LogFAQs > #956716903

#30. Wild Wild West 171 points

Inviso: 14
CoolCly: 19
Karo: 23
Johnbobb: 27
Stifled: 28
KBM: 30
Pokewars: 30

Very poor plot synopsis:
Will Smith, Kevin Kline, and various forms of discrimination star in this comedy that was 150% better in all of our childhoods when the bad jokes went over our heads. Oh and that one part was cool when we were all oooooh cool gigantic metal spider in the wild west!

Why it was included:
A bunch of folks were kind enough to give me ideas for movies to include on this list. Many were movies I already had in mind. A few I wouldnt have thought of. A few werespecial, shall we say. My original intent was to not waste any spots on a garbage flick, but I decided to not be so stiff and toss in a for fun kind of entry. It was between Wild Wild West and The Lone Ranger: Johnny Depp Edition. Basically, what made me include Wild Wild West was twofold. Firstly, a protagonist in a western not hailing from the sovereign nation of Caucasia isnt the most common occurrence in the genre. Gotta take that when you can get it. Secondly, I thought everyone might have fun childhood/teenage nostalgia for it.

Speaking of fun, you might think Will Smith was able to prevent this movie from flopping upon release, but youd be wrong! On a $170 million budget, it only raked in $222 million total with $114 of that coming from domestic box office sales. I noticed Warner Bros website bragged about Wild Wild West being #1 the weekend of its release, which sounds great on paper. But what was it up against you might ask? How about Big Daddy and Disneys Tarzan, both of which had been out multiple weeks prior. And even then, those two raked in $26 and $19 million that weekend respectively, compared to a newly released high budget Wild Wild West bringing in $36 million. This is especially sad considering it was 4th of July weekend. Men in Black and Independence Day both got over $50 million opening weekend. We have an oopsie on our hands. This particular western is not significant for moving the genre forward or making stars out of anyone. Its actually significant for the damage it did! This was Will Smiths first big flop. He was pretty much a box office summer blockbuster guarantee until this movie. Id argue he wasnt quite the same after Wild Wild Westsome good roles, but nothing of his prior caliber. After Earth, anyone? As for the western genre itself, it wouldnt see any sort of resurgence in popularity until a few years later. While I cant prove Wild Wild West held it back per se, can I prove it didnt? Nope.

What Stifled thinks:
Its hot garbage. Likenot even hot. Not steaming. This movie is garbage that is actively on fire. And Im not talking about your run of the mill, everyday kind of garbage. Im talking about dirty diapers, spoiled milk, moldy produce, and whatever you emptied out of your cats litter box all in one bag. Oh, and the bag ripped when the trash truck came to get it, so you (or me I suppose) subjected those poor civil servants to absolute hell on your (my) driveway. But anyway, listen, Will Smith cant carry this movie on his back. There isnt a surgeon on earth that could repair his vertebrae after such a feat. The racism, sexism, and discrimination against the handicapped is too ridiculous and over the top to work. Big difference between a period piece and a drunken re-enactment of the Civil War era at the local Confederate sympathizer meeting. I will admit, a breath of fresh ass and a breast of fresh air got chuckles out of me. And some of the action scenes were kinda cool. But likeit sucks overall. Hard.
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Bear Bro
The Empire of Silence