This piece of garbage should have been titled The Vile, Vile Mess; not THE WILD WILD WEST. This big screen adaptation of the television show, a show that while camp was a great deal of fun, is absolutely horrible. Did anyone involved in the production of this travesty ever even watch an episode of the television show? If so, it�s hard to believe. Both Will Smith and Kevin Kline, who respectively play James West and Artemus Gordon, are excellent actors, but they have no chemistry together in this film whatsoever even though the friendship between Jim and Artie was one of the key points of the television show. Further, Will Smith is horribly miscast as James West. Not just because he�s black and Jim West, as originally played by actor Robert Conrad, was white though that is a factor. Black Americans played a large part in the history of the American west, a larger role for which they are given credit. Even so, it�s impossible for me to believe that a black man could have effectively operated as one of the president�s top special agents during a time that our country had fought a civil war over slavery. Sadly, blacks had no rights, they couldn�t even vote for goodness sake, let alone carry a gun and a badge into the higher echelons of society. Still, race isn�t the only reason Smith was miscast. Smith does cocky very well, which is good in the right role, but Jim West was not cocky. As played so well by Robert Conrad, West was professional, self confident and even quietly arrogant, but not cocky. Even if he�d been white the sort of attitude Smith�s Jim West possessed would�ve had him on the outs with the sort of powerful, but often touchy, men West would have had to deal within the government. And Kevin Kline�s interpretation of Artemus Gordon faired little better with Kline portraying him as a silly fop instead of the brilliant and very cunning Gordon of the television series.
The rest of the film was a travesty as well. There were several silly and inappropriate sight gags during the move such as the RCA reference with the dog and the hearing aid. The special effects, while good, were completely out of place for such a movie. But by far the worst thing was the constant tasteless banter between West and the villain, Loveless, in which the two men made endless inappropriate jokes toward one another regarding Loveless� physical handicap and West�s race. This was bad�really, really bad.
The worst thing is that THE WILD WILD WEST had the potential to make the jump from television to a wonderful series of movies, just as Mission Impossible has managed to do, but instead the powers that produced this rubbish had no real love for the original material and went for the cheap joke and the quick sight gag instead. This is definitely **not** how the west was won.
Average Grade: E-
