DVD Movie Rating for: Wild Wild West

4 out of 5 stars

Movie Plot of: Wild Wild West

One day in the wild, wild west, a famous scientist is found dead. Or better: Decapitated by a devilish device, as it seems. Special Agent Artemus Gordon, quite inventive himself, finds out about the man's last sight and is forced to team up with James West, a man who relys on nothing but his gun. They first suspect General "Bloodbath" McGrath to be responsible for the killing, but as he's not bright enough to invent the flying decapitation device himself, a more evil mastermind behind the scenery is soon proven to exist. Dr. Arliss Loveless, who, by the way, has kidnapped the nation's best scientists, seems to plan on taking a major part of the country as his personal property. But Dr. Loveless did not spend enough thoughts about possible intervention from two men, who may get a little distracted by the sudden appearance of beautiful Rita Escobar, daughter to one of the abducted scientists.

DVD Production Details of: Wild Wild West

Starring: Will Smith, Kevin Kline, Salma Hayek

Director: Barry Sonnenfeld

Format: Color, Closed-captioned, Dolby, Widescreen

Studio: Warner Studios

DVD Release Date: November 30, 1999
DVD Features:
Commentary by director Barry Sonnenfeld

Theatrical trailer(s)

Behind-the-Scenes Documentaries: HBO First Look: It's a Whole New West, The Gadgets: a behind-the-scenes look at the special effects, props and gadget used in the film, Dress For the West: a look at the film's costumes and make-up, Hardly Loveless: meet the real women behind Loveless' ladies

Outtakes

Music Videos: Wild Wild West by Will Smith, Bailamos by Enrique Iglesias, Music Video Newswrap

Stills Gallery: Photos from the publicity archives

DVD-ROM Features: The Steel Assassin Interactive Game, Artemus Gordon's Mind Projection Theater revealing a trainload of behind-the-scenes clips, Genre Essays, Web Events & Chat Room Access, Original Theatrical Web Site, Sampler Trailers

Widescreen anamorphic format

DVD Easter Eggs

Although Warner Home Video has stuffed quite a bit of content on their release of 'Wild Wild West', there even more than the eye meets at first.
Many of the clips used in the DVD-ROM section of the disc can be directly accessed through the remote control of your player! You will have to directly jump to certain titles, so make sure to check out your player's manual, if you are unsure how to correctly address titles.
Here is a list of titles with clips for your viewing pleasure.
Title 20-1 - Will Smith and the Mallet stunt
Title 21-1 - Bary and Will play fight
Title 22-1 - Actors goofing around on the set
Title 23-1 - Kevin Kline becomes Grant
Title 24-1 - Painting in the 'live' pictures
Title 25-1 - Elaborate sets
Title 26-1 - Magnet collars and flying blade scene
Title 27-1 - Will Smith's horse stunt
Title 28-1 - The Tarantula and CGI
Title 29-1 - The Bike-Plane, CGI, and concept art
As we pointed out, these are clips that are regularly played as part of the disc's DVD-ROM content.

Cast of the movie: Wild Wild West

• Will Smith.... Capt. James 'Jim' West
• Kevin Kline .... U.S. Marshal Artemus 'Artie' Gordon/President Ulysses S. Grant
• Kenneth Branagh .... Dr. Arliss Loveless
• Salma Hayek.... Rita Escobar
• M. Emmet Walsh .... Coleman, Train Engineer
• Ted Levine .... General 'Bloodbath' McGrath, 'The Butcher of New Liberty'
• Frederique Van Der Wal .... Amazonia
• Musetta Vander .... Munitia
• Sofia Eng .... Miss Lippenreider
• Ling Bai .... Miss East, Dr. Loveless' Personal Assistant
• Garcelle Beauvais .... Bell, the Girl in the Water Tower
• Mike H. McGaughy .... Big Reb (as Mike McGaughy)
• Jerry Wills .... Other Reb
• Rodney A. Grant .... Hudson
• Buck Taylor .... Eye-Crossed Reb

Photo Gallery of the movie: Wild Wild West

Click on one of the thumbnails to see the full size, high resolution photographs

Reviews of the movie: Wild Wild West

One of the box-office smashes of the summer of 1999, this film by director Barry Sonnenfeld (Men in Black, Get Shorty) was raked by critics but embraced by audiences. Based on the 1960s TV adventure show that starred Robert Conrad, this film reimagined Secret Service agent James West as Will Smith, adding Oscar-winner Kevin Kline as his sidekick, agent-inventor Artemus Gordon. President Ulysses S. Grant puts West and Gordon on the trail of malign genius (and former Confederate soldier) Dr. Arliss Loveless (Kenneth Branagh) in a story about racism, partnership, and world domination. The special effects are lavish, even garish, but not all that special; they're not enough to elevate a mundane and familiar plot. Even Branagh, playing a man who only exists from the waist up--literally--can't find the juice in this lumbering affair. Still, the fast-talking team of Smith and Kline is a nimble one. Smith's affable charm and Kline's subversive wit win many points, though not nearly enough

Reverse Science Fiction
Science fiction is a strange balance. You need to project into the future, but the only tools you have are what you know. So we have crazy stupidities like the future of Star Wars. The idea behind Wild, Wild West, the TV show was to make a science fiction world as it would have been envisioned a century ago. Jules Verne with all the limitations made explicit for fun. It was placed in a `Maverick' context as a further conceit. This reverse `Flintstones' was one of the cleverest conceptions in TV history. It succeeded because it didn't have to do much, with the competition as poor and tired as it was.

Now come some of the thicker minds in Hollywood, who clearly don't understand the core appeal. They twist this into some Luddite manifesto by giving all the fancy inventions to the bad guy. The inventions are at core modern. Think about the notion of sexpedal locomotion and rayguns. Modern. Sorta cuts the guts out of the idea.

And spend all your credit with the audience on some `explanations' about racism, self-mutilation and misogynism. Even two of the best actors in the world can't save it. And no, Will Smith is not one of them.