Wild Card (2015 film)

Plot

Nick Wild (Jason Statham) is a recovering gambling addict who takes odd jobs in Las Vegas as a "chaperone" (his version of a bodyguard) to support his addiction. After helping a client impress a woman (Sofía Vergara), he accepts a proposition from a young man Cyrus Kinnick (Michael Angarano) to show him around Vegas and provide him with protection while he gambles.

While eating at a diner, Nick's waitress friend Roxy (Anne Heche) hands him a message from a woman he knows, Holly (Dominik Garcia-Lorido), who wants him to stop by her house. Holly, a professional escort, explains she had a date the previous night at the Golden Nugget. Afterward, she was brutally raped and beaten by three unknown men in their hotel room. Holly asks Nick to find out who they are so that she can sue them.

Nick discovers that the man responsible for raping Holly is Danny DeMarco (Milo Ventimiglia), a gangster. DeMarco had his two thugs dump her in a hospital car park. Nick goes to the hotel to confront DeMarco, disguised as someone sent by another criminal. A confrontation develops but Nick defends himself, overpowering DeMarco and his men, who are tied up as Nick calls Holly. In the room, Holly contemplates castrating DeMarco, who breaks down and begs her forgiveness, Holly decides to take the $50,000 from DeMarco's desk and leaves.

Holly splits the money with Nick and leaves Las Vegas. Nick takes Cyrus to a casino. Playing blackjack with dealer friend Cassandra (Hope Davis), Nick then goes on a huge winning streak with the next dealer, amassing over a half a million. But when he goes to the cashier, he has a sudden anxiety attack, and loses his winnings as well as his original $25,000 on a single blackjack bet with Cassandra. The next morning, Cyrus, revealed to be a self-made millionaire, wants Nick to mentor him on being brave, but Nick declines. At the bar, DeMarco's men arrive to deliver Nick to DeMarco, but Nick beats them off.

Nick meets with Baby (Stanley Tucci), the mafia boss of Las Vegas. Baby has received a complaint from DeMarco, who claims that Nick broke into his hotel room, pistol-whipped him, and killed two of his men – all to fund his gambling addiction. Baby takes Nick to a room with DeMarco, where Nick tells his side of the story: that DeMarco killed his own men later and that DeMarco bears a cut on his penis. Baby tells DeMarco to drop his pants to prove Nick wrong, but he refuses and leaves.

At the local diner, Cyrus offers Nick a check for $500,000 and a plane ticket to Corsica for what he has learned from Nick. DeMarco and his men appear in the diner. Cyrus shows his newfound manliness by singing loudly as a distraction so Nick can escape. Nick thinks about his sailboat and then kills the thugs and DeMarco with his utensils behind the diner. Afterwards, Cyrus insists Nick take the check and the ticket, and Nick accepts. Nick then drives out of Las Vegas.

Cast

Production

Simon West said that Jason Statham developed the project himself "maybe over five years". At one point, Brian De Palma was slated to direct until West replaced him. West stated:

West said the script filmed was the one Goldman wrote over thirty years ago. He later elaborated:

I rang him up and said, "I'm about to put the record straight and fix this film for you." I did ask him, what's your one piece of advice for me when shooting this? He said, "Just make sure that Nick is the toughest guy you've ever seen in your life." That, I think is his approach – no matter how complicated the character is intellectually, no matter how much dialogue there is, or twists and turns Goldman puts in the script, at the end of the day, he has this one thing that he has above his desk that reminds him what the character should be. It was the same for me – once he told me that, "Nick's the toughest guy in Vegas", every scene informs that. Even when he's not doing anything, everybody in the room knows that, and everybody knows his history, what he's capable of. And so he ultimately doesn't have to do that much, because he is the toughest guy in Vegas.

"“It was nice firstly to have a script that was so set, because on any big movie scripts are constantly in flux," said West. "It also made it easy to sell to actors like Stanley Tucci and Sofia Vergara because their parts were very set out. There’s nothing in the script that’s really aged, there’s no pyrotechnics or technology really.”

Filming

Filming began in early 2013 in New Orleans, Louisiana. The principal photography began in February 2013.

Simon West said the three fights were "character driven".

each one of the action moments is character-driven, so you're right, it builds up. So when it does explode, it's exploding for the right reason. The first one, he's getting back into his old skills – precision fighting. The only way he's going to get out alive is by relying on his old skills. And he's a master of that. The second fight explodes out of anger, and it's really anger at himself for going back to being a gambling addict. They're character-driven fights. Whereas traditionally in action films, they're light relief – they're almost commercial breaks in the story. These ones come out of the situation his character's in, not just that he's in jeopardy and has to fight his way out of it – they're emotional fights.

Marketing

The trailer for Wild Card debuted on December 12, 2014. West later recalled:

Release

Lionsgate released the film in a limited release and through on demand on January 30, 2015.

Box office

Wild Card was not a box office success, making only $6.7 million against a $30 million budget.

Critical reception

Wild Card has generally received negative reviews from film critics. The film currently has a rating of 32% on Rotten Tomatoes. Based on 53 reviews, the film scored an average rating of 4.9 out of 10. The site's consensus states: "Hardcore Jason Statham fans may enjoy parts of Wild Card, but all other action aficionados need not apply."

Betsy Sharkey of the Los Angeles Times gave the film a negative review, calling Wild Card "predictable". She summed up her review by saying that Wild Card "is no royal flush, no full house, no three of a kind. A bust is I think the term I'm searching for".