A Major Disappointment

This movie was so-so. It had it's moments, but wasn't the greatest.

It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.

One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

"More Wild Wild West" had the two original stars, some really good guest stars, the director of the first TV movie, a promising plot line...but someone let this one get away from them.In this final film Jim (Robert Conrad) and Artie (Ross Martin) again reprise their roles as 19th-century Secret Service agents. Albert Paradine II (Jonathan Winters) wants (as usual) to take over the world, so he does battle with West and Gordon. Several familiar faces appear, including Harry Morgan as the Secret Service chief, plus Avery Schreiber and Victor Buono. The film meanders to an inconclusive and unsatisfying ending with Paradine finally being brought to justice (sort of).Like "The Wild Wild West Revisited", the film is played mostly for camp, with lots of silly situations and dialog. Conrad looks as though he's tired of playing his role, although Martin is good as always. When compared to "The Wild Wild West Revisited" on the CBS DVD, this film seems of much lower visual quality, with the colors muddy and the film scratched in places. The movie is still fairly entertaining for fans, but the death of Ross Martin the following year ended any hopes of another reunion. That's unfortunate since this final "Wild Wild West" production is pretty forgettable.

Continuity is ESSENTIAL for any sequel and/or remake! This is why-except for the terrific music video, the remake of Wild Wild West failed(no offense to Mr Branaugh( terribly miscast as a descendant of Dr Miguelito Loveless)Mr Smith and Mr Kline,who didn't even try to capture the character traits that made James West and Artemus Gordon so iconic-one GLARING ERROR-they NEVER referred to each other by their LAST NAMES-it was always Jim/James or Artie/Artemus! ThatThat's what made the first TV- movie Wild Wild West Revisited so good!Their characters were "enjoying" the type of retirement you would have expected and their reintroduction into the Secret Service was also completely accurate! And while there will always be only ONE Dr Miguelito Q Loveless (his duets with Antoinette as well as his verbal eloquent duels with James West were priceless(it was obvious though never spoken(James almost did in the Night Loveless Died when he thought he was talking to his "uncle") that they mutually respected each other)but no one could have been better cast as his son than Paul Williams(who hinted at his father's heart but as many children's perspective only saw the pain that he suffered and blamed them)! That's why this 2nd TV-movie, while the characters of James and Artemus are still true to form, I spent much of the movie trying to figure out who Professor Paradine's father was?! I kept going over in my mind the list of all the villains until I finally realized that for some inexplicable reason the writers had chosen to create a "new former "villain! Then, when I saw Victor Buono as Dr Messenger(clearly and an admirably done spoof of Kissenger)I thought that the "Paradine" character was a McGuffin and kept waiting for the moment when Dr Messenger pulls off the disguise and reveals that he is in fact the inimitable Count Manzeppi! But it never happened! So that's why I only gave it an 8-no fault of the actors Robert Conrad Ross Martin Victor Buono and Jonathan Winters(who I truly liked but would have been better had his character had substance), but of the writers forgetting the key-Continuity!

The classic espionage TV series The Wild Wild West, which ran from 1965 to 1969 on CBS, was followed by two TV movie sequels: The Wild Wild West Revisited (1979) and More Wild Wild West (1980). The original series episodes ranged from thrilling espionage episodes to more comedic and campy ones, but the follow-up TV movies continued only in the campy and comedic vein. That was considered a let down by some fans of the series who were hoping for something closer to the more serious episodes of the show. I can understand their viewpoint, but I found both movies entertaining for what they were: a fun bit of escapism featuring the reunion of two favorite characters and the actors who played them. The chemistry between these guys can't be beat. Both movies have their weak points, but Conrad and Martin, reunited as an older West and Gordon, make for fun viewing.

