"Wild Wild West'' is a comedy dead zone. You stare in disbelief as scenes flop and die. The movie is all concept and no content; the elaborate special effects are like watching money burn on the screen. You know something has gone wrong when a story is about two heroes in the Old West, and the last shot is of a mechanical spider riding off into the sunset.
There are moments when all artifice fails, and you realize you are regarding desperate actors, trapped on the screen, fully aware they've been left hanging out to dry. Consider an early scene where Will Smith and a sexy girl are embracing in a water tank when the evil general rides into town. Smith is made to watch the action through a knothole, while continuing to make automatic mid-air smooching movements with his lips--as if he doesn't realize he's not still kissing the woman. Uh huh.
http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/wild-wild-west-1999
I love this review, Roger Ebert in 1999.