Wild Wild West Review
by David Sunga (zookeeper AT criticzoo DOT com)July 8th, 1999
WILD WILD WEST (1999)
Rating: 2.0 stars (out of 4.0)
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Key to rating system:
2.0 stars - Debatable
2.5 stars - Some people may like it
3.0 stars - I liked it
3.5 stars - I am biased in favor of the movie
4.0 stars - I felt the movie's impact personally or it stood out
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A Movie Review by David Sunga
Directed by: Barry Sonnenfeld
Written by: Written by S.S. Wilson, Brent Maddock, Jeffrey Price and Peter S. Seaman
Starring: Will Smith, Kevin Kline, Salma Hayek, and Kenneth Branagh
Synopsis:
Will Smith plays James West and Kevin Kline is Artemus Gordon in this 1999 movie based on the 1965-70 television adventure/spy series about two 1860s cowboy secret agents.
West attends a party and soon finds himself in trouble. "Sorry I made the mistake of drumming on a white woman's breasts," says West. Meanwhile Gordon falls for a saloon girl named Rita (Salma Hayek) whose father has been kidnapped. "She's a breath of fresh ass, I mean a breast of fresh air," the love-smitten Gordon remarks. The kidnapper, a scientist named Dr. Arliss Loveless (Kenneth Branagh), is wheelchair-bound, a condition which gives West ample comedic ammunition for emasculation and shortness jokes. As West, Gordon and Rita give chase Loveless plots to dismantle America and give most of it to European colonialist rulers.
Opinion:
These days I often hear the WILD WILD WEST song played on MTV. It sounds like an old Stevie Wonder tune with all the same chords but they changed the words and now it's WILD WILD WEST. The song makes a pretty catchy advertisement for the movie.
WILD WILD WEST (1999) shows how agents West and Gordon first meet and become partners. Usually in cop buddy movies new partners develop a close bond after some initial friction. Unfortunately, in WILD WILD WEST chemistry between West and Gordon never seems to develop. James West has initial misgivings about technology and develops a bond with it, but he doesn't seem to like Gordon any more or any less by the end of the movie. West is a Civil War Era African American and Gordon is a white stranger, but the whole relationship aspect seems unexplored.
On the other hand, it's supposed to be escapist fantasy. WILD WILD WEST is the kind of movie where they spend a fortune on special effects but blunder on the details. A bad guy gets electrocuted with a big wrench. I didn't see any batteries or wires. West plucks a flattened bullet from the INSIDE of his bulletproof vest rather than the OUTSIDE. Huh? Loveless captures Rita and threatens to use her for his pleasure, but Loveless has already had the lower half of his body chopped off. And so on.
Given a choice between hearing the MTV song or watching the movie, I take the song.
Reviewed by David Sunga
July 5, 1999
Copyright © 1999 by David Sunga
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