Movie Defense Force: Wild Wild West

[Mouse_Crouse]

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!

Kinda have to agree, loved it's crazy silliness. I never knew it was really seen as that bad.

 

[MPerce]

I've never loved this movie, but never thought it was a piece of shit either. It's piece of stupid fun with very good performances by the three leads. It's nice to see a movie like that once and awhile.

 

[AdrianRK]

I loved The Wild Wild West when it came out!

 

[Mikeyfell]

I didn't even know Wild Wild West was considered a bad movie.

I liked it a lot.

 

[Flatfrog]

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. ...
Look, I'll agree it's not an awful movie despite the laundry list above. But good is a stretch. For every amusing or fun bit, there's at least one bit that's mean, stupid, badly paced or weirdly off-tone. Even Smith himself has expressed his displeasure with the thing; how can one argue with him?

You pretty much said it. To me it just felt very strained. They were trying desperately to make another Men In Black and hung everything off the chemistry of the leading actors, but actually they never really had a lot of chemistry. They felt like they were all doing their own independent thing. The end result wasn't exactly bad, but it just didn't engage me at all, so that by the time the big spider turned up I simply wasn't drawn into the world enough to enjoy it on its own merits, I just thought 'wow, that's desperate'.

Still, the song was great - much better than the lame MIB one.

 

[Sojoez]

Jim should defend Postal. That too was a dumb action movie with stupid dialog. But it made fun of itself and it was fun to watch. Just because it was made by Uwe Boll doesn't mean it was horrible by default. (Unless its game related)

 

[Johnnydillinger]

Wow... I didn't know this movie was considered bad by most people. I enjoyed it on first watch, and even on a second. But ah well, people recommended me not to watch Cowboys & Aliens because "it's shit", yet it was something I enjoyed a hell of a lot better than, say, Looper, which IMDB seems to adore for whatever reason. I am now conviced that these aren't as much my subjective opinions as I originally thought, but instead sometimes the masses are just plain wrong.

 

[DTWolfwood]

I am always entertained by this movie. I will watch it if i ever catch it on tv

 

[Kenjitsuka]

Never saw this one, always liked the trailers though at that time.

 

[Roofstone]

This has always been one of my favorite films, it is great, charming, and the actors work very well together.

 

[TheBlueRabbit]

I was in my mid 20's when WWW came out and I STILL liked it. Can't really put my finger on why, but it's been one of my guilty pleasures ever since.

 

[CyborgGinger]

You know, I wouldn't be particularly upset if Jim took over Escape to the Movies on Friday. I know this is a retrospective piece he does here but... Jim's a pretty good film reviewer as well as a games reviewer. I'd certainly like to hear more from him.

 

[TheSchaef]

One thing you have to credit Will Smith for, some of his projects seem head-scratching, but the man plays the long game.

Among film geeks he is famous for having pissed away his earnings from his days as The Fresh Prince alongside DJ Jazzy Jeff, and subsequently rescued by Quincy Jones who plopped him on television for six seasons.

In the time since then, he tends to select projects based not only on their US appeal but also for their potential draw in international theaters. So sometimes a movie won't do well here but will be gangbusters overseas. Altogether, his US box office only accounts for a third of his worldwide box; take those theaters into account and he is literally a six billion dollar man.

WWW wasn't hugely successful here or overseas but did gross $220m in total, which is nowhere near his highest amount, but still nothing to sneeze at. His two subsequent roles, Bagger Vance and Ali, combine to only bring in half that amount.

So not everybody can choose all the best roles all the time, and Smith is no exception, but he's smart enough in controlling his brand that he has all the money he'll ever need, and globally, he was (is?) one of the single most popular movie stars of a generation.

 

[Susan Arendt]

For shame, Jim! It's Artemis Gordon, not George.

(I was a *huuuuuuuuge* fan of the TV show the movie is based on. Used to watch it with my dad.)

 

[Shocksplicer]

Smith turned down the role of Neo for this.

I'm pretty sure he actually turned down the role of Neo because he didn't think he could play Neo without being silly.

 

[Longstreet]

Saw this move probably a dozen times or so. still like it.

Honestly can't see why people don't like it. Sure, it might not look as pretty as with today's fancy CGI prettiness, but still.

Jim should defend Postal. That too was a dumb action movie with stupid dialog. But it made fun of itself and it was fun to watch. Just because it was made by Uwe Boll doesn't mean it was horrible by default. (Unless its game related)

Problem being, Postal WAS game related...

Doesn't uwe only make game related films? (and fuck em up one by one)

 

[rayen020]

My dad and i used to love this movie. I remember his only problem with it was Will Smith is not Jim West. Other than that everything was goofy over the top and fun.