Rating summary

Movie		2.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		2.0
Overall		2.0

Wild Card Blu-ray Movie Review

Leaving Las Vegas.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman March 31, 2015

It’s more than a little tempting to utilize the graphic that appears when this Blu-ray is first loading and simply call a spade a spade when it comes to this latest Jason Statham scowl-a-thon. It becomes at least a little more difficult to just casually dismiss Wild Card, though, when one has to come to terms with the fact it was written by William Goldman, one of the most iconic screenwriters of all time (Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid , All the President's Men, Marathon Man and The Princess Bride, to name only a few). Goldman, who has never been shy about offering his sometimes trenchant critiques of both the theater and film industries courtesy of his books The Season and Adventures in the Screen Trade, is obviously not a stupid man, and yet Wild Card, which is based on Goldman’s novel Heat (filmed previously, and eponymously, in 1986 as a Burt Reynolds outing), is resolutely dumb a lot of the time. The basic plot details Statham as a Las Vegas based bodyguard of sorts named Nick Wild. Wild becomes involved with both a young gambler who wants protection as he plies his trade on the vaunted Vegas Strip, as well as a young woman who has been brutally raped by a local gangster. The fact that Statham only gets to strut his action hero stuff in a couple of admittedly visceral fight scenes is just one problem the film struggles to overcome. When a film resorts to a cameo by the inimitable Sofia Vergara, one where she actually continues her shill work for Pepsi products, there’s probably more than enough evidence that even a screenwriter of Goldman’s inestimable talents is on something of a losing streak.

When the original screenplay for Heat was published, Goldman was typically unvarnished in assessing his own achievement, calling the film a “major disaster.” That may have been one reason he wanted to revisit the property, though it would be hard to classify Wild Card as anything much better than a “disappointment,” if not an outright catastrophe. Wild Card is a bit more streamlined than Heat, but presents pretty much the same scenario as the first film, albeit with a slightly more vigorous eye toward some of the smarmier elements of the plot.

A not very surprising prologue of sorts seems to set Nick up as a kind of idiotic interloper in a dispute between a pretty young woman (Vergara) and a dope named Osgood (Max Casella). Director Simon West telegraphs that it’s all a facade, though, long before Goldman’s screenplay does similar service. This odd first glimpse at Nick in action, which frankly has virtually nothing to do with the main plot, at least lets the audience know that Nick is a basically decent guy who is trying to do the right thing. That doesn’t prevent Nick from occasionally exaggerating his skill set (not that it needs much exaggerating, mind you), as in his first interchange with the entitled young gambler named Cyrus Kinnick (Michael Angarano) who wants to hire Nick, ostensibly to be his bodyguard as he marauds through a series of casinos.

Meanwhile a badly beaten young woman is dumped at an emergency room and keeps repeating “Nick” as a kind of mantra as frantic medics attend to her disturbing array of wounds. She turns out to be Holly (Dominik Garcia-Lorido), a woman with a history with Nick (of course), who turns to him for help in exacting her revenge on the goons who raped her and then beat her senseless. While Nick is initially unwilling to help, his conscience gets the better of him, and he starts asking questions, which ultimately leads him to a smarmy gangster wannabe named Danny DeMarco (Milo Ventimiglia). The first real fight scene breaks out in DeMarco’s luxe hotel room, when DeMarco unwisely thinks that Nick can’t contend with DeMarco’s two improbably huge bodyguards. Of course Nick prevails, and ultimately Holly shows up to exact her revenge, which she evidently took from the Lorena Bobbitt playbook (at least in intent if not in actual outcome).

Playing out against all of this interrelated melodrama is Nick’s history with gambling addiction and his desire to get out of Vegas for good. The DeMarco and Kinnick plot arcs of course intersect, with each actually offering Nick a golden ticket of sorts to achieve his dreams. The second of two rather brief if visceral fight scenes finally brings a measure of justice to Nick, and things seem poised for a happy ending of sorts. Wild Card trundles through its paces without much in the way of actual drama, with Statham’s typically laconic persona colliding at times with Goldman’s overwrought dialogue. The film has a number of interesting (and brief) supporting turns by folks like Stanley Tucci (as a Vegas mob boss), Hope Davis (as a blackjack dealer) and Anne Heche (as a waitress), but there’s nothing here that ever really commands attention. In fact, Wild Card in its own way is a lot like a Vegas vacation—it’s loud and occasionally demands attention be paid to it, but there’s very little that resides in memory once it’s over.

Wild Card Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Wild Card is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Lionsgate Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.40:1. Shot digitally with the Red Epic, this presentation struggles at times with both an overall dark demeanor as well as a slavish devotion to blue color grading. Both of these approaches tend to defeat fine detail in wide range and even some midrange shots, though to be fair, things pop surprisingly well in close-ups. Some of the extreme close-ups of elements like tufted playing cards or the green velvet of a craps title offer excellent to superb fine detail, and at times even dimly lit sequences that feature things like close-ups of Statham's face reveal elements like scars and crags quite convincingly. That said, this is a curiously bland offering from a palette perspective. There's very little here that pops in any meaningful way, with even Nick's frequent car trips through the "wonderland" of Vegas looking a bit desaturated and flat. Despite the film's penchant to exploit the blue side of things, and within an understanding of that context, colors look reasonably accurate. There are no issues with image instability and perhaps surprisingly given the film's generally dark ambience, no problems with noise.

Wild Card Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Wild Card benefits from a nicely immersive and at times quite forcefully rendered DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track. The few fight scenes offer well placed sound effects that include the requisite bone crunching noises, and the hustle and bustle of Vegas is nicely captured in scenes both outside and (especially) in the claustrophobic environs of the casinos Nick and Kinnick frequent. Dialogue is presented very cleanly, and is well prioritized above both the sometimes rather busy array of sound effects and Dario Marianelli's enjoyable score.

Wild Card Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Script Vignette (1080p; 5:17) gives some backstory on the script as well as the film's production genesis.


• Original Sin: Las Vegas and the Characters of Wild Card (1080p; 16:26) offers an overview of the main characters.


• Audio Commentary with Director Simon West

Wild Card Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

One might be tempted to point William Goldman toward George Santayana's famous quote, "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." Heat was certainly not one of Goldman's finer achievements, but unfortunately Wild Card isn't much, if any, of an improvement. Probably too talky for the typical Statham fan who may want nothing but nonstop action sequences, but similarly not smart enough to convince those without a Statham fixation, the film is ultimately the cinematic equivalent of a fold. Technical merits are generally very strong for those considering a purchase.