It's hard to not feel a slight sense of disappointment when what looks like a steaming hot slab of fresh action filmmaking hot off the grill turns out to be microwaved leftovers.

There will be abundant laying waste of unworthy opponents, and the groans you hear will not be his.

Slow-motion knockouts follow, with Mr. Statham as sure-fisted as ever, but the "Expendables" director Simon West can only summon dead air in between.

Sadly, "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.

No stranger to piloting action films, West allows the yarn to unwind at a perfectly measured pace.