of the most ridiculous I've ever seen but I'll give the movie credit for coming up with a way to take someone out with just a butter knife and spoon.

There's more to Statham than just the bad-ass persona he's been playing all these years. I know he has the potential to play dramatic roles but when they're unbalanced or cliched like Wild Card, it doesn't really help him flesh out his capacity to bring the character he portrays. Maybe one day we'll see such a film that'll truly tap his potential; until then, Wild Card is a sucker's bet.

-Reviewed by Razor, 4/14/2015