Review of Wild Wild West

Introduction

I avoided Wild Wild West at the cinema despite being a fan of Will Smith - the trailer reeked of a big-budget star vehicle and I HATE the theme song!

A friend bought the film a while back and after watching the movie, said that it was so bad that he was considering throwing the DVD away! I was struggling to pick a free film in a recent "buy 2 get 1 free" offer, so chose Wild Wild West on the basis that if it was free, it didn`t really matter if it was drivel.

The basic synopsis is as follows: Dr Loveless (Branagh) has a plot to divide the United States and has kidnapped the nation`s premier scientists to help build a robotic spider to help convince the President to surrender. West and Gordon (Smith and Kline) are assigned to stop Loveless carrying out his plot. There follows a gadget and gag fest.

Video

The video is presented in 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen, and as all recent big-budget films should be, is of a high standard. There is plenty of detail and contrast in the image, and no evidence of any grain, dirt or compression problems.

Visually, the film is spectacular, especially the scenes shot in Utah in and around Monument Valley and the red colours are beautifully recreated on screen. The movie relies on a great deal of special effects and on the whole they are well done, despite some dodgy back projection in one scene.

Audio

The sound comes in Dolby Digital 5.1 and all the channels are used to good effect – there are plenty of gunshots, explosions and of course gadgets to keep the speakers occupied. The robotic spider is a good example.

Features

There are a vast amount of extras on the DVD, including a commentary, music videos, trailers, still gallery, behind the scenes documentaries and DVD-ROM extras.

I can’t comment on the quality of any of this material, as I wasn’t interested enough in the film to bother looking at any of it!

One major annoyance was the refusal of the film to stay on the main menu – I put the DVD in whilst making my tea, went to the menu and after a while, it started playing by itself. Irritatingly, when I went back to the menu, it resumed the film again, at the point it left off, resulting in me having to eject the DVD to watch it from the beginning when I was ready!

Conclusion

Overall, like the previous collaboration between Will Smith and Director Barry Sonnenfeld – “Men In Black” – this film is drivel.

Despite a good cast and good performances from Smith and Kline (Branagh made me cringe from start to finish), the film is let down by a feeble plot and over-reliance on special effects. Admittedly, the film had one or two moments, but overall the jokes are cringe inducing, have all been done before and the scenes where Smith and Branagh exchange jokes about colour and disability are simply not funny and embarrassing – hopefully as much for the two stars looking back as for the viewers watching the film. There are also some unbelievably corny visual gags, the HMV “His Master’s Voice” dog being particularly bad! Even Salma Hayek’s gorgeous curves don’t help the film’s cause.

I agree with the other comments made by reviewers on the site – what is the point in going to great care to make sure that the clothing is appropriate for the period, when the gadgets are so fictitious?

I didn’t watch any of the extras on the disc – I’ve no intention of wasting any more of my time on it. At least I’ve got something to put this hot cup of coffee on now...