Wild Card

Released: 2014

MPAA rating: R

Run time: 1 Hr, 32 min.

I'll get this out of the way first:  I like action movies and, among action stars, Jason Statham is one of my favorites.  It's not like I automatically love everything he's in, but he's a favorite.  "Wild Card" is a remake of a Burt Reynolds (also a favorite...showing my age) movie called "Heat".  Statham plays Nick Wild, a Las Vegas bodyguard, who finds himself involved in two separate situations.  First, he is hired by a young, mild-mannered internet millionaire (Michael Agnarano) to protect him while he gambles.  While it becomes clear he doesn't really need protection, Wild is called by a female friend of his, Holly (Dominik Garcia-Lorito, who tells him she was picked up by and abused pretty horribly by a man named Danny DeMarco (Milo Ventimiglia) and would like Nick's help in getting revenge.  This sets the stage for Nick to find himself squared directly against the mob that Danny is affiliated with.  As Statham movies go, this was a good one.  Statham gets to do his usual martial arts ass-kicking and tough guy gimmick, while managing to get a chance to act.  The movie takes some time to actually develop the characters involved and we learn a lot about Nick Wild's weaknesses and obsessions.  He declares that he wants to get out of Vegas for good and find a more relaxing life, but begins to find the only person standing in the way of that dream is himself.  There are some extremely far-fetched gambling sequences, but they are there to set up a bit of a plot twist.  Overall, I liked it a lot.  It moves very quickly and clocks in at just over 90 minutes, so it's not a huge time investment.  Statham gets to do what he does best while mixing in some actual acting.  It's the type of movie that made me a Statham fan.

Grade: B-