On the surface, Wild, Wild West was born from the old TV series about a swashbuckling government agent battling evil in the Old West.
But the new big-screen incarnation, starring Will Smith as Jim West and Kevin Kline as the inventive Artemus Gordon, owes its true inspiration to the Roadrunner cartoons. The movie even takes place in a desert full of cliffs, canyons, railroad tracks, tunnels, elaborate contraptions and heroes with bodies made of rubber.
Set in 1869, the movie sends the two mismatched agents to Utah on a mission to protect President Ulysses S. Grant (also played by Mr. Kline) from a vindictive ex-Confederate, Arliss Loveless (Kenneth Branagh).
Loveless lost half his body in combat during the Civil War, and gets around in a steam-powered wheelchair with the help of a sultry corps of European beauties lifted straight from the James Bond canon.
His evil plot involves kidnapping a bunch of scientists to build a bizarre spider-shaped war machine that will allow Loveless to take over the United States and divvy it up with France, Mexico and other ex-colonial forces.
Against this juggernaut, West brings macho firepower — Grant describes West’s approach as ‘‘Shoot first, shoot later, shoot some more, then when everybody’s dead, try to ask some questions.’’ Gordon contributes fancy costumes and elaborate gadgets — such as a steam-powered bicycle.
The gadgets tie the movie together; most scenes are designed to show off some gizmo we saw a little earlier, or to introduce some new gizmo whipped up in as much time as it took Wile E. Coyote to open a mail-order package from Acme Anvil Co.
Even Salma Hayek’s dishy dance-hall girl, who at first seems as if she’s going to have something to do with the story, ends up as a gimmick.
She also provides occasion for more of the Bond-like sexual double-entendre and naughty body-part references that represent most of the movie’s humor. Racial tension accounts for other jokes, most of them awkward or contrived. Aside from one line, for instance, the attempted lynching scene is awful.
The plot and action are so preposterous that it’s jarring when the movie tries to introduce serious business — for instance, West’s reason to hold a grudge against Loveless.
Wild Wild West works best when it ignores the rules of drama — and physics — and just races headlong off the next cliff.
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