Play Your Cards Right. Jason Statham in 'Wild Card'.

"You've got to know when to hold 'em,

Know when to fold 'em,

Know when to walk away

And know when to run."

                                                                                    

                                                                            -Kenny Rogers 'The Gambler'

Ostensibly it looks likes such a good hand to have been dealt: A William Goldman screenplay (read 'Adventures In The Screen Trade' now if you haven't already), an action director ('Con Air' , 'The Mechanic') who knows how to get a good "performance" out of Jason Statham and the man himself, Statham, willing to go the extra mile and deliver dialogue heavy scenes as much as blows to the face. Sadly, it's not a winning hand. There's something missing that's quite hard to pinpoint. Sadly it falls far short of being the 'Casino' or 'Leaving Las Vegas' of Jason Statham movies. Instead it's the 'Sin City 2' of Statham movies in that it promises to be an exciting reinvention of genre trappings but just tediously regurgitates them instead.

Ex British special forces (of course!) hard man Nick Wild (the name is in the title! geddit?) has a tortured past, a gambling problem and a strict moral code. He works as a sort of hired muscle chaperone in Vegas and gets drawn into trouble with the mob when a girl from his past calls on him for help. So far so every Jason Statham film. What sets it apart is the Vegas location and the writing which flirts with the idea of going down interesting Scorsese/Tarantino roads but pulls short. There is plenty of chat but not much that could be called memorable or quotable. There's a squirm-inducing torture scene but also some silly slow motion ultra-violence with credit cards and coins that wouldn't have looked out of place in an X-men film. There is character development, but nothing that takes us beyond the familiar; nothing that feels different enough to the hundreds of run of the mill trouble-with-the-mob stories already out there.

But it is a nuts and bolts Jason Statham chassis underneath it all and that's good enough for me. It's closer in tone to 'Hummingbird' than the usual 'Transporter', 'Crank', 'Expendables' model and possibly a little too straight-faced to be enjoyable. The strangest about it is that it is actually a re-make of an unremarkable Burt Reynolds vehicle from the mid eighties - also penned by Goldman and based on his own novel. Apart from heightened levels of bone crushing violence it doesn't feel like the script has moved on much at all and you wonder why the author is so drawn to the material.

Even so it is the first Statham movie in a good while and there's nothing wrong with it; just nothing to make it really stand out. I'll probably end up watching it every time it shows up on tv and that's generally the highest plaudit you can give this sort of film.