How the West was Lost
Smith and Kline Wasted on Bad Ideas

The best thing that can be said about Wild Wild West is that it has excellent actors. Will Smith has had two solid summer hits with Independence Day and Men in Black. Kevin Kline is no slouch when it comes to comedy. Kenneth Branagh may well be the embodiment of the soul of Shakespeare in our century. So the question that begs to be asked is, "What happened?"

The simple answer is that this film version of the '60s classic television show is horrible. It's a bad script, poorly developed, and relies too heavily on special effects that - in this day and age - aren't so special.

Smith plays James West, a federal marshal on the trail of a Civil War general (played by Ted Levine) who he believes responsible for butchering a free-slave town. In his quest to apprehend the general, he butts heads with another marshal, Artemus Gordon (Kline), a master of disguise and invention. As in all buddy-movies, their boss (in this case President U.S. Grant, also played by Kline) pairs the duo to solve a series of kidnappings involving the country's leading scientists.

Adding to the mix is a master villain, a madman named Dr. Arliss Loveless (Branagh). Branagh's character is a Confederate patriot who lost his legs in the War Between the States. Bent on revenge and restitution, Loveless is devising a plan that will bring the United States to its knees. Of course, it's up to West and Gordon to save the day.

Although Smith is normally a wonderful actor, he is cast in a semi-serious role, as a brooding somber man. Only one scene allows Smith to portray his normal sarcastic style, and it seems horribly out of place. Kline, likewise, is wasted. He is constantly upstaged by Smith and never given a chance to really shine. Branagh, completely over-the-top as Loveless, is reduced to a pitiful caricature. It's hard to believe this is the same actor who so moved me in his 1996 production of Hamlet.

Rounding out the cast is Selma Hayek as Rita Escobar, one of Loveless' beauties who joins forces with West and Gordon to rescue one of the scientists. Hayek is nothing but window dressing, with the dry, insipid characterization that most women fight so hard to avoid in Hollywood.

To its credit, Wild Wild West tries to capture the spirit of the original, by carefully blending humor and a sense of the fantastic. Each of Gordon's creations is like something from science fiction founders Jules Verne or H.G. Wells. It is a retro-sci-fi, the way Verne and Wells envisioned it. But the film fails to convey the sense of wonder necessary for the audience to appreciate the inventions. People at the end of the 20th century are too jaded from seeing living dinosaurs and spaceships. Flying bicycles and giant mechanical spiders are just uninspired.

Wild Wild West is - at best - a matinee movie. If you don't see it before it slips to video obscurity, you won't miss anything.

MY RATING: 3 out of 10.

RATED:
RUN TIME: 106 min.

How the West was Lost Smith and Kline Wasted on Bad Ideas

How the West was Lost
Smith and Kline Wasted on Bad Ideas