Review: Wild Wild West (1999)

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Wild Wild West

Rating

Director

Barry Sonnenfeld

Screenplay

Jim Thomas, John Thomas, S.S. Wilson, Brent Maddock, Jeffrey Price, Peter S. Seaman

Length

1h 46m

Starring

Will Smith, Kevin Kline, Kenneth Branagh, Salma Hayek, M. Emmet Walsh, Ted Levine, Frederique van der Wal

MPAA Rating

PG-13

Buy/Rent Movie

Soundtrack

Poster

Source Material

Review

Based on a 1960s science fiction western series, “Wild Wild West” furthers the string of horrible big screen television translations.

Will Smith plays James West, a lady’s man and law enforcement officer. Kevin Kline is Artemus Gordon, an Inspector Gadget-type who doesn’t get along very well with West. The two form an unlikely union when they try to stop a thought-to-be-dead outlaw by the name of Arliss Loveless (Kenneth Branagh).

Loveless has been abducting scientists from across the country in order to help him build one of the most technologically advanced contraptions on Earth. When Loveless abducts a young woman’s father, she requests the aide of West and Gordon, using them as romantic foils to get what she wants. Rita Escobar (Salma Hayek) is the window dressing that the two fight over. She’s manipulative, but not enough to get them to take her with them.

When Loveless threatens the life of president Ulysses S. Grant, West and Gordon must save him. Unfortunately, Rita is captured and West and Gordon really get into action then.

“Wild Wild West” is both simple-minded and boring. There are times when the characters do little more than crack wise and pose for the camera. Sonnenfeld has had a career filled with hits and misses and even his hits weren’t extremely big. “Addams Family,” “Men in Black” and “Get Shorty” were moderately successful with critics and audiences, but “Addams Family Values” and “Wild Wild West” weren’t.

“West” has some wonderful art direction, but the expression “too little too late” is more appropriate. Kline is horribly miscast. He meanders through each scene making snide comments, but never makes his character more than a paper cutout. Smith has been good in the past, but with so many roles lately, his shtick is getting tiresome.

Hayek is atrocious. It seems as if just because she’s beautiful she got the role, but since we’ve seen her give better performances, we can only assume the director or writers didn’t want her to stand out. Branagh transcends bad. His southern accent is more annoying than the fact that he smiles way too much and seems as lifelike as a turnip, but with less talent. We know he can do better, but not in schlock like this.

The pacing is atrocious, but one of the most disappointing things is the cinematography. There are two directors of photography and with Michael Ballhaus (with wonderful work on films like “Bram Stoker’s Dracula” and “The Age of Innocence”) and Stefan Czapsky (“Edward Scissorhands,” “Batman Returns” and “Ed Wood”) at the helm, the visual effects department must have screwed up. There are several scenes where West and Gordon are walking in the desert and the background maintains one lighting angle, while the light on the actors appears to be coming from a different location.

“Wild Wild West” has a miserable screenplay with too many authors, the acting is reprehensible and the directing is shallow. It is easily the worst film of the year so far unless you like mindless scripts with bad acting and direction. After all, “Armageddon” was a huge success.