WILD WILD WEST truly is a stinker of a film. Words cannot adequately express just how inane and endlessly trite this stupid, effects-filled movie is; ostensibly it's the big screen adaptation of a '60s cult TV show, but in reality it brings out the very worst of the Hollywood blockbuster sensibility.
The main problem with this film is that it goes for the action comedy template, particularly heavy on the buddy buddy humour. Will Smith was riding high after MEN IN BLACK, but he's really bad here, and I mean really bad. As for Kevin Kline, you can barely believe that this was the same guy from A FISH CALLED WANDA; you actually feel sorry for him. The humour is all of the toilet variety, with a particular focus on oddly misogynistic cross-dressing jokes which quickly become old and rather disgusting. It's one of the unfunniest so-called comedies ever to make it to the screen.
Kenneth Branagh gives the worst performance of his career as the hammy disabled villain, and much of the extensive budget was given over to a huge CGI mechnical spider which hasn't aged very well at all. As for the actresses, including Bai Ling and Salma Hayek, they're literally treated as pieces of meat. Barry Sonnenfeld has directed some junk in his time but even he must be ashamed of this one. It's hard to believe that between them the writers of this thing were responsible for the likes of PREDATOR, TREMORS, and WHO FRAMED ROGER RABBIT.
Incidentally, WILD WILD WEST holds a special significance for me as the only film I've ever walked out of at the cinema. I believe in staying to watch a film to the end, no matter how bad - after all, you've paid to be there - but this was so appallingly awful that I felt I had no choice but to leave halfway through. Having recently watched the thing again right through to the end, I'm glad I made that choice.
The main problem with this film is that it goes for the action comedy template, particularly heavy on the buddy buddy humour. Will Smith was riding high after MEN IN BLACK, but he's really bad here, and I mean really bad. As for Kevin Kline, you can barely believe that this was the same guy from A FISH CALLED WANDA; you actually feel sorry for him. The humour is all of the toilet variety, with a particular focus on oddly misogynistic cross-dressing jokes which quickly become old and rather disgusting. It's one of the unfunniest so-called comedies ever to make it to the screen.
Kenneth Branagh gives the worst performance of his career as the hammy disabled villain, and much of the extensive budget was given over to a huge CGI mechnical spider which hasn't aged very well at all. As for the actresses, including Bai Ling and Salma Hayek, they're literally treated as pieces of meat. Barry Sonnenfeld has directed some junk in his time but even he must be ashamed of this one. It's hard to believe that between them the writers of this thing were responsible for the likes of PREDATOR, TREMORS, and WHO FRAMED ROGER RABBIT.
Incidentally, WILD WILD WEST holds a special significance for me as the only film I've ever walked out of at the cinema. I believe in staying to watch a film to the end, no matter how bad - after all, you've paid to be there - but this was so appallingly awful that I felt I had no choice but to leave halfway through. Having recently watched the thing again right through to the end, I'm glad I made that choice.