Film Review: Wild Card (2015)

Copyright: Lionsgate

Wild Card is one of the films that can be listed under the Neo-Statham movies. In these films, it seems like Jason Statham is trying to slightly get away from his previous batch of action films while he still remains grounded in the action and thriller genres. He tries to make this work by playing action guys who are not into being actions guys, but are into drinking and wasting their life. Redemption is a great example of this trend and it definitely continues with the Wild Card.

In this movie, Statham plays Nick Wild, a washed-out Last Vegas tough guy who works as something between a low-level bodyguard and a private investigator (which he claims he is not). The purpose of these jobs is to allow him to drink and gamble, both of which are going into the red for Nick (although not in a extent of the character Bruce Robertson from the movie Filth).

One day, Holly, one of his friends from the Las Vegas strip nightlife, tells him that she was assaulted and molested by a mobster and his goons and begs him to help her get back at them. Nick is dismissive at first, knowing the connection of the mobster in question, but then reluctantly agrees.

The director of Wild Card, Simon West knew where to take the film’s segments. But then as a whole piece, the film still works as a series of episodes, starring Statham, which are connected by an almost transparent thread. Because of this, the entire film could be called Nick Wild Doing Things in Vegas. But, thanks to West’s large experience with action films in general, he wings through this disjointed story with a lot of style, making it hard for anyone to truly focus on the lacking element of a bigger picture.

Statham’s rocky charm offer assistance in this endeavor by making his character someone who the audience slightly feels pity for, in spite of the fact that he can still single-handedly put down a room full of mob enforcers. The biggest aid to the film’s smooth dynamic is Dominik García-Lorido who plays Holly. In this role, the actress managed to pull off a very substantial character living on the border of the Las Vegas criminal underground. Holly is hurt, afraid and confused, but still willing to risk it all for a taste of revenge.

While this was no easy task, García-Lorido successfully made Holly a real human being on which the cold determination of Nick Wild to mind his business slowly erodes. I hope we will see more of this talented actress in the future because she obviously has plenty to offer. Wild Card movie is fun to watch and its problems never arise so much over this layer of entertainment to have the ability to spoil its thriller action vibe.