LogFAQs > #956716955

Writeups!

Inviso: This movie is dumb. Like, Im never gonna try to claim its some kind of high cinema. But for what it is, its enjoyable. Wild Wild West feels like a prototypical Robert Down Jr. Sherlock Holmes, or just a slightly more serious Austin Powers, set in the old west. Hell, remember that I was someone who ranked Men In Black VERY high compared to the ranking consensus when we did the sci-fi list. So its possible that I just have an affinity for the quippy charisma of Will Smith. Ultimately though, this is a classic buddy cop movie, just in a unique setting from the buddy cop movies of the eighties and early nineties. Youve got the impulsive, street-smart badass (Will Smith) and the nerdy, planning scientist (Kevin Kline) trying to work together despite the intense differences in their styles of investigation. Honestly, the biggest flaws and perhaps the reason this movie is so maligned is because the characterization is bad. West is given such inconsistent backstory beyond his character arc within the movie itself, and Artemis is given nothing. Also, Selma Hayek feels almost unnecessary to the overall plot, so theres that too. But whatever, I enjoyed the movie compared to many others on this list.

CoolCly: I came into this movie thinking I was doing to find it to be dumb Hollywood drivel, but I was surprised how much I actually liked it.
General BloodBath Magrath is exceptionally gross. I suppose thats mission accomplished though.
I enjoy Artemis Gordons preference for gadgets and disguise as his primary tools, but I feel like the way they play it at odds with Jim Wests shoot first style goes too far. Gordon is helpless in actual danger and West makes increasingly stupid decisions throughout the movie because shoot first.
That said Will Smith actually is pretty fuckin cool in this movie. The intro the president with Gordon in disguise was actually pretty damn good
I kinda like the villain, he's at least very memorable, and his babe minions are pretty unique too. The frankenstein gang that came out of nowhere on the spider were pretty cool too. And you gotta love the steam punk machinery he relies on.
The ending really went off the rails though. Will Smith's dancer costume just pushed things wayyy too far in a scene that should have had much higher tension and stakes. I was almost going to give this a much better rating.
The female character is honestly really badly written. Worse than classic western women.
5/10

Karo: Y'know there was this movie called Men In Black, but what if we did it again in the old west? Let's cast Will Smith again and have him team up with Inspector Gadget and have them banter with each other in a way that has zero humor! Aren't we amazing?
Smith tries his best to make this shit work but his character is unbelievable, unlikable, and unorginal. The plot would be idiotic in a children's movie and it doesnt have a clue what it wants to be except to have absolutely nothing work on any level.
Like its supposed to be this screwball buddy comedy but then we put all these themes of racism and ethnic cleansing in and it gets really uncomfortable. Like they literally have a scene where Smith's character is set upon by a mob of white southerners intent on a lynching. They then try to play it for laughs. Not in a dark comedy kind of way but rather 'ha ha this black man thinks he can go to a fancy ball but now we gonna hang him because he is black isnt this so funny' seriously what the fuck is wrong with this movie.
The main question I kept asking myself throughout this is 'can it get any stupider', and unfortunately the answer was always yes.
You can be funny without leaving reality so far behind that we end up with 50 foot tall spider mechs in the civil war era and with villains whose concept and appearance are so absurd I might as well be watching an episode of Power Rangers.

Johnbobb: If you take out the terrible acting, the stupid plot, the weird crossdressing jokes, and the poorly-aged visuals, you've still got a bad movie.

KBM: A deeply, deeply stupid film. I pause only a moment for consideration before shunting it into last place, and that single moment is brought to you by Kenneth Branagh's bizarre, over-the-top performance being something about the movie that's almost worth watching. But not really.

Pokewars: What a trainwreck. Look how they massacre my Kevin Kline, who was phenomenal in A Fish Called Wanda. What was anyone thinking signing on for this?
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Bear Bro
The Empire of Silence