Wild Wild West
PG-13, slight violence.
Action, Sci-Fi
Starring: Will Smith
Kevin Kline
Salma Hayek
Written by Jeffrey Price
Directed by Barry Sonnenfeld
Produced by Jon Peters,
Barry Sonnenfeld
Rating: 69%
This HIGHLY anticipated action flick, unfortunately, did
not match up to the expectations.
Will Smith, July 4th weekend. Sounds all too familiar,
sounds all too good. Unfortunately, it was too good to be true.
Expecting a triple whammy, viewers flocked to the theatres
on June 30th expecting to see something of ID4 or MIB
volume. Instead, we got Wild Wild West. A sloppily made comedy
about two government agents destined to work togeather.
Even though the song sounds intriguing.. "We're going straight,
to, the Wild, Wild West..." just don't go west.
The basic plot is that James West, a special
government agent, along with another, Artemus Gordon, (
master of disguise) are each sent west to track down the
evil and diobolical Dr. Loveless. Basically, the villain
here is trying to murder the president of the United States
with a machine called the trantula. Along the way, these
two secret agents duke it out as rivals at first,
but eventually, they naturally become life long friends...
awww...
First of all, there was simply no chemistry between Kevin
Klein and Will Smith. They're "touching moments" were almost
blah, and their leading lady (Selma Hayek) basically did...
nothing. I think the problem here is that the makers were
trying too hard to create a Blockbuster hit. In the midst
of all this chaos, they forgot to include a plot. Now,
don't get me wrong or anything... I mean, it was funny.
Nonetheless, after seeing "Austin Powers", it seems
to lack that LOL (laugh out loud) effect. Perhaps the problem
is that it looked like a low budget flick. The black lines
for the blue screen were more than recognizable, and after
seeing "Star Wars", that kind of editing just can't cut it.
Furtheremore, nothing seemed to be developed. Rather than
adding scenes where West and Gordan could bond, grow,
learn to like one another, they tried to add scenes of
comedy and action. BIG mistake. Viewers these days need
a script. No matter how good the action is, it's "blah"
without a plot. However, not ALL things were bad.
Kevin Klein does deserve credit for his superb acting job.
Even though he didn't get much to work with, he delivered
a solid preformance, and allowed the audience to "meet" his
character. His lines were cleary delivered, (although the
writing was at times a bit corny,) and he worked hard
to show the audience what Artemus Gordan was all about.
Will Smith on the other hand, needs to get some new material.
No offense, but Will, we've seen your character before!
It's always the same "full of him-self" tough guy who
happens to be witty, and gets all the girls. Unfortunately,
an actor needs the ability to paint different images
of him/her-self. Robin Williams, for instance, can be a
"Mrs. Doubtfire" type father, a "What Dreams May Come"
husbad, and even a "Patch Adams" doctor. Likewise, look
at Jim Carrey. I mean, how do you go from "Ace Ventura,"
to "The Trumann Show?" Now THAT takes talent. We, as
viewers, would like to see some of that talent in Will
Smith. It's been the same character from the Fresh Prince
of Bel-Air, all the way to Jim West. When are we going to
see a fresh face? I would really like to know.
In general, it's not BAD, but at the same time, it's not
good. And with the high expectations entering into this
flick, it's just down right disappointing. The soundtrack
is good; but the movie, well, it ain't Independence Day
Weekend material.
