<Review by: Sailesh Ghelani>

Directed by Simon West. Starring Jason Statham, Dominik García-Lorido, Milo Ventimiglia, Hope Davis, Anne Heche, Michael Angarano, Stanley Tuccil, Sofia Vergara, Jason Alexander

After watching one directionless film, The Boy Next Door, I was subjected to this one. A movie that is as pointless as it is confused.

Where do I begin? This film is probably meant to be a showcase of one man’s misery depicted in a couple of days of bad luck meeting good luck in Las Vegas. It certainly isn’t a platform to display Jason Statham’s acting or fighting abilities since neither get much of a chance or any direction in Wildcard.

Nick Wild (Jason Statham) is a sort of for-hire security guard and odd jobs man in Las Vegas. He has a colourful past but none of it is established. Various people come to him for his skills. A young man named Cyrus (Michael Angarano) needs his body to protect him while he’s out on the town alone in a strange place. Holly (Dominik García-Lorido) approaches him after she’s been raped and beaten up by Danny DeMarco (Milo Ventimiglia) and his goons. At first he’s not so interested in helping but he does even though he makes a huge thing about not helping, which really doesn’t make sense. He doesn’t seem appalled by what has happened to her but then helps her get revenge anyway.

After making an enemy out of DeMarco he goes off with his charge Cyrus and then ends up gambling himself. He wants to win big to go off to Corsica and get a boat and live there in peace. But why these urges to get away we never know. He has a lot of nice women who want the best for him. The craps dealer (Hope Davis) and the lady at the café (Anne Heche) are so nice to him but we never know why. He’s just the local good guy. Even Baby (Stanley Tucci), the underworld boss and manager of the hotel where he kicked ass, doesn’t believe he’s a killer. We all like Jason Statham as the good guy.

Then of course you have DeMarco’s men trying to abduct Nick on several occasions while he’s at the casino but he goes into slo-mo action man mode. These scenes are not very impressive with their jerky camera moves and ho-hum editing.

Where is the film going? You never really find out. What drives Nick and is there anything more. We never find out. Wildcard is just a boring exercise in trying to be different or unpredictable but ends up being pointless.