ORIGINAL VS. REMAKE: HEAT VS. WILD CARD!
HEAT (1986) ** ½
Heat gets things started with a terrific opening scene. Burt Reynolds plays a down and out bodyguard-for-hire named Nick “Mex” Escalante who is spending his evening getting shitfaced in a bar. He sees a blonde in a booth and begins hitting on her. When her boyfriend objects, Burt steals the guy’s toupee and taunts him with it.
This of course offers the audience a perverse thrill, seeing a guy famous for his toupee making fun of someone else for wearing one.
In a shocking turn of events, the wimpy guy actually beats Burt up in a long fight scene! Turns out he paid Burt to let him beat him up so he’ll look tough in front of his wife! This scene gets the movie off and running. However, it never really finds anywhere to go.
Nick gets hired by a rich guy (Peter MacNicol) to teach him self-defense. Later, a hooker (Karen Young) gets beat up by a connected low level hood and hires Nick to find him. (“I want his nuts in my hands!”) Together, they rough the guy up and teach him a lesson, but he soon comes after Nick, which leads to a pretty cool showdown in an abandoned warehouse.
The script was written by William (All the President’s Men) Goldman and was based on his novel. Originally, Robert Altman was supposed to direct the film. Dick (Death Valley) Richards signed on, began shooting, got into a fight with Burt, and the movie was finished by Jerry (It Lives by Night) Jameson. That probably explains the slipshod stop-and-go nature of the narrative.
Altman might’ve been able to work his magic to make the fragmented narrative click. In Altman films, it’s easy to forgive the plot lapses if the characters and humor are there. Since Burt is pretty great (I loved the scene where he disguises himself as a sleazy pimp), and the supporting performances are all solid, you can almost see what Altman could’ve done with the picture. Unfortunately, Dick Richards’ style is fairly pedestrian and the whole thing feels like an overlong TV pilot.
Richards does deliver on the action though. I liked the scene where Burt smashes a guy’s kneecap and uses gold medallions and credit cards as deadly weapons. The freeze frames during this sequence help to hammer home the brutality of Reynolds’ attacks. Too bad Richards couldn’t make the dialogue scenes as lively.
Despite its many flaws, Heat remains agreeable and easily coasts on Burt’s charm. The final showdown, where Burt dispatches several Mafioso in a variety of ways is pretty cool too. He throws a pole through one guy who gets impaled on an electrical box. Then Burt burns another guy alive by pouring gasoline in his face and dropkicking a lightbulb over top of him.
Burt’s best scene though comes when it is revealed that he is a compulsive gambler. He goes into a casino and takes the house for $100,000 at the blackjack table. That’s plenty of enough dough for him to live the good life in Venice. Discontented to do just that, he then decides he needs “Fuck You Money” to live on for the rest of his life. Of course, he pisses it all away in record time. Like the opening scene, it’s a great moment, but the rest of the film as a whole is disjointed and uneven.
WILD CARD (2015) ** ½
Wild Card is a pretty close remake of Heat and even uses the same William Goldman screenplay. I watched them back to back and got a bad feeling of déjà vu. If you want to check Wild Card out, I’d say the less you know about Heat, the better off you are.
Jason Statham takes over for the Burt Reynolds character, now named Nick Wild. A wealthy young millionaire (Michael Angarano, from Sky High) hires him to be his bodyguard when he goes out gambling. Nick also comes to the aid of a severely beaten prostitute and helps her get revenge on the guys who did it. Naturally, they come back after Nick looking for payback.
Like Heat, this was originally supposed to be directed by a legendary director (in this case, Brian De Palma) who bowed out at the last minute. Wild Card wound up being directed by Simon West, who also directed Jason Statham in the remake of The Mechanic. (He of course also directed him in the greatest movie of all time, The Expendables 2.) I’ll admit West does a decent job with the film, although I am insanely curious to see what De Palma might’ve done if he was in the director’s chair.
Wild Card is a lot slicker than its predecessor, but its structure is just as fractured. Just when you think it’s found its rhythm, it stumbles upon another subplot. The episodic nature of the film makes it hard for it to sustain any momentum and when it finally reaches its conclusion, it’s a bit anticlimactic.
I also have to say that Burt gave a much more believable performance as a down and out loser. Statham doesn’t give a bad performance or anything; it’s just that he isn’t nearly as vulnerable. When he loses big time at the blackjack table, he just sort of shrugs it off. The supporting cast (which includes Sofia Vergara, Stanley Tucci, Hope Davis, Jason Alexander, and Anne Heche) are all solid, although none of them are on screen for very long.
Most of the dialogue is repeated verbatim from the original and a lot of the scenes play out nearly identically. There are some changes here and there that are worth noting though. During the scene where Nick confronts the gangster, he wears a Santa Claus hat instead of a gaudy pimp suit. He also wants to go to Corsica and not Venice. The fight scenes now feature techno music and CGI blood, which is definitely not a good thing.
While the ending isn’t nearly as elaborate as the warehouse battle in the original, at least we do get to see Nick’s handiwork with a knife. In Heat, he was commended for his prowess with using a blade, but it was never shown. The scene where he takes out several guys with a knife (and a spoon) is pretty good, although the film probably could’ve done with a bigger, flashier ending.
As with Heat, if you’re a fan of the leading man, it will go down smoothly enough. As a character study, it misses the mark. As a disposable Statham DTV vehicle, Wild Card isn’t bad.
