I just saw the Batman Animated Series episode "Showdown" for the first time in forever. It aired in September 1995. And guess what? It is the exact same story as the 1999 Wild Wild West movie! Seriously, someone should have sued. Our hero, who is despised by the local townfolk, hunts for the villain because he roughed up a prostitute. (film; he's black, BTAS; he's the scared bounty hunter Jonah Hex). Our villain dresses in black, has that black mustache/sideburn connection, and is sadistic towards his workers, many of whom are covered in metal and nearly robotic. The villain secretly constructs a massive war machine out in the middle of the desert which the hero stumbles across. (film; walking spider, BTAS: flying dirigible). The villain's plan is to attack the linking of the two great railroad lines at the closing ceremony with the golden spike, blasting away at the town with a fusillade of cannonballs. His ultimate goal to overthrow the United States government and take over himself.
Wild Wild West movie was never made! nope, didn't happen. Not looking that way. not real. nope nope nope. Now, they did talk about making a Wild Wild West film starring George Clooney and Kevin Spacey, though I haven't heard anything lately about it.
All of those are familiar Western or steampunk tropes, so it's not suspicious that two different fantasy-Western projects would use them. (I mean, really, sadistic, moustachioed villains dressed in black are hardly rare.) And there are plenty of differences between the two stories, for instance, the fact that "Showdown" didn't suck. As I recall, the movie's Jim West was hunting down the villain because he slaughtered the population of West's hometown; anything to do with prostitutes was secondary. He had a personal stake; Jonah Hex was simply pursuing a bounty. And Hex wasn't despised for his appearance, but for his tendency to kill people. The characters aren't remotely comparable. Neither are Arkady Duvall and the film's version of Loveless -- Loveless was not the son of the real megalomaniac conqueror of the piece, and Duvall was not an embarrassing caricature that wasted a fine actor and grossly insulted everyone who's ever had a disability. And I don't remember any robotic henchmen in "Showdown." And a hydrogen-filled airship is hardly the same thing as a giant mechanical spider. And Jonah Hex didn't have an annoying, bickering-buddy-cop relationship with a second poorly conceived lead character, nor did he employ ludicrous gadgetry. As for the golden spike ceremony at Promontory, Utah that completed the Transcontinental Railroad, that's got to be one of the most frequently dramatized events in the history of the American West. I remember an episode of Filmation's Lone Ranger cartoon that dealt with it. Wikipedia lists several other films, shows, and books that have referenced it.
Once again I'm in the minority but I loved the movie. I had been sick for like two weeks that summer while staying with my sister, and that was the first time we'd gone out and done something fun. Even got popcorn. I frickin' loved it I thought Kevin Kline was hilarious in it.
I agree. I liked the movie too. I also liked The Avengers, starring Sean Connery and Uma Thurman. C'Mon, how can you NOT like Connery playing an over the top Scotsman?
I also enjoyed Wild Wild West, though I wasn't expecting anything other then a mindless popcorn flick and it's been at least 5 years since the last time I saw the film, so my opinion could be different if I saw it today. Also to be fair I will disclose that I have never seen the TV show.
I love it too. Of course, it's terrible. I wouldn't argue against that. But that really doesn't matter. It's a lot of FUN to watch, which many better movies can't claim. Dunno how they did it. It really makes me wish it WAS a good movie. If it was that much fun as a bad movie, imagine what it could have been!