Jason Statham’s winding path to the big screen is certainly unorthodox: market stall holder, member of the British National Diving Squad, fashion model for French Connection, stubbled action man with a heart of gold.

Since his eye-catching debut in Guy Ritchie’s 1998 calling card, Lock, Stock And Two Smoking Barrels, the Derbyshire-born actor has carved out a lucrative niche from which he rarely strays.

On the surface, Wild Card is a perfect fit. Adapted for the screen by William Goldman from his own novel, Simon West’s action thriller is punctuated by bone-crunching brawls that have become Statham’s trademark.

He disables a trio of thugs with a credit card and a glass ashtray, then slices, dices and eviscerates a larger group of heavies using a knife and spoon.

Fight choreographer Corey Yuen, who worked with Statham on The Transporter franchise, knows how to showcase the leading man at his brutish, muscular best.

Unfortunately for the actor’s fans, these overblown displays of machismo are a fleeting distraction from the existential soul-searching that clutters Goldman’s fragmented script.

The journey into the heart of darkness unfolds in Las Vegas, a city of sin described pithily as a “creeping virus that people catch sometimes” by security expert Nick Wild (Statham), who is desperate to leave the Nevada desert for calmer waters around Corsica.

Cue incongruous inserts of the actor in sunglasses, white linen trousers and shirt, behind the wheel of a sun-bathed yacht.

It’s never explained why Nick hankers for the Med, but his dream is out of reach since he doesn’t have the cash to fund his grand expedition.

Old squeeze Holly (Dominik Garcia-Lorido) seeks out Nick after she is raped by visiting mobster Danny DeMarco (Milo Ventimiglia) and his heavies at the Golden Nugget casino and wants revenge.

“What if he kills me?” growls Nick.

“Then I’ll be miserable for days,” coldly responds Holly.

Nick struggles to pull free from Holly’s self-destructive orbit, crossing paths with denizens of the Strip, including hotel owner Baby (Stanley Tucci), blackjack dealer Cassandra (Hope Davis), diner waitress Roxy (Anne Heche) and software millionaire Cyrus Kinnick (Michael Angarano), who will pay Nick handsomely “to kill the fear that lives inside me every day.”

Wild Card gambles heavily on Statham’s ability to convey Nick’s inner torment ... and loses. Goldman’s prosaic dialogue, laden with mid-life angst, sounds hollow coming from a man who prefers to articulate his character’s emotions with his fists.

West is heavy-handed in his use of slow-motion during the frenetic fight scenes, but it’s understandable that he wants to artificially prolong these fleeting highs.

If Las Vegas is indeed a creeping virus, this ham-fisted film is the antidote.

WILD CARD (15)
Thriller/Action.
Jason Statham, Michael Angarano, Dominik Garcia-Lorido, Hope Davis, Milo Ventimiglia, Stanley Tucci, Jason Alexander, Anne Heche.
Director: Simon West