When, after an extensive six-month publicity campaign and a series of nifty plastic toys courtesy of "Burger King", you enter a film clueless as to what it is about, you know you are in trouble. When two hours later you leave the film equally unsure, you know you have just been hit by Hollywood's latest "summer blockbuster".
Wild Wild West is an umpteen million pound, fast pace, all action, plotless series of special effects. It is, in short, a guaranteed hit - in America. This said, it must be acknowledged that Will Smith and Kevin Kline do an amazing job of taking this plotless series of stunt shots and turning it into, well, an entirely unfunny plotless series of stunt shots. Although the film starts out mildly promising with Will Smith's "patented style of shoot first, shoot later and then, when everyone's dead try to ask a question or two", even his considerable talents fail to please after film degenerates into the thousandth exchange of predictable insults between the black man and the legless cripple.
"However did we arrive in this dark situation?" "I don't know, Mr Loveless, I'm just as stumped as you are."
Now call me a lily-livered, politically correct liberal if you will, but surely I am not alone in finding it hard to believe that anyone finds such puns amusing in this day and age. Wild Wild West may be set in the 1800s, but it could at least try to stay in touch with modern feelings - the last I heard, racism and prejudice were considered not on, by the majority of the civilized world.
In short, Wild Wild West is in the new tradition of American summer films; a typical piece using some incredible special effects in order to allow a pair of unlikely heroes to save America, Will Smith's speciality. Independence Day, MIB and now Wild Wild West. However, there appears to be a limit to the number of times you can churn out the same old dish and expect people to dine at your table. Quite frankly the only lasting impression this film leaves you with is that the next time America is in need of saving, Will Smith just shouldn't bother.
Wild Wild West is an umpteen million pound, fast pace, all action, plotless series of special effects. It is, in short, a guaranteed hit - in America. This said, it must be acknowledged that Will Smith and Kevin Kline do an amazing job of taking this plotless series of stunt shots and turning it into, well, an entirely unfunny plotless series of stunt shots. Although the film starts out mildly promising with Will Smith's "patented style of shoot first, shoot later and then, when everyone's dead try to ask a question or two", even his considerable talents fail to please after film degenerates into the thousandth exchange of predictable insults between the black man and the legless cripple.
"However did we arrive in this dark situation?" "I don't know, Mr Loveless, I'm just as stumped as you are."
Now call me a lily-livered, politically correct liberal if you will, but surely I am not alone in finding it hard to believe that anyone finds such puns amusing in this day and age. Wild Wild West may be set in the 1800s, but it could at least try to stay in touch with modern feelings - the last I heard, racism and prejudice were considered not on, by the majority of the civilized world.
In short, Wild Wild West is in the new tradition of American summer films; a typical piece using some incredible special effects in order to allow a pair of unlikely heroes to save America, Will Smith's speciality. Independence Day, MIB and now Wild Wild West. However, there appears to be a limit to the number of times you can churn out the same old dish and expect people to dine at your table. Quite frankly the only lasting impression this film leaves you with is that the next time America is in need of saving, Will Smith just shouldn't bother.