Wild Wild West «½
PG-13, 106m. 1999
Cast & Credits: Will Smith (Capt. James West), Kevin Kline (U.S. Marshal Artemus Gordon/Ulysses S. Grant), Kenneth Branagh (Dr. Arliss Loveless), Salma Hayek (Rite Escobar), M. Emmet Walsh (Coleman). Screenplay by S.S. Wilson, Brent Maddock, Jeffrey Price and Peter S. Seaman based on a story by Jim Thomas and John Thomas. Directed by Barry Sonnenfeld.
The phrase that best sums up Wild Wild West are two words: “No chemistry.” Watching the film’s two leading stars and heroes James West (Will Smith) and Artemus Gordon (Kevin Kline) is like being paired up with a blind date where you realize you have nothing in common with the woman you have been paired up with. I can usually figure this out before we even get to the restaurant and that takes about 15 minutes.
It took me less than 15 minutes to realize that Wild Wild West, the latest in Hollywood’s on going string of big screen television remakes, was another great idea gone bad. The problem is this blind date lasts a grueling hour and 46 minutes and the check doesn’t arrive until the end credits roll.
The film is based on the western television series of the same name that aired on CBS from 1965 to 1969 and starred Robert Conrad as secret agent, James West, and Ross Martin as Artemus Gordon. I have only seen maybe ten minutes of one episode flipping through cable channels. I surmised from what I did see that the show was like a James Bond movie set in the old west where the two secret agents fought a variety of maniacal villains. If the series were any weirder, it could have wound up on the Sci-Fi Channel today airing right after The Six Million Dollar Man (1974-1978).
The problem with this new “West” are the two stars. When it comes to “buddy movies” there has to be a certain “click” to the characters that makes them likable, if not laughable or fun to watch them together. In most cases it’s always the smart aleck partner being paired up with the more serious veteran who has been around longer than his protégé. Danny Glover in the Lethal Weapon films (1987-1998) and Tommy Lee Jones in Men In Black (1997) were the experienced ones reluctantly paired up with the likes of the suicidal character Mel Gibson played and a more down-to-earth hip personality that Smith played in Men In Black before doing Wild Wild West.
That just isn’t present here though Smith has the lead role this time while Kline’s character is the partner he doesn’t necessarily want. The problem is I have never pictured Kline as an action star. He seems more at home in dramas and sometimes comedies if the material is right. Kline acts as though his heart just isn’t in this performance like he was simply doing this to get a paycheck. I saw more emotion emanate from a prosthetic head with glowing eyes in the film than interaction between the two leads.
Director Barry Sonnenfeld incorporates the same ingredients here that made his previous box office hit, Men In Black, successful. You have two heroes, a heroine played by Salma Hayek and a villain. Somewhere along the way, however, Sonnenfeld forgot how to make this movie fun. The film is not as spontaneous and clever as Men In Black was. The two most memorable scenes Wild Wild West offers are when a dog reenacts the RCA logo and when West and Gordon ride off into the sunset in the end but not on their horses as one would expect.
It is as though Sonnenfeld, like Steven Spielberg before him did with the dinosaur sequel The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997), sold himself out to mass marketing and special effects. Most of which come in the form of a giant, steel-like fire breathing tarantula that looks like the mechanical monster was put together with an erector set and is piloted by Dr. Arliss Loveless (Kenneth Branagh), a wheelchair bound mad scientist with nothing below the waist and with devious plans to divide the North and South again in 1869.
The idea of casting Branagh as a villain was probably a filmmaker’s dream if not an enjoyable departure for the Shakespearean actor. Here, however, Branagh’s Loveless is menacing only in appearance alone dressed in black from the waist up and sporting just a little too much facial hair. When Loveless speaks especially to West, it’s usually racial comments that poke fun at Smith’s African American heritage that sound borderline offensive and he isn’t as humorous as Vincent D’Onofrio’s temperamental alien cockroach from Men In Black.
Granted, both Smith’s and Kline’s characters have their argumentative moments like so many other buddy characters in past films but they aren’t enough to get laughs. When Gordon, who cross dresses as a saloon girl throughout the film, can’t seem to sway West’s opinions, he uses several instruments hidden aboard their special train to get his partner to shut up like fastening him to a pool table that turns him upside down. Then there are the discussions on which set of fake breasts Gordon should use for their next mission that make the train’s engineer (M. Emmet Walsh) question how the fate of the United States government could possibly rest in the hands of these two. I wonder if Conrad’s and Martin’s characters had the same discussions in the television series?
Wild Wild West only brings back bad memories of other promising TV turned theatrical remakes gone sour like The Saint (1997), The Avengers (1998) and Lost In Space (1998), all of which paid little or no tribute to their original creations.
I am sure the film’s studio, Warner Brothers, was hoping Wild Wild West, the movie would launch a franchise of sequels. That’s the plan with every film based on a hit TV show.
There have, however, only been two Addams Family (The Addams Family - 1991 and Addams Family Values - 1993) and two Brady Bunch movies (The Brady Bunch Movie – 1995 and A Very Brady Sequel – 1996) to date. The only franchise which still seems to have legs but whose theatrical future is in limbo is the Star Trek series. That’s because the past ten films have featured both casts from the original 1966-1969 television series and The Next Generation (1987-1994).
