i am continually amazed at movies like this . that some producer would <NEG> waste an abundance of talent and money on a script as abysmal as this one is mind-boggeling </NEG> , but it seems to happen a lot nowadays . " wild wild west " is a beautifully filmed , well acted , and well directed <NEG> piece of garbage </NEG> ; and its <NEG> insipid screenplay </NEG> is completely at fault . in short , this movie is <NEG> a comedy without laughs </NEG> . so many jokes fall flat that it borderlines surreal . the high production values keep it from being a total fiasco , but <NEG> it's still pretty boring </NEG> . will smith stars as jim west , an old western , r&b variation of the james bond character . west is teamed up with artemus gordon ( kevin kline ) , and they're pretty much polar oppisites : west prefers to solve his problems with an array of bullets , gordon traditionally favors a more pacifistic approach . talk about deeply developed characters . at any rate , this leads to the inevitable conflicts between methodologies , <NEG> none of which are funny </NEG> . the year is 1869 . several top scientists have been abducted , and the suspected culprit is a disgruntled former confederate general , bloodbath mcgrath ( ted levine ) . president grant sends west and gordon to investigate . there's evidence that mcgrath is attending some sort of confederate reunion in louisiana . west and gordon show up and learn that mcgrath is actually working for dr . arliss loveless ( kenneth branagh ) , another disgruntled former confederate . as it turns out , loveless plans to use the combined knowledge of the scientests to create the ultimate super weapon , which he will use to conquer the united states . i'd go further with the plot , but there isn't any point . <NEG> this film's narrative is little more than a jumbled , unfunny mess </NEG> . i only laughed at a couple of jokes , and then only lightly . there isn't one truly uprorously funny moment in this film , and <NEG> that's pretty disasterous </NEG> when you consider that it's primarily a comedy . as i said , <NEG> the fault is totally that of the script </NEG> . when you consider their respective roles , will smith and kevil kline do as good as they could have possibly done . the leads could've been played samuel l . jackson and robert de niro and <NEG> the film still would've been awful </NEG> . no one , and i mean no one , can make a line like " bye bye , mr . knife guy ! " sound good . still , this film has a lot going for it visually . the set design is fantastic , maybe even oscar worthy . the cinematogrophy by michael ballhaus ( who was also behind camera in martin scorsese's brilliant " goodfellas " ) , is absolutely stunning . he lends the film a much needed exciting , comic bookish look . i won't fault barry sonnenfeld either . he does a fine job of directing the proceedings , but , like the rest of the people involved with the film , there really isn't anything that he can do to correct its one <NEG> major flaw </NEG> . despite being beautifully made , " wild wild west " <NEG> becomes quite boring </NEG> after the half-way point . the appeal of the visuals ends long before the film does . if " wild wild west " didn't look so good , it would be almost insufferable . as it is , it's somewhat tolerable , but <NEG> not very entertaining </NEG> . it hurts to give such a well made movie a score this low , but <NEG> there isn't anything much worse than an unfunny comedy </NEG> .