In the late 1970s Robert Conrad and Ross Martin reappeared as James West and Artemis Gordon, their roles from THE WILD WILD WEST (a.k.a. THE WILD WEST), a fun send up of the James Bond type of spy stories in the 1960s. THE WILD WILD WEST was set in the Grant Administration (1869 - 1877) and most of the villains were ego-maniacal types who were determined to take over a territory or the country or the world (or just make money) with some 1870 style devices that would possibly change the world. The leading villain was Michael Dunn, the sharp dwarf actor . He played Dr. Miguelito Lovelace. Originally Lovelace wanted to have only the state of California but as he kept reappearing he wound seek the whole country, or the whole world as his goal. Another villain on several episodes was Victor Buono as Count Mazeppi (Mazeppi was more pragmatic - he just sought money ), but while Lovelace was usually captured Mazeppi usually got away (once in a balloon). It was a pretty good show actually.Michael Dunn was dead when the first "reunion" movie was made. Instead Paul Williams played his son. The first television movie took place in Grover Cleveland's first administration (1885 - 1889). Wilfrid Brimley played Cleveland (who with other 1880 leaders has been replaced by duplicates by Miguelito Jr. The head of the Secret Service was Harry Morgan (Robert T. "Skinny" Malone). The obnoxious English diplomat and spy was Rene Auberjonois (Sir David Edney). It was a pleasant ninety minute diversion.It was so successful a second film was made within a year, again with Conrad and Martin, but bringing in Morgan and Auberjonois as well. This time the villain was Jonathan Winters as Albert Paradine II, who bumps off his four twin brothers with bombs in the beginning of the movie (one I recall is blown up when he starts to cut a knock-wurst he is eating - a ripoff of a similar joke assassination in the film THE ASSASSINATION BUREAU, LTD). Paradine plans to use his inventions to take over the U.S., but first he plans to demolish an international peace conference in Washington.It is supposed to be the Presidency of Benjamin Harrison (Cleveland's successor, 1889 - 1893). Harrison is never shown, but we see Morgan conferring with Harrison's Secretary of State, Dr. Henry Messinger (Victor Buono). It, of course, was a spoof of Dr. Henry Kissinger, Nixon's and Ford"s Secretary of State. It was not the only spoof of modern diplomatic problems in the movie. What makes the "Messinger/Kissinger" spoof interesting is that Harrison's Secretary of State was a significant figure - it was former Speaker of the House, Senator from Maine, and Presidential Candidate James Gillispie Blaine. He had been Secretary of State in the brief Garfield Administration (1881), but Harrison reappointed him. An extremely capable and energetic Secretary of State, Blaine kept defending American interests abroad in Samoa, the Behring Straits, and Latin America. He successfully avoided war with Chile in 1891, and also resolved (with President Harrison) an embarrassing diplomatic crisis with Italy in 1890). But in 1889 he did call a major diplomatic conference - the Pan American Conference, where representatives of all of the nations of the hemisphere were invited to confer about common issues and problems. One wonders if this achievement (the first time an American Secretary of State ever tried to bring together foreign nations for such a conference) was heard of by the script writers, who used it as a peg for their plot.As an entertainment, MORE WILD, WILD WEST is mildly fun to watch - specifically because of Conrad and Martin working so well together together (as always) despite weak material, and the humor of Winters, Buono, Morgan, and (in one sequence only) Dave Madden and Avery Schrieber. The latter was an event in the peace conference that happens that helps (momentarily) to disrupt it. It involves the German Ambassador (Madden), the Russian Ambassador (Schreiber), and the Spanish Ambassador. It has come to the attention of the Secretary of State that Cuba (a Spanish colony at the time) has just gotten a reinforcement of German troops which does not make sense. Why are the Germans there? Madden, caught off guard, starts explaining that the Cubans asked them to assist them in Cuba. But it suddenly becomes known that the Germans were shipped to Cuba by the Russians. Schreiber tries to deny this, but the three diplomats (in protesting too much) manage to reveal some unknown type of skulduggery going on. Schreiber and Madden end up having a physical fight.Now the thing that a viewer of this television film might not understand in 2005 is how this was a reference to a Carter Administration incident that was on the minds of the script writers. After the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, while the U.S. Government was perfectly willing to work out their deal to avoid nuclear war with Russia, we naturally kept an eye on Cuba to see that the Russians did take down their missiles as they promised. Russia did comply (as we did with Turkey, where we had missiles). But in late 1979 the U.S. intelligence discovered a build-up of troops in Cuba, mostly from East Germany. The Russians had tried to disguise their current attempt to rearm Castro with men from another client state. This incident (Russia eventually had to remove the German troops - Carter's relative success here was hidden in the disaster of the Iran Hostage Affair)is what is spoofed in the film.