''Wild Card'' is a 2015 American
action thriller film
Action film is a film genre in which the protagonist is thrust into a series of events that typically involve violence and physical feats. The genre tends to feature a mostly resourceful hero struggling against incredible odds, which include life ...
directed by
Simon West
Simon Alexander West (born 1961) is an English film director and producer. He has primarily worked in the action genre, most notably as the director of the films ''Con Air'', '' Lara Croft: Tomb Raider'', '' The Mechanic'', and ''The Expendab ...
and starring
Jason Statham
Jason Statham (; born 26 July 1967) is an English actor. He is known for portraying characters in various action-thriller films who are typically tough, hardboiled, gritty, or violent.
Statham began practising Chinese martial arts, kickboxing ...
,
Michael Angarano
Michael Anthony Angarano (born December 3, 1987) is an American actor. He became known for his roles in the film ''Music of the Heart'' (1999) and the television series '' Cover Me'' (2000–2001), as well as for playing a recurring role as Elli ...
,
Milo Ventimiglia
Milo Anthony Ventimiglia (, ; born July 8, 1977) is an American actor. Making his screen acting debut on ''The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air'' in 1995, he portrayed the lead role on the short-lived series '' Opposite Sex'' in 2000 before landing his br ...
,
Dominik Garcia-Lorido
Dominic is a name common among Roman Catholics and other Latin-Romans as a male given name. Originally from the late Roman-Italic name "Dominicus", its translation means "Lordly", "Belonging to God" or "of the Master". Variations include: Domini ...
,
Anne Heche
Anne Celeste Heche ( ; May 25, 1969August 11, 2022) was an American actress, known for her roles in a variety of genres in film, television, and theater, receiving numerous accolades, including a National Board of Review Award and multiple Emmy ...
, and
Sofia Vergara
Sofia ( ; bg, София, Sofiya, ) is the capital and largest city of Bulgaria. It is situated in the Sofia Valley at the foot of the Vitosha mountain in the western parts of the country. The city is built west of the Iskar river, and ha ...
. Based on the 1985 novel ''
Heat
In thermodynamics, heat is defined as the form of energy crossing the boundary of a thermodynamic system by virtue of a temperature difference across the boundary. A thermodynamic system does not ''contain'' heat. Nevertheless, the term is al ...
'' by
William Goldman
William Goldman (August 12, 1931 – November 16, 2018) was an American novelist, playwright, and screenwriter. He first came to prominence in the 1950s as a novelist before turning to screenwriting. He won Academy Awards for his screenplays '' ...
, it is a remake of
the 1986 adaptation that starred
Burt Reynolds
Burton Leon Reynolds Jr. (February 11, 1936 – September 6, 2018) was an American actor, considered a sex symbol and icon of 1970s American popular culture.
Reynolds first rose to prominence when he starred in television series such as ' ...
. The film was released in the United States on January 30, 2015 in a
limited release
__FORCETOC__
Limited theatrical release is a film distribution strategy of releasing a new film in a few theaters across a country, typically art house theaters in major metropolitan markets. Since 1994, a limited theatrical release in the Unite ...
and through
video on demand
Video on demand (VOD) is a media distribution system that allows users to access videos without a traditional video playback device and the constraints of a typical static broadcasting schedule. In the 20th century, broadcasting in the form of o ...
.
''Wild Card'' received negative reviews and was a
box-office bomb
A box-office bomb, or box-office disaster, is a film that is unprofitable or considered highly unsuccessful during its theatrical run. Although any film for which the production, marketing, and distribution costs combined exceed the revenue after ...
, making only $6.7 million worldwide against a $30 million budget.
Plot
Nick Wild is a recovering
gambling addict who takes odd jobs in
Las Vegas
Las Vegas (; Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the state of Nevada, and the county seat of Clark County. The city anchors the Las Vegas ...
as a "''
chaperone''" (his version of a
bodyguard
A bodyguard (or close protection officer/operative) is a type of security guard, government law enforcement officer, or servicemember who protects a person or a group of people — usually witnesses, high-ranking public officials or officers, w ...