AKA: Joker.
WINNER: HEAT!
Heat gets things started with a terrific opening scene. Burt Reynolds plays a down and out bodyguard-for-hire named Nick “Mex” Escalante who is spending his evening getting shitfaced in a bar. He sees a blonde in a booth and begins hitting on her. When her boyfriend objects, Burt steals the guy’s toupee and taunts him with it.
This of course offers the audience a perverse thrill, seeing a guy famous for his toupee making fun of someone else for wearing one.
In a shocking turn of events, the wimpy guy actually beats Burt up in a long fight scene! Turns out he paid Burt to let him beat him up so he’ll look tough in front of his wife! This scene gets the movie off and running. However, it never really finds anywhere to go.
Nick gets hired by a rich guy (Peter MacNicol) to teach him self-defense. Later, a hooker (Karen Young) gets beat up by a connected low level hood and hires Nick to find him. (“I want his nuts in my hands!”) Together, they rough the guy up and teach him a lesson, but he soon comes after Nick, which leads to a pretty cool showdown in an abandoned warehouse.
The script was written by William (All the President’s Men) Goldman and was based on his novel. Originally, Robert Altman was supposed to direct the film. Dick (Death Valley) Richards signed on, began shooting, got into a fight with Burt, and the movie was finished by Jerry (It Lives by Night) Jameson. That probably explains the slipshod stop-and-go nature of the narrative.
Altman might’ve been able to work his magic to make the fragmented narrative click. In Altman films, it’s easy to forgive the plot lapses if the characters and humor are there. Since Burt is pretty great (I loved the scene where he disguises himself as a sleazy pimp), and the supporting performances are all solid, you can almost see what Altman could’ve done with the picture. Unfortunately, Dick Richards’ style is fairly pedestrian and the whole thing feels like an overlong TV pilot.
Richards does deliver on the action though. I liked the scene where Burt smashes a guy’s kneecap and uses gold medallions and credit cards as deadly weapons. The freeze frames during this sequence help to hammer home the brutality of Reynolds’ attacks. Too bad Richards couldn’t make the dialogue scenes as lively.
Despite its many flaws, Heat remains agreeable and easily coasts on Burt’s charm. The final showdown, where Burt dispatches several Mafioso in a variety of ways is pretty cool too. He throws a pole through one guy who gets impaled on an electrical box. Then Burt burns another guy alive by pouring gasoline in his face and dropkicking a lightbulb over top of him.
Burt’s best scene though comes when it is revealed that he is a compulsive gambler. He goes into a casino and takes the house for $100,000 at the blackjack table. That’s plenty of enough dough for him to live the good life in Venice. Discontented to do just that, he then decides he needs “Fuck You Money” to live on for the rest of his life. Of course, he pisses it all away in record time. Like the opening scene, it’s a great moment, but the rest of the film as a whole is disjointed and uneven.
WILD CARD (2015) ** ½
Wild Card is a pretty close remake of Heat and even uses the same William Goldman screenplay. I watched them back to back and got a bad feeling of déjà vu. If you want to check Wild Card out, I’d say the less you know about Heat, the better off you are.
Jason Statham takes over for the Burt Reynolds character, now named Nick Wild. A wealthy young millionaire (Michael Angarano, from Sky High) hires him to be his bodyguard when he goes out gambling. Nick also comes to the aid of a severely beaten prostitute and helps her get revenge on the guys who did it. Naturally, they come back after Nick looking for payback.
Like Heat, this was originally supposed to be directed by a legendary director (in this case, Brian De Palma) who bowed out at the last minute. Wild Card wound up being directed by Simon West, who also directed Jason Statham in the remake of The Mechanic. (He of course also directed him in the greatest movie of all time, The Expendables 2.) I’ll admit West does a decent job with the film, although I am insanely curious to see what De Palma might’ve done if he was in the director’s chair.
Wild Card is a lot slicker than its predecessor, but its structure is just as fractured. Just when you think it’s found its rhythm, it stumbles upon another subplot. The episodic nature of the film makes it hard for it to sustain any momentum and when it finally reaches its conclusion, it’s a bit anticlimactic.
I also have to say that Burt gave a much more believable performance as a down and out loser. Statham doesn’t give a bad performance or anything; it’s just that he isn’t nearly as vulnerable. When he loses big time at the blackjack table, he just sort of shrugs it off. The supporting cast (which includes Sofia Vergara, Stanley Tucci, Hope Davis, Jason Alexander, and Anne Heche) are all solid, although none of them are on screen for very long.
Most of the dialogue is repeated verbatim from the original and a lot of the scenes play out nearly identically. There are some changes here and there that are worth noting though. During the scene where Nick confronts the gangster, he wears a Santa Claus hat instead of a gaudy pimp suit. He also wants to go to Corsica and not Venice. The fight scenes now feature techno music and CGI blood, which is definitely not a good thing.
While the ending isn’t nearly as elaborate as the warehouse battle in the original, at least we do get to see Nick’s handiwork with a knife. In Heat, he was commended for his prowess with using a blade, but it was never shown. The scene where he takes out several guys with a knife (and a spoon) is pretty good, although the film probably could’ve done with a bigger, flashier ending.
As with Heat, if you’re a fan of the leading man, it will go down smoothly enough. As a character study, it misses the mark. As a disposable Statham DTV vehicle, Wild Card isn’t bad.
AKA: Joker.
WINNER: HEAT!