WILD WILD WEST A film review by Steve Rhodes Copyright 1999 Steve Rhodes RATING (0 TO ****): 1/2
Will Smith, what were you thinking when you signed on to do Barry Sonnenfeld's WILD WILD WEST? After reading the script by the writing committee of S. S. Wilson, Brent Maddock, Jeffrey Price and Peter S. Seaman, why did you go ahead? Surely someone as bankable as you could have gotten a dozen better projects.
Set in 1869 and based on the old television series, WILD WILD WEST stars Smith as Agent James West. West, described by President Grant as someone with the tendency to "shoot first, shoot later, then after everyone is dead, ask a few questions," likes to rely on his fists and his six-shooter to fight his battles.
In contrast, inventor Artemus Gordon, played by Kevin Kline, who does double duty as President Grant, looks to his scientific skills to come up with the right contraption for every confrontation.
With possibly the worst movie beard ever, Kenneth Branagh shamelessly overacts as the story's villain, Dr. Arliss Loveless, who is trying to capture Grant and take over the country. What is the greatest Shakespearean actor in the world today doing in such an abomination? Is the money really worth it? The rest of the cast (Smith, Kline and Salma Hayek) sleepwalk through their parts. Smith, who appears distracted and distant, periodically grins as if he were calculating his enormous salary as a way to pass the time.
West is first seen naked in a hot (actually a cold) tub with a naked woman. The story has an obsession for boob jokes -- punching boobs, flamethrower boobs and fake boobs.
The humorless and mean-spirited script displays a series of elaborate mechanical contraptions as a way to run out the movie's clock. Typical of the crude humor is a grizzled old civil war veteran who has lost his ear. Where his ear should be is a permanently mounted ear horn, which he turns over periodically to discharge puss.
Smith is reduced to bad Stepin Fetchit-style humor. In the story's low point, Loveless, a legless paraplegic, engages in crude racist insults to West, while West returns a series of bad handicap barbs to Loveless.
The gadget-laden movie features an ugly, steam-powered tarantula that is 80-feet tall. It is clear that lots of money was wasted in the film's lavish production. Rather than make one extremely expensive, horrible movie, the studio could have made many more modestly budgeted and hopefully better movies.
The problem with movies like WILD WILD WEST, even if it has grossed over $100,000,000 domestically (not including those lucrative foreign box office receipts and video sales), is its effect on the fans of its stars. When they agree to be in such a miserable movie and then show no life while acting their parts, it is as if they are thumbing their noses at the fans who flock to their movies.
WILD WILD WEST runs a long 1:47. It is rated PG-13 for action violence, sex references and innuendo and would be acceptable for kids around 10 and up.
My son Jeffrey, age 10, gave the film just **. He liked the inventions plus all of the "shooting, punching and kicking."
Email: Steve.Rhodes@InternetReviews.com Web: http://www.InternetReviews.com
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