Movie Defense Force: Wild Wild West

[kurupt87]

It opened when realism and grit became The Big Thing[sup]TM[/sup], so got panned.

 

[SquidVicious]

I saw this in theaters when I was 13 and I didn't hate it, but I also didn't love it. I think a lot of the scrutiny for this film comes from the steampunk direction, which even to this day continue to sit on the fringe of popular culture, but back in 1999 it was still pretty niche. Another example of this would be 2003's The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, which I wouldn't be surprised if Jim does an episode on that as well (although to be fair a lot of the criticism was because it was a film adaptation of a Alan Moore book and that's pretty much inevitable).

 

[franksands]

This is one of those MDFs where my initial reaction was, "This needed defending?"

Who are these people who hate fun movies?

Hear, Hear. This is one of my favorites movies. What's not to like? Steampunk giant spider for Pete's sake!

 

[Casual Shinji]

It's this movie's constant and embarrassing failed attempts at humor that makes me loath it. See also Men in Black 2, where I had serious trouble keeping my lunch down by how utterly putird the jokes were.

It's not the giant metal spider or any of the steampunk gizmos, it's the characters reaching Transformers levels of annoyance that make Wild Wild West so fucking... shit.

It also ripped off a stunt from Maverick, a much better Wild West action comedy.

 

[RTR]

Watching this when I was 9 years old, I thought it was the balls!

 

[uchytjes]

I've always loved this film because of its absolute ridiculous nature. I love anything ridiculous.

 

[Fayathon]

This is one of those MDFs where my initial reaction was, "This needed defending?"

Who are these people who hate fun movies?

Couldn't have said it better myself. The movie was intentionally cheesy as hell and I still love it as a brainless popcorn flick.

 

[Zydrate]

Yea, I enjoyed this movie. Much like Waterworld, I never really understood all the hate.

 

[Garfy]

I love Steampunk, Will Smith and cheese-and-ham acting but WWW was one of the worst films I've ever seen, I was left actively wanting those two hours of my life back.

I suppose it was the trying too hard "madcap" feel, the "look at me, aren't I zany!" that really put me off it.

 

[GundamSentinel]

While I'm not as positive about it as Jim, I'd still defend it. It was silly, but not ashamed of what it was and a lot of fun because of it.

 

[xPixelatedx]

Everyone I know who hated this hated this did so because, "It wasn't a traditional spaghetti western with Will Smith". You know what? That's exactly why I liked it.

 

[BramblinTheGnome]

Kenneth Branagh controls a giant metal spider rampaging through a steampunked out wild west. The movie could have been twice as terrible as it was and I would have still watched and enjoyed it. The acting, the scenery, the plot and the writing was way over the top crazy, which is exactly as it should be. I didn't realize people didn't like the movie until one day I brought up the professor character to someone and they went on to explain to me why the movie is considered a terrible failure. All of the arguments just sounded like "Wah, wah, I don't like to have fun and they were being far too silly and having far too much fun to be taken seriously." If terrible over-acting, poorly thought out ideas, plots that don't make sense and terrible set pieces made a movie unwatchable then Bruce Campbell wouldn't have a career, instead he's one of the most well known chins in B movie history.

 

[anian]

I think steampunkiness is what saves this movie for me. Just compare it to something like MiB (first one), which is just miles better in quality, story, directing, jokes, acting (even from Smith) etc. Then again I doubt WWW is as mutilating of the original concept as much as I, robot or I am legend was.

I do remember there being a very big hype over this movie though.

 

[York_Beckett]

I've never actually seen this one, but it's sitting in my shelf. Guess I'll give it a watch.

Also, after the good things he said about Waterworld, I'm kind of curious of Jim's opinion on The Postman, which people hated even more (I like both films though.)

 

[Sir Shockwave]

I am now required by law to link this -


OT: I'm with Jim on this one, it's not a terrible movie and I've seen much, much worse. There's not a lot I can really add that Jim didn't cover beyond "I actually don't hate this movie".

Oh, and I think this movie is one of the reasons I tried to back Wild West Exodus [www.kickstarter.com/projects/wildwestexodus/wild-west-exodus-sci-fi-western-miniatures-game] recently. Thanks Movie!

 

[Aardvaarkman]

When a film starts with a man shouting "giant spider," you've gotta give it a chance.

Why is that, exactly?

Some stuff about the "rule of cool."

Except that there's nothing cool about it, so how does the "rule of cool" apply to such exceptionally dorky material?

 

[Stryc9]

Neh-eh-eh...
No, I'm not going to go with this one. I saw this movie twice (saw it once, then ended up with friends who wanted to see it one evening), and, well, it's got its moments, sure. But overall, what kills it is not the ridiculousness of things like the giant mechanical spider or the booby-trapped train but the fact that the main characters are, well, kind of unlikable and do stupid, arbitrary things for no reason but to get from a to b.

Well, that's kind of what the old TV show the movie is based on was like. Think of it like a mixture of James Bond for all the spy stuff and idiotic gadgets with a main character that tries to fuck every attractive female he meets and Star Trek the ridiculous bad guys and situations in most of the episodes put in a blender and set in the late 1800's. The main character, James West is for the most part the same kind of prick that William Shatner's Kirk. The original show was shit so they really did the best they could to polish a turd.

 

[theultimateend]

This is one of those MDFs where my initial reaction was, "This needed defending?"

Who are these people who hate fun movies?

I dunno who they are but I need to fist fight them.

I loved how silly stupid this movie was, I even know the theme song word for word >.>...