Wild Wild West is as clumsy, contrived, heavy-handed and leaden as the 80-foot-tall metallic robot at its center.
Wild Wild West (1999)
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Reviews Counted:102
Fresh:21
Rotten:81
Average Rating:3.9/10
Consensus: Thin character development and worse the comedy isn't funny.
Runtime: 1 hr 47 mins
Genre: Action/Adventure
US Box Office: $0
Synopsis:
Special government agent James West (Will Smith), long on charm and wit, and special government agent Artemus Gordon (Kevin Kline), a master of disguises and a brilliant inventor of gadgets large...
Special government agent James West (Will Smith), long on charm and wit, and special government agent Artemus Gordon (Kevin Kline), a master of disguises and a brilliant inventor of gadgets large and small, are each sent to track down the diabolical genius Dr. Arliss Loveless (Kenneth Branagh). Loveless is plotting to assassinate the President of the United States with the aid of his monstrously huge walking weapon-transport vehicle called The Tarantula.
West and Gordon begin as competitors but soon pool their talents to become a wily team of operatives who trust each other…most of the time.
The beautiful and mysterious entertainer Rita Escobar (Salma Hayek) complicates matters for the duo as she insinuates herself into their plans to capture Loveless. And Loveless has his own deadly team of lovely distractions -- Miss East (Bai Ling), Amazonia (Frederique Van Der Wal), Munitia (Musetta Vander) and Miss Lippenreider (Sofia Eng) -- whose unique attributes each pose a threat to the lives of West and Gordon
Starring: Will Smith, Kevin Kline, Kenneth Branagh, Salma Hayek
Starring: Will Smith, Kevin Kline, Kenneth Branagh, Salma Hayek, Ted Levine, M. Emmet Walsh
Director: Barry Sonnenfeld
Director: Barry Sonnenfeld
Screenwriter: S.S. Wilson, Brent Maddock, Jeffrey Price, Peter S. Seaman
Producer: Jon Peters, Barry Sonnenfeld
Composer: Elmer Bernstein
Reviews for Wild Wild West
While its television counterpart will continue to live on in syndication, this version is headed for Boot Hill.
Ruled by increasingly ghoulish special effects, it leaves reality so far behind that its storytelling would be arbitrary even by comic-book standards, and its characters share no common ground or emotional connection.
All looks and little substance, the film is visually appealing but clearly shows that the same detail was not applied to its story.
Few things are potentially more dangerous to the health of a studio picture than giving a director and a star enough rope to hang themselves.
The action plods, the characterizations are thin and inconsistent, and worst of all the comedy's not very funny.
An elaborately overpriced, over-hyped, and overproduced shell of a movie that will make history only as one of the screen's more self-indulgent box-office bombs.
Wild Wild West is fun and funny where it should have been wild and wilder.
The quintessential cotton candy movie: It's pleasant, brightly colored and the minute it's done it's as though it were never there.
The Summer's best reason to count popcorn kernels, unless you find yourself counting sheep first.
The contempt for the audience displayed in Wild Wild West is breathtaking.
Like a botched chemical equation, these seemingly perfect ingredients combine into a fizzle.
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