Review of Wild Wild West

Introduction

This movie passed me by at the cinema last year as I had heard mixed reports about it. So, this being my first viewing of the film as well as the DVD, I settled down with lights off, projector on and Dolby Digital kit cranked up.

After the initial scene has run, the opening credits are done in a very ‘western’ style reminiscent of the Clint Eastwood spaghetti films. The music is loud, relatively fast and noticeably ‘Western’ which lapses into modern style as soon as the Wild Wild West title appears on screen. For some strange reason the early part of this film reminded me a lot of Back To The Future III.

The film is a spoof western, and revolves around a thin plot of the disappearance of several top scientists. Will Smith and Kevin Kline are hot on the heels of the main suspect Dr. Loveless, played by Kenneth Branagh.

Video

I found this DVD to have a generally dark picture – even the many brightly lit outdoor scenes seemed to be ‘dark’ on the DVD, but not having seen it at the cinema cant really decide if it is meant to be like this or not.

Apart from this the picture is sharp and colourful, and no other problems were noted.

Audio

5.1 users will not be disappointed here – the soundtrack is that of a typical big budget action movie, and there is plenty of rear channel action to keep those neighbours annoyed, especially on the gunfire sequences. A good example here is the scene where the painting behind Smith comes ‘alive’ with a man who fires into the room – nice ricochets bouncing off the rear channels.

Features

The menus are animated, although they are not the best I have seen, but this disc scores several brownie points for having plenty of extras.

‘It’s a Whole New West’ is a documentary making-of type production introduced by Salma Hayek, the films love interest. You get the feeling she is so pleased to have been asked to present this short 15 minute programme, and that she thinks she is going to get her name across to millions more potential fans. Hmm – I don’t think so, love! Her accent gets very annoying after a little while and you end up wishing she would shut up, and just let the programme continue.

‘Loveless’ Lair’ is a cute name for other short snippets of video, all nicely presented, on different topics i.e. costumes, effects etc. You are force fed with all the supporting cast stressing how wonderful it was to work with the likes of Will Smith and Kevin Kline, how good at acting they are, and plenty of mutual backslapping from the actors themselves (fingers down throat time…).

You get the theatrical trailer (no self-respecting Region 2, extras rich, newly released DVD should be without one) and two music videos. These being Will Smith of course with the title track, and Enrique Iglesias with his hit from last year, that only features at the very end of the films credits, after Will has done his stuff. Also, there is a ‘Newswap’ feature, which is essentially a ‘making of’ the Wild Wild West music video. Salma Hayek pops up again to let all her adoring fans know exactly how thrilled she was to be asked to appear in the video, and that this music video is basically a continuation of the movie. Riveting stuff.

You also get the Cast and Crew Bios, but this is not really very informative as it just lists the films each person has been involved with – no background details at all.

Finally there is a load of stuff for your DVD-ROM. Does anyone actually use these type of extras?

Conclusion

I have mixed feelings about this film.

Much of the comedy relies on visual hi-tech gags which makes me wonder what the hell was that doing in 1890’s west America! Maybe I shouldn’t be thinking this, but when we see the train sequences and all the gadgets and gismos in the film, I was left thinking that the care that was taken in ensuring all the costumes were true to the period didn’t seem to carry through to the script! Many times I found myself wondering ‘Why?’ after some visual event had occurred, and felt a lot of the time, things were not explained, rather it is better to just leave the audience to marvel at the high tech wizardry of the gizmos – fine, but in 1890???

There are many strange corny visual gags such as the ‘Do Not Push’ button that releases a ceiling mounted wooden mallet that swings down and wallops Will Smith between the eyebrows – OK for comic effect, but why was it there?!! Doesn’t really make sense. And what is with the revolving pool table (apart from comic effect of course!)? Also, some of the jokes seem to fall flat sometimes. However there is a nice little visual ‘HMV’ joke which I thought was quite clever!

Am I worrying about these things unnecessarily? After all it is a comedy and we shouldn’t be trying to concentrate too hard on these details should we?

Then we come to the actors. Will Smith plays Jim West, at it would appear the part was written directly for him. He gives a good performance in a film that suffers from a weak plot, but he annoyed me with the ‘That is a man’s head’ joke – OK Will, we understand your surprise, but do you really need to milk it four times?!!!

Kenneth Branagh struggles with his American accent throughout the film, and one wonders if they were ashamed of having him in the film at all judging by his billing on the DVD cover. His name is relegated to the very bottom of the box in very small font, hiding under the Wild Wild West logo, totally different from the billing for Smith and Kline! Also did they really have electric wheelchairs in those days? Hmmm.

I felt myself losing concentration at times – mainly because of the weak plot that relies on visual effects as is the criticism for many of the modern big budget blockbusters. The effects are very well done, and the ‘making of’ insight into this area is entertaining,

If you liked this film, then the DVD has little to fault it, except maybe a slightly dark picture quality. However it may be a risk if you have not seen it before, as it may not be one than gets a spin in your player too many times.