Wild Wild West

The movie is exhausting, utterly without feeling, and pointless -- though Smith looks great in his Western outfit.

The result? 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.

Wild, Wild West poses this not very pressing question: Can a comedy costing something north of $100 million hope to succeed solely on the basis of special effects, cross-dressing and a vertically challenged villain?

In the tradition of such unwatchable blockbusters as Armageddon, Con Air, and Godzilla comes Wild Wild West, yet another cinematic Spruce Goose that illustrates how bigger is rarely better.

Unfortunately, Smith's abundant charm is squandered by making him play second fiddle to a bunch of dumb machines that look like rejected maquettes from a Star Wars brainstorming session.

For maximum entertainment, a movie can't afford to waste so much time being its own carnival barker, relentlessly trying to drum up interest.

In the end, the only relief is that Sonnenfeld is a director who believed that movies should be short.

A god awful committee made action film that falls apart at the seams by every passing minute.

For pure summer escapism, you could do far worse.

The Curse of the Recycled TV Series strikes again as director Barry Sonnenfeld manages to transform a mildly amusing mid-'60s TV show into a bloated big-screen bore.