Starring Will Smith, Kevin Kline, Kenneth Branagh, Salma Hayek and Ted Levine. Rated PG. THERE has been a lot of talk about this film, and a lot of it hasn't been good. But despite the bad publicity, I ventured along to see it anyway. James West (Smith) is a slick, suave, trigger-happy US Marshall, the kind of lawman who shoots first, shoots later, shoots some more and then, if there's anyone left alive, tries to ask a question or two. Artemus Gordon (Kline) is a more sophisticated individual, bent on tackling any situation with brains rather than brawn. He has a penchant for the art of disguise and all kinds of gadgetry -- most of it steam powered.

The whole movie, in fact, is gadget- and special-effects driven. In keeping with the time scale (1861) everything is steam powered. Even the, by now famous, 80-foot-tall mechanical tarantula belches great clouds of sooty smoke as it stomps across the landscape.

Dr Arliss Loveless (Branagh) and his evil henchman, Gen McGrath (Levine), are hell bent on ruling the world (or at least the American half of it) as all good bad guys do.

But of course an evil duo like these must be countered by a slightly better duo who must overcome remarkable odds to save the world as all good (Hollywood) heroes do.

Does the basic premise of the plot sound familiar? Well it did to me too. In fact it was very much a case of James Bond meets the Lone Ranger with a hint of Back to the Future II meets Men in Black.

The biggest disappointment was that Will Smith's reigns were held too tightly. He made a couple of attempts at being the wisecracking hero but for the most part the movie relied overwhelmingly on the gadgets, gizmos and special effects.

Kevin Kline, too, was stifled in his performance. All three of them (he also played the American President Ulysses S. Grant and Artemus Gordon disguised as the president).

What we had on the screen was a potentially very, very funny duo who failed to raise much of a laugh. But, in my opinion, it wasn't their fault. There was plenty to work with and plenty of potential but the emphasis was, unfortunately, too heavily in favour of the special effects department.

Now, from the preceding diatribe, you might think I didn't enjoy Wild Wild West. You'd only be half right. I was actually entertained. I enjoyed the gadgets and gizmos and I enjoyed the basic gist of the thing, but was disappointed in the realisation that it could have been so much better had the leading men been allowed a lot more freedom to act as I know they can.

Check out the official Wild Wild West website