) to support his addiction. After helping a client impress a woman, he accepts a proposition from a young man, Cyrus Kinnick, to show him around Vegas and provide protection while he gambles.
While eating at a diner, Nick's waitress friend Roxy hands him a message from a woman he knows, Holly, 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, a gangster, who had two of his thugs dump her in a hospital car park. Nick goes to the hotel to confront DeMarco and a confrontation develops, resulting in Nick overpowering DeMarco and his men, who are tied up. Nick calls Holly, who contemplates castrating DeMarco, who then breaks down and begs her forgiveness. Holly decides to just 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 and whilst playing
blackjack
Blackjack (formerly Black Jack and Vingt-Un) is a casino banking game. The most widely played casino banking game in the world, it uses decks of 52 cards and descends from a global family of casino banking games known as Twenty-One. This fami ...
with dealer friend Cassandra, Nick goes on a huge winning streak with the next dealer, amassing over a half a million dollars. But when he goes to the cashier, he has a sudden anxiety attack and decides to keep on gambling, eventually losing all 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 fends them off.
Nick meets with Baby, 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, to save face after begging for his life, 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
Corsica ( , Upper , Southern ; it, Corsica; ; french: Corse ; lij, Còrsega; sc, Còssiga) is an island in the Mediterranean Sea and one of the 18 regions of France. It is the fourth-largest island in the Mediterranean and lies southeast of ...
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
*
Jason Statham
Jason Statham (; born 26 July 1967) is an English actor. He is known for portraying characters in various action-thriller films who are typically tough, hardboiled, gritty, or violent.
Statham began practising Chinese martial arts, kickboxing ...
as Nick Wild
*
Michael Angarano
Michael Anthony Angarano (born December 3, 1987) is an American actor. He became known for his roles in the film ''Music of the Heart'' (1999) and the television series '' Cover Me'' (2000–2001), as well as for playing a recurring role as Elli ...
as Cyrus Kinnick
*
Milo Ventimiglia
Milo Anthony Ventimiglia (, ; born July 8, 1977) is an American actor. Making his screen acting debut on ''The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air'' in 1995, he portrayed the lead role on the short-lived series '' Opposite Sex'' in 2000 before landing his br ...
as Danny DeMarco
*
Dominik Garcia-Lorido
Dominic is a name common among Roman Catholics and other Latin-Romans as a male given name. Originally from the late Roman-Italic name "Dominicus", its translation means "Lordly", "Belonging to God" or "of the Master". Variations include: Domini ...
as Holly
*
Anne Heche
Anne Celeste Heche ( ; May 25, 1969August 11, 2022) was an American actress, known for her roles in a variety of genres in film, television, and theater, receiving numerous accolades, including a National Board of Review Award and multiple Emmy ...
as Roxy
*
Sofía Vergara
Sofía Margarita Vergara Vergara (; born July 10, 1972) is a Colombian and American actress and model. She was the highest paid actress in American television from 2013 to 2020. as DD
*
Max Casella
Max Casella (born Maximilian Deitch; June 6, 1967) is an American actor. He is known for his roles on the television series ''Doogie Howser, M.D.'', ''The Sopranos'', ''Boardwalk Empire'', ''Vinyl'', '' Cro'' and the voice of Daxter in the ''Jak ...
as Osgood
*
Jason Alexander
Jay Scott Greenspan (born September 23, 1959), known professionally as Jason Alexander, is an American actor, comedian, host and director. An Emmy and Tony winner, he is best known for his role as George Costanza in the television series '' Se ...
as Pinky
* Francois Vincentelli as Benny
* Daviena McFadden as Millicent
*
Chris Browning
Christopher Jay Browning (born March 8, 1964) is an American television and film actor, known for film work and character roles.
Career
Browning began his acting career in 1987, at age 22 or 23, with a sitcom television series. Due to his drug ...
as Tiel
*
Matthew Willig
Matthew Joseph Willig (born January 21, 1969) is an American actor and former American football offensive tackle in the National Football League.
