This time last year we got word that Magic Mike himself, AKA Channing Tatum, would take up the role of a particularly fan-favorite mutant within the X-Men franchise: the bayou-native gambler Gambit. Since then, his standalone film has been gestating without a director, but Deadline now reports that Rupert Wyatt has boarded the superhero franchise. …
Usually the first thing added to a film when it is remade is glitz. American films from the 1970s had their own distinct, philosophical quality to them, something that inevitably gets lost in translation when the material is put to screen again by a new team of filmmakers. Still, the one thing I didn’t anticipate while watching screenwriter William Monahan and star Mark Wahlberg tackle The Gambler was a lack of visceral thrills. Director Rupert Wyatt’s film nails the look of 1974’s The Gambler, but it lacks the feel of the original.