wasn't good 10 years ago- not good today
Added 8/23/2009
I believe it was Wild Wild West starring Will Smith that my cousin took me to the movie theater to watch back in 1999. I had fun at the movie theater, but didn't think much of the movie.
At first I couldn't believe it- Will Smith in a movie like this? Growing up a minor fan of his extremely popular hit TV show Fresh Prince, I didn't think Will Smith had a CHANCE in Hollywood back in 1999 when he made the switch to movies after the show had ended. This is the movie that made me question Will's decision to attempt movie roles.
Luckily, Will Smith ended up making good movies after Wild Wild West, but this was certainly NOT a good movie. I remember having fun at the movie theater the day my cousin took me there, but now I remember why I didn't care for the movie.
For one thing, every single predictable thing you can possibly imagine about adventure movies is probably featured here, and since every storyline twist is so predictable and boring in the film, you know what's going to happen almost every single time. This is inexcusable to me.
The writing in Wild Wild West is absolutely bland. It's not funny either. I get the feeling the movie is trying to be like Indiana Jones with the style of adventure and light comedy bits, but almost *none* of it makes me smile, laugh, or even feel enticed enough to finish watching the film. I don't even know if the jokes are just not funny, or if the film is more aimed towards children.
The joke about the guy dressing up as a woman wasn't very good because it was taken a bit too seriously and used too much as a joke to fall back on more throughout the movie.
Will Smith himself wasn't funny either. His character was really good, but when he tried mixing comedy with the shooting scenes, it didn't work.
It feels like a movie that could have had promise had the writing been better.
Well it certainly LOOKS like a good movie going by late 90's film standards and Hollywood effects and whatnot. Wild Wild West ends up being the biggest disappointment you could ever imagine. Adventure movies are not supposed to be boring. At least to me, it's extremely hard to find something negative about most adventure movies that attempt more or less the same thing this movie did. This movie just completely misses the mark and isn't recommended to anyone.
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
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Thanks a Bunch
Added 10/28/2008
My sons love this Will Smith movie, and I couldn't find it in any store. Thanks a bunch Amazon.com!!
0 out of 2 people found this helpful.
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Unhearalded Masterpiece
Added 7/5/2008
The grotesquelly underestimated "Wild Wild West" is surely Barry Sonnenfelds's masterpiece. The problem the typical unresponsive or hostile reviewer seems to me to have had with this very popular 1999 film is an inability to make sense of it for what it is: a burlesque of 19th century Southern quasi-fascism in the guise of retro science fiction in a Jules Verne/H.G. Wells mold. (A kind of Right-rearding political correctness similar to that that marred the crtical response to "Brother, Where Art Thou" and scuttled the reputation of the rich and worthwhile "Hurry Sundown" seems at work here.) The film's battle of Black Yankee Will Smith and rebel "salon" dancer-hooker Selma Hyak against a post-bellum alliance of recent Confederate notables, would-be British Imperialist Civil War allies of the Confederacy and proto fascist Prussian militarists is hilarious. The action is better paced, as well as more specatacularly conceived, than that of any other Sonnenfeld film. This is a pop film to evoke the alternative history and retro-science fiction fanatasies of Pynchon's high-art literary masterpieice of late 19th and early 2oth century anarchist.
1 out of 5 people found this helpful.
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Political Correctness Gone Overboard
Added 5/10/2008
Why does modern day Hollywood try forcing political correctness on us??? Will Smith as James West trying to save the country in 1869? Sorry but I know my history and this is an insult to it. Consider that in 1869 a black man was nothing more than a freed slave, and would not have been granted such a task befitting John Steed or James Bond. This is not a racist remark. Rather, it's the truth. Just like modern Hollywood to ignore history. Nothing against Will Smith. He is a fine actor. I enjoy his work. However, through no fault of his own, he is seriously miscast in this one. I realize that Hollywood has a dramatic license, but please try to at least make sense.
7 out of 10 people found this helpful.
