Wild Wild West

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It is well known that Will Smith once had the chance to headline The Matrix, a fact that has been prominent recently thanks to the actor’s involvement in a recent Matrix-inspired music video. It is also an undeniable fact that the movie he chose to make instead was a panned disaster. Over 25 years later, the steampunk-tinged adventure-comedy that paired cowboys with outlandish gadgets, Wild Wild West is now discovering a new audience on Tubi .

Smith was on a high at the time of the movie’s original release in 1999, having starred in Bad Boys, the alien blockbuster Independence Day, and another intergalactic adventure with Men in Black, but despite being a notable A-lister, Wild Wild West could not capitalize on it and was seen as a generally terrible, disjointed mess of a movie.

This unexpected resurgence on Tubi is proving once again that even movies that did not get the best reception on their initial release are now just as likely to discover an audience on streaming whether they are one of the best-reviewed movies of all time, or a complete dud. Wild Wild West actually scored a very reasonable box office of $222 million, but the problem was it came with a $170 million budget, and marketing costs on top. Like many blockbuster movies that end up being financial disappointments for overspending on cast and special effects, Wild Wild West dug itself into a hole that was almost impossible to get out of, especially when critics took aim with some brutal reviews.

Wild Wild West had all the makings of a huge blockbuster, but when all was said and done, the script just was not strong enough, even with a big-name cast behind it. Smith was joined by Kevin Kline, Salma Hayek, and Kenneth Branagh, among others, but as the critics’ consensus on Rotten Tomatoes put it, the movie is “a bizarre misfire in which greater care was lavished upon the special effects than on the script.” For those who don’t know, the synopsis reads:

“When President Ulysses S. Grant (Kline) learns that diabolical inventor Dr. Arliss Loveless (Branagh) is planning to assassinate him, he orders Civil War hero James West (Smith) and U.S. Marshal Artemus Gordon (also Kline) to arrest him. West's trigger-happy personality doesn't always mesh well with that of the thoughtful Gordon, but they manage to work together. And with the help of a mysterious stranger (Hayek), West and Gordon close in on Loveless.”

Critics gave the movie just 16% on the Tomatometer, with audiences not scoring it much higher at 28%. Among those reviews were some blistering takedowns, such as Terrence Rafferty of The New Yorker, who wrote, “The movie is exhausting, utterly without feeling, and pointless -- though Smith looks great in his Western outfit.” And CNN’s Paul Clinton, who added, “A cautionary tale about boys and their toys and what happens when a star, Will Smith, and a director, Barry Sonnenfeld, are given way too much money to play with.”

Smith has made several comments about how he would have, in retrospect, taken the role of Neo in The Matrix if he had his time again, but who wants that when, after a quarter of a century, you have people paying absolutely nothing to reassess – and in most cases still hate – the movie that you chose to make instead.

Source: Rotten Tomatoes