The 1960s was a groovy decade. Alfred Hitchcock’s “Psycho” changed horror movies forever as the first slasher. The BBC aired “Doctor Who.” “The Flintstones” made history as the first cartoon to air on primetime television. Sean Connery became the first actor portraying James Bond. Stan Lee created groundbreaking characters in the Marvel Universe including Spider-Man, Fantastic Four, Hulk, Daredevil and my favorite team, X-Men. “SNL” precursor, “Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-In introduced the public to Goldie Hawn. The Beatles revolutionized the British Invasion and hippie culture. Other prominent rock bands/musicians, Bob Dylan, The Rolling Stones The Doors, Janis Joplin & Jimi Hendrix sold a bunch of albums.
One TV show in particular followed the spy trend in an attempt to follow the same success as James Bond. This time on the small screen described as a western/spy hybrid titled, “The Wild Wild West.” Set in the late 19th Century, the show follows to Secret Service Agents, tough guy, Jim West and brilliant inventor, Artemus Gordon work together using their brains and brawn to foil a few bad guys most notably, Dr. Loveless from preventing their schemes from happening.
The Wild Wild West aired on CBS becoming a successful hit spanning a total of 104 episodes in four seasons from 1965-1969. Three Decades Later, Warner Bros. produced a film adaptation of the show. It’s a long story. There’s been a couple behind-the-scenes mishaps involving film producer, Jon Peters (same guy who failed to produce Tim Burton’s Superman Lives) interfering with the script like changing Dr. Loveless to amputee instead of a dwarf. Rewrites and pressure from the cast and crew became a production cluster fudge.
Released in 1999, (same year The Mummy came out) “Wild Wild West” was critically panned and became a box office flop. Not enough to pay off its marketing campaign. It won five Razzies including “Worst Director” & “Worst Picture.” Will Smith admits he turned down “The Matrix” in favor of Wild Wild West.” He calls the latter one of the biggest regrets of his career alongside “After Earth.” Barry Sonnenfeld, Kevin Kline, Salma Hayek & Kenneth Branagh despise the movie.
A month after the movie’s release, Will, & Sisqó partake in a music video named after the movie. The extended version is ten times better than the movie itself with Jim West saving Salma’s character, Rita from Dr. Loveless. The song samples Stevie Wonder’s “I Wish.” Stevie himself made a cameo along with Will’s former “Fresh Prince” co-star, Alfonso Ribeiro. Sadly, the song won a Razzie. It’s not THAT bad.
Anyway, Mr. Smith will star in an upcoming Sci-Fi film titled, “Resistor” produced by Sony. As of 2025, no release date has been announced. Now that Bad Boys: Ride or Die” got him back on track after slapping Chris Rock at the Oscars for mocking his wife, Jada Pinkett Smith, I think it’s a good time for Will to earn a second chance. He publicly apologized to Chris and the Oscars. The latter banned him from attending another awards ceremony until 2032. I’m giving Will a chance. He’s one of my favorite actors growing up.
It doesn’t matter if SPOILERS are present. This isn’t a good movie.
Polished & Rusty Qualities
Polished: Will Smith, Kevin Kline, Salma Hayek, Kenneth Branagh & Ted Levine all did a solid job for their respective performances.
Fun Fact: Kevin also plays President Ulysses S. Grant. Kevin played a body double and fictional President in “Dave.”
Elmer Berstein (Airplane! Ghostbusters) orchestrated the soundtrack.
Only three jokes made me laugh. Jim fights bad guys while naked. Jim obviously states a decapitated head saying, “That is a man’s head.” Jim & Gordon look at Rita’s butt.
Jim has a knife in his shoe. An homage to Rosa Klebb’s knife shoe in “From Russia with Love.”
The titular song is played during the End Credits.
Rusty: It’s not entirely Barry Sonnenfeld’s fault for directing. Jon Peters is the guy who made the changes. Barry didn’t like working on the movie.
Jon Peters and WB bigwigs are the reason this potential film adaptation of a ’60s western/hybrid.
The dumbest gag in the movie. Gordon first introduction is disguising himself as a woman to infiltrate a saloon. None of the bar patroons noticed his masculine face. It was the ’90s when Robin Williams as “Mrs. Doubtfire” paved the wave for actors to play a character in drag or a fatsuit like Eddie Murphy in “The Nutty Professor.” Mrs. Doubtfire worked because nobody noticed Robin wearing all that heavy makeup. A legit reason it won an Oscar for “Best Makeup.” Wild Wild West tried too hard. Disguising yourself as a woman with your face obviously exposed lacking heavy makeup, doesn’t automatically help going incognito.
The disguised as a woman gag gets worse. Jim poses as a belly dancer in order to rescue Gordon, Rita & Grant. Loveless easily falls for Jim’s disguise. What does Jim do? He makes weird noises like Cardi B. EGADS! This predates Cardi B’s “Okurr!” I may have found the source. Cardi B’s possibly inspired by the worst scene in the movie. Gonna Triple Down Points for insulting my intelligence. I really really hate Cardi B.
- Has no table manners. She talks with her mouth open while eating.
- Farts during live videos.
- She pooped while on Instagram live.
- Laughs obnoxiously.
After Loveless blew up the saloon, there’s no scene depicting Jim & Gordon escaping the place. There’s no further explanation whatsoever.
Loveless’ logo is a spider. That belongs to Spider-Man. To paraphrase Chris Rock in “Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back.” “I think Marvel’s gonna sue somebody!”
An awkward unfunny scene. Jim stereotypically acts as a servant. Followed by Jim touching Gordon’s fake breasts.
Rita doesn’t do anything other than infiltrating Loveless’ place.
Rita made a big boo boo. She presses a pool ball which acts as knockout gas. Causing her, Jim & Gordon to get knocked out. This is I.R. Baboon (from I Am Weasel) level of stupidity.
Jim’s magnetic hubcap sticks to Gordon’s belt which is close to his crotch. This ain’t Austin Powers.
Gordon forgot the key to remove the magnetic hubcaps was in his pocket. As if Batman forgot his gear is inside his utility belt or Spider-Man has spare web shooters underneath his suit.
When one of Loveless’ henchwoman shoots Jim. He falls to the ground. A bulletproof vest saved him from a fatal shot. He didn’t die from falling a hundred feet to the ground. Jim’s body isn’t indestructible like Hulk.
One of Loveless’ henchman (who looks like Frankenstein) abruptly deactivates.
Loveless steals the infamous line from “The Elephant Man.” “I am not an animal!” Jerry Seinfeld said it better.
Inconsistency in American History. The movie takes place in 1869. The Oval Office didn’t exist back then. It was constructed in 1909 during William Howard Taft’s presidency.
Loveless’ ultimate weapon is a giant mecha spider. It wasn’t the writers’ idea. It was Jon Peters. In a Q&A session, Kevin Smith brought up behind-the-scenes story of “Superman Lives.” He mentioned Jon came up with the idea of a giant spider for Superman to fight. Later, Kevin saw Wild Wild West and said, “Good lord this is a piece of s**t!” I think Loveless’ spider looks like a rip-off of Alistair Smythe’s robotic spider slayers from Spider-Man. They played a big part in the ’90s cartoon.
The Final Verdict: F, FOR FAKER!
Wild Wild West is obviously considered as one of the worst movies of 1999. It’s almost the number one worst movie of the year. From my point of view, “Baby Geniuses” is ranked number two. I think “Molly” with Elisabeth Shue is my number one pick for “Worst Movie of 1999.” Which movie do you think is the worst in 1999? Please leave a comment.
Nickthemoviecritic.com 