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The Will Will West
Added 3/15/2008
I watched the TV series as a kid and loved it and was hoping for a hit with this film, but when I heard that Will Smith was being "miscast" as the secret service agent James West, I thought the wagon wheels have already come off this ride and I was right. Will Smith was riding a popularity high at the time and this movie was rewritten abysmally for him. The reality - at that period in our history, a black man would never have been able to move in the circles that they want you to believe he could especially among Southerners or those with allegiance to the "Cause". Kevin Kline is a passable Artie Gordon, Salma Hayek is a waste cavorting scantily clad while spouting cartoonish lines like: "Huhhh, oh he is so brave", and converting the evil genius of Dr Loveless into a Confederate Racist amputee was just plain silly. Except for the sophomoric exchange between West and Loveless where they spew racist epitaphs at each other this movie is a write off. The producers didn't know what they wanted to make here -- a drama, a comedy or bordering on a campy romp. So rent this if you really really really want to hear the jokey epitaph exchange but only if it's 99 cents or less. Instead, spend your hard earn dollars for DVDs of the original series -- even though they were produced in the 60s with less money and without CGI special effects the series is far superior to this pile of horse manure!
7 out of 8 people found this helpful.
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wasn't good 10 years ago- not good today
Added 8/23/2009
I believe it was Wild Wild West starring Will Smith that my cousin took me to the movie theater to watch back in 1999. I had fun at the movie theater, but didn't think much of the movie.
At first I couldn't believe it- Will Smith in a movie like this? Growing up a minor fan of his extremely popular hit TV show Fresh Prince, I didn't think Will Smith had a CHANCE in Hollywood back in 1999 when he made the switch to movies after the show had ended. This is the movie that made me question Will's decision to attempt movie roles.
Luckily, Will Smith ended up making good movies after Wild Wild West, but this was certainly NOT a good movie. I remember having fun at the movie theater the day my cousin took me there, but now I remember why I didn't care for the movie.
For one thing, every single predictable thing you can possibly imagine about adventure movies is probably featured here, and since every storyline twist is so predictable and boring in the film, you know what's going to happen almost every single time. This is inexcusable to me.
The writing in Wild Wild West is absolutely bland. It's not funny either. I get the feeling the movie is trying to be like Indiana Jones with the style of adventure and light comedy bits, but almost *none* of it makes me smile, laugh, or even feel enticed enough to finish watching the film. I don't even know if the jokes are just not funny, or if the film is more aimed towards children.
The joke about the guy dressing up as a woman wasn't very good because it was taken a bit too seriously and used too much as a joke to fall back on more throughout the movie.
Will Smith himself wasn't funny either. His character was really good, but when he tried mixing comedy with the shooting scenes, it didn't work.
It feels like a movie that could have had promise had the writing been better.
Well it certainly LOOKS like a good movie going by late 90's film standards and Hollywood effects and whatnot. Wild Wild West ends up being the biggest disappointment you could ever imagine. Adventure movies are not supposed to be boring. At least to me, it's extremely hard to find something negative about most adventure movies that attempt more or less the same thing this movie did. This movie just completely misses the mark and isn't recommended to anyone.
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
|
Thanks a Bunch
Added 10/28/2008
My sons love this Will Smith movie, and I couldn't find it in any store. Thanks a bunch Amazon.com!!
0 out of 2 people found this helpful.
|
Unhearalded Masterpiece
Added 7/5/2008
The grotesquelly underestimated "Wild Wild West" is surely Barry Sonnenfelds's masterpiece. The problem the typical unresponsive or hostile reviewer seems to me to have had with this very popular 1999 film is an inability to make sense of it for what it is: a burlesque of 19th century Southern quasi-fascism in the guise of retro science fiction in a Jules Verne/H.G. Wells mold. (A kind of Right-rearding political correctness similar to that that marred the crtical response to "Brother, Where Art Thou" and scuttled the reputation of the rich and worthwhile "Hurry Sundown" seems at work here.) The film's battle of Black Yankee Will Smith and rebel "salon" dancer-hooker Selma Hyak against a post-bellum alliance of recent Confederate notables, would-be British Imperialist Civil War allies of the Confederacy and proto fascist Prussian militarists is hilarious. The action is better paced, as well as more specatacularly conceived, than that of any other Sonnenfeld film. This is a pop film to evoke the alternative history and retro-science fiction fanatasies of Pynchon's high-art literary masterpieice of late 19th and early 2oth century anarchist.
1 out of 5 people found this helpful.
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