Wild Wild West (1999)

Wild Wild West (1999)

5/10

Starring

Will Smith

Kevin Kline

Kevin Branagh

Directed by Barry Sonnenfeld

The movie is set in a different some sort of past. Wild Wild West is a Sci-Fi western film that is fun to see on TV. During its initial release though, the movie was not a commercial success and had an average reception from critics. You can say that its antics and drama were way too invested in the plot for the movie to hold strong as a masterpiece. What I mean is, the writers devoted too much time building the perfect plot, adding all the Sci-Fi needed, than they did giving us a fun time at the movies. It was hard to recommend it to a friend to go see at the cinemas.

Regardless of the bad delivery the movie is fun as a TV-movie. Over time it became one of those movies you see because of the same reason that made it not worth seeing in the cinema back then. Now when seeing it on TV you can skip the boring bits.

Here is the plot. General McGrath is believe to be behind a plot to kill the president and take over the United States. All of this happens after the events of the civil war in the US. Soon we get to meet Dr. Arliss Loveless, a man who we believe is dead, (when I say we believe, the movie believes he is dead). He is kept alive by some contraption which allows him to move about. He has survived with only his waist upwards.

The president calls the two best detectives he has Jim West (played by Will Smith, he is a shoot first ask questions later character) and Artemus Gordon (played by Kevin Kline, a detective who uses the art of disguise and science to get his job done), to stop the plans of McGrath.

McGrath who is believe to be the man behind all of this, sent a message to the president that he has one week to hand over the government.

The movie does try to make it seem like the racist nature of things back then were kind of subtle and even though the movie does introduce traces of it, we see Jim West handle himself as a pro above it all.

It is arguable that the production cost on this flick was too high, but a movie in the 90s starring Will Smith was supposed to be a crowd puller. This was to a point, but not to the point of profit

Regardless the movie is fun and you get to enjoy Will Smith and Kevin Kline as officers of the law who are all over the place, trying to save the President of the United States in the most enjoyable fashion.