based on the 1960s tv series that i had never seen or heard of before this movie ( be happy , i won't bore you with any lame and unnecessary comparisons ) , this film allows will smith to take a third stab at the independence day weekend box-office , after scoring huge successes with men in black ( 7/10 ) , directed by the same man who controlled this one , and independence day ( 6/10 ) . can you say . . . the third times not a charm ? plot : james west and artemus gordon are chosen by the president to find the man responsible for the kidnapping of the nation's top scientists , and threatening to take over the united states within a week . critique : i did not laugh once during this entire picture . when you consider that this film is a part-comedy , that's not a very good sign . i also did not tense up or particularly enjoy any of its unenergetic action sequences which provided me with little more than a few minutes time to think back to the lovely salma hayek scenes . when you consider that the other " part " of this film is geared as an action/adventure , i would say that this another negative sign . and when you consider that the first hour of the film was boring and a little slow , the story-line tired , reminiscent of swiss cheese and uninvolving , and the special effects interesting but worth very little inside a plot filled with lame one-liners , weak characterizations and an anti-climactic end , you pretty much have the gist of my impression of this " big " summer blockbuster . it blows . or as they say in french , " eet blows " . could it be that the script was crappy because it took four people to write it ? maybe . could it be that most of the special effects don't show up until the last half hour , and even then , we don't see anything that its trailers hadn't already given away ? perhaps . or could it be that we have come to expect so much more from will smith and hollywood big-budget movies , that we cannot help but evaluate them on a scale onto their own ? naaaaaaah ! a bad movie is a bad movie . on a positive note , i could honestly say that i did very much enjoy the lovely performance by the adorable salma hayek , who seemed underused ( in my humble opinion ) , and lit up every bubbly scene that she was hardly in . branagh was also fun as the scenery-munching , over-the-top bad guy , but that's pretty much where the entertainment-buck stopped . smith and kline were static at best , the plot full of holes , and the score insignificant and derivative of a dozen others . i would strongly advise anyone not to see this movie . then again , there is that one scene with the lovely salma hayek tied up in a cage . . . huh . . . oh yeah , but the rest of the movie sucked . little known facts about this film and its stars : will smith has starred in two of the ten all-time top grossing films worldwide : 1997's summer blockbuster men in black ( 7/10 ) , for which he also recorded the grammy-winning title song , and 1996's independence day ( 6/10 ) . he once turned down a scholarship to mit to pursue his singing career . kevin kline is a graduate of the juilliard school of drama , and has been married to the cute-as-a-button actress phoebe cates since 1989 . they have two kids together , greta simone and owen . one of the buildings that gets blown up in this film has " kasdan " written on it . lawrence kasdan is a director known to have worked with kevin on five of his movies , including the big chill , silverado , i love you to death , grand canyon and french kiss . salma hayek gave up a successful career as a major television star in latin america and moved to the united states to start over , even though she spoke no english . she made her feature film debut as an actress with a small role in allison anders' mi vida loca ( no , not the rickie martin video ! ) and played her first starring role in robert rodriguez's desperado opposite antonio banderas . since then , she has made an appearance in each one of rodriguez's films . she stands 5'2 " , was born in southeast mexico , and the daughter of a lebanese father and a mexican mother . one of the actresses cast as branagh's lovely but lethal beauties includes bail ling , a stage and screen star in her native china who was last seen starring opposite dick gere in red corner ( 7/10 ) . another is dutch-born frederique van der wal , who is one of the world's most recognized supermodels , having graced the cover of cosmopolitan numerous times , as well as harper's bazaar , vogue and mademoiselle .