©6/30/99
PG-13, 106m. 1999
Cast & Credits: Will Smith (Capt. James West), Kevin Kline (U.S. Marshal Artemus Gordon/Ulysses S. Grant), Kenneth Branagh (Dr. Arliss Loveless), Salma Hayek (Rite Escobar), M. Emmet Walsh (Coleman). Screenplay by S.S. Wilson, Brent Maddock, Jeffrey Price and Peter S. Seaman based on a story by Jim Thomas and John Thomas. Directed by Barry Sonnenfeld.
It took me less than 15 minutes to realize that Wild Wild West, the latest in Hollywood’s on going string of big screen television remakes, was another great idea gone bad. The problem is this blind date lasts a grueling hour and 46 minutes and the check doesn’t arrive until the end credits roll.
The film is based on the western television series of the same name that aired on CBS from 1965 to 1969 and starred Robert Conrad as secret agent, James West, and Ross Martin as Artemus Gordon. I have only seen maybe ten minutes of one episode flipping through cable channels. I surmised from what I did see that the show was like a James Bond movie set in the old west where the two secret agents fought a variety of maniacal villains. If the series were any weirder, it could have wound up on the Sci-Fi Channel today airing right after The Six Million Dollar Man (1974-1978).
The problem with this new “West” are the two stars. When it comes to “buddy movies” there has to be a certain “click” to the characters that makes them likable, if not laughable or fun to watch them together. In most cases it’s always the smart aleck partner being paired up with the more serious veteran who has been around longer than his protégé. Danny Glover in the Lethal Weapon films (1987-1998) and Tommy Lee Jones in Men In Black (1997) were the experienced ones reluctantly paired up with the likes of the suicidal character Mel Gibson played and a more down-to-earth hip personality that Smith played in Men In Black before doing Wild Wild West.
That just isn’t present here though Smith has the lead role this time while Kline’s character is the partner he doesn’t necessarily want. The problem is I have never pictured Kline as an action star. He seems more at home in dramas and sometimes comedies if the material is right. Kline acts as though his heart just isn’t in this performance like he was simply doing this to get a paycheck. I saw more emotion emanate from a prosthetic head with glowing eyes in the film than interaction between the two leads.
Director Barry Sonnenfeld incorporates the same ingredients here that made his previous box office hit, Men In Black, successful. You have two heroes, a heroine played by Salma Hayek and a villain. Somewhere along the way, however, Sonnenfeld forgot how to make this movie fun. The film is not as spontaneous and clever as Men In Black was. The two most memorable scenes Wild Wild West offers are when a dog reenacts the RCA logo and when West and Gordon ride off into the sunset in the end but not on their horses as one would expect.
It is as though Sonnenfeld, like Steven Spielberg before him did with the dinosaur sequel The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997), sold himself out to mass marketing and special effects. Most of which come in the form of a giant, steel-like fire breathing tarantula that looks like the mechanical monster was put together with an erector set and is piloted by Dr. Arliss Loveless (Kenneth Branagh), a wheelchair bound mad scientist with nothing below the waist and with devious plans to divide the North and South again in 1869.
The idea of casting Branagh as a villain was probably a filmmaker’s dream if not an enjoyable departure for the Shakespearean actor. Here, however, Branagh’s Loveless is menacing only in appearance alone dressed in black from the waist up and sporting just a little too much facial hair. When Loveless speaks especially to West, it’s usually racial comments that poke fun at Smith’s African American heritage that sound borderline offensive and he isn’t as humorous as Vincent D’Onofrio’s temperamental alien cockroach from Men In Black.
Granted, both Smith’s and Kline’s characters have their argumentative moments like so many other buddy characters in past films but they aren’t enough to get laughs. When Gordon, who cross dresses as a saloon girl throughout the film, can’t seem to sway West’s opinions, he uses several instruments hidden aboard their special train to get his partner to shut up like fastening him to a pool table that turns him upside down. Then there are the discussions on which set of fake breasts Gordon should use for their next mission that make the train’s engineer (M. Emmet Walsh) question how the fate of the United States government could possibly rest in the hands of these two. I wonder if Conrad’s and Martin’s characters had the same discussions in the television series?
Wild Wild West only brings back bad memories of other promising TV turned theatrical remakes gone sour like The Saint (1997), The Avengers (1998) and Lost In Space (1998), all of which paid little or no tribute to their original creations.
I am sure the film’s studio, Warner Brothers, was hoping Wild Wild West, the movie would launch a franchise of sequels. That’s the plan with every film based on a hit TV show.
There have, however, only been two Addams Family (The Addams Family - 1991 and Addams Family Values - 1993) and two Brady Bunch movies (The Brady Bunch Movie – 1995 and A Very Brady Sequel – 1996) to date. The only franchise which still seems to have legs but whose theatrical future is in limbo is the Star Trek series. That’s because the past ten films have featured both casts from the original 1966-1969 television series and The Next Generation (1987-1994).
©6/30/99
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