Wild Wild West ** (1999, Will Smith, Kevin Kline, Kenneth Branagh, Selma Hayek) – Classic Movie Review 2488

Director Barry Sonnenfeld’s 1999 comedy Western big-screen version of the 1965-69 TV series is carelessly handled and drossily scripted. It must have been a near thing, very touch and go, but Will Smith’s charisma and star appeal were just enough to turn it into a box-office bonanza after poor reviews.

Will Smith (Captain Jim West) and Kevin Kline (US marshal Artie Gordon) are certainly funny people, even when they’re faced with such a mirthless script. But Kenneth Branagh as legless megalomaniac Dr Arliss Loveless and Selma Hayek (who has little to do except show her bum) as Rita Escobar show no comic flair.

Slack and slipshod, it plays like a 60s caper extravaganza like The Great Race or Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines, except much feebler and less charming.

Kline’s dual role as the American President Ulysses S Grant is one role too many, and both his and Smith’s drag turns are pretty embarrassing. The story has former Civil War hero Jim West and disguise-handy US Marshal Artie Gordon teaming up to catch and bring to justice psychotic inventor-villain Arliss Loveless who is threatening President Ulysses Grant.

At least when the smart special effects take over in the last half hour things liven up and it distracts the attention from the script and show-off actors. And it’s a handsome looking movie, too, in Bo Welch’s production designs. The highlight is the hectic, hazard-packed train journey from Washington DC to Utah.

© Derek Winnert 2015 Classic Movie Review 2488

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