Early life and education
Willig was born in La Mirada, California. He played football and basketb ...
as Kinlaw
* Grieice Santo as Cocktail Waitress
*
Hope Davis
Hope Davis is an American actress. She is known for her performances on stage and screen earning various awards and nominations including a Tony Award nomination, as well two Primetime Emmy Awards, and two Golden Globe Award nominations.
She ...
as Cassandra
*
Stanley Tucci
Stanley Tucci Jr. ( ; born November 11, 1960) is an American actor and filmmaker. Involved in acting from a young age, he made his film debut in John Huston's ''Prizzi's Honor'' (1985), and continued to play a variety of supporting roles in film ...
as Baby
*
Michael Papajohn
Michael Papajohn (born November 7, 1964) is an American character actor, stuntman and former college baseball player for the LSU Tigers baseball team. He played Dennis Carradine in Sam Raimi's ''Spider-Man'' trilogy.
Early life
Papajohn was b ...
as Pit Boss
*
Lara Grice
Lara Grice (born August 11, 1971) is an American actress, who has appeared in more than 50 movies, notable ''The Reaping'' (2007), ''The Final Destination'' (2009), ''Girls Trip'' (2017) and '' Body Cam'' (2020). On television, Grice had a recur ...
as First Doctor
Production
Simon West
Simon Alexander West (born 1961) is an English film director and producer. He has primarily worked in the action genre, most notably as the director of the films ''Con Air'', '' Lara Croft: Tomb Raider'', '' The Mechanic'', and ''The Expendab ...
said that
Jason Statham
Jason Statham (; born 26 July 1967) is an English actor. He is known for portraying characters in various action-thriller films who are typically tough, hardboiled, gritty, or violent.
Statham began practising Chinese martial arts, kickboxing ...
developed the project himself "maybe over five years".
At one point,
Brian De Palma
Brian Russell De Palma (born September 11, 1940) is an American film director and screenwriter. With a career spanning over 50 years, he is best known for his work in the suspense, crime and psychological thriller genres. De Palma was a leading ...
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
, 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
Lions Gate Entertainment Corporation, doing business as Lionsgate, is a Canadian-American entertainment company. It was formed by Frank Giustra on July 10, 1997, domiciled in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada and is currently headquartered ...
released the film in a
limited release
__FORCETOC__
Limited theatrical release is a film distribution strategy of releasing a new film in a few theaters across a country, typically art house theaters in major metropolitan markets. Since 1994, a limited theatrical release in the Unite ...
and through
on demand
On-demand or on demand may refer to:
Manufacturing
* Build-on-demand
* Just-in-time manufacturing, a methodology for production
* Print on demand, printing technology and business process in which new copies of a document are not printed until an ...
on January 30, 2015.
Reception
Box office
''Wild Card'' was a
box office bomb
A box-office bomb, or box-office disaster, is a film that is unprofitable or considered highly unsuccessful during its theatrical run. Although any film for which the production, marketing, and distribution costs combined exceed the revenue after ...
, making only $6.7 million against a $30 million budget.
Critical response
''Wild Card'' has generally received negative reviews from film critics. On
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...
the film has an approval rating of 32% based on reviews from 56 critics, with an average rating of 4.85 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." On
Metacritic
Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...
the film has a score of 40 out of 100 based on reviews from 19 critics.
Betsy Sharkey of the ''
Los Angeles Times
The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...
'' 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".
References
External links
*
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wild Card
2015 films
2015 action thriller films
Remakes of American films
American action thriller films
American rape and revenge films
Films scored by Dario Marianelli
Films based on adaptations
Films based on American crime novels
Films based on works by William Goldman
Films directed by Simon West
Films set in the Las Vegas Valley
Films shot in Corsica
Films shot in the Las Vegas Valley
Films shot in New Orleans
Films with screenplays by William Goldman
Gambling films
Lionsgate films
Cultural depictions of the Mafia
Works about the American Mafia
Italian-American culture
Films about the American Mafia
2010s English-language films
2010s American films