If there's any lesson to be learned from Hollywood, it's this: When something goes wrong, you can always blame someone else.
That pretty much explains director Barry Sonnenfeld's spin on his big-screen version of "Wild Wild West," which is pretty much getting drubbed critically. Sonnenfeld, a former critic's darling, hasn't exactly taken those reviews lightly.In fact, he's blamed the reviews, as well as the negative "buzz" his film received prior to its June 30 opening, on the Internet -- especially fan-run Web sites that posted early, and mostly negative, reviews.
"The Internet is going to screw up moviemaking, and I resent that" he told the Los Angeles Daily News. "(Internet reporting) is dangerous because it's all anonymous."
While he does have a point, there's still no denying that the film just isn't very good -- even if it's not nearly as bad as initial reports would have had us believe. (In particular, the comparisons to last year's bomb "The Avengers" was unfair.)
But believe it or not, Sonnenfeld hasn't stopped the finger-pointing there. He's also directed part of the blame at Warner Bros. officials, who held a series of odd test screenings for the film.
For one of the screenings -- which are held as an early barometer for the filmmakers and the studio -- audiences were told up front they were going to see "The Matrix" instead of "Wild Wild West." And needless to say, audience members weren't happy about it.
However, that still doesn't explain why the test audience reacted so overwhelmingly negatively to the movie. And after they looked at the test ballots from the screening, Sonnenfeld and stars Will Smith and Kevin Kline returned to the studio for re-shoots, which seems like an admission by the filmmakers that something was wrong with the picture.
WHEN GOOD NEWS IS REALLY BAD NEWS: While Warner Bros. officials have been surprisingly silent on the subject of Sonnenfeld's tantrums, they're already on the defensive about the first published review of "Eyes Wide Shut," the upcoming erotic thriller starring Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman.
In particular, they're incensed about a recent review of the film by Alexander Walker, which appeared in the London Standard newspaper.
Walker was privy to an early screening of the much-anticipated film, the last by screen legend Stanley Kubrick, and gave the movie a rave review. But what's got studio officials up in arms is the fact that the article was written before the film has even been released. And worse, it also gives away most (if not all) of the plot.
This is just the thing that Warner Bros. officials were guarding against. Security on the set of the 18-month production was extremely tight -- to put it mildly. And most national critics won't see the movie until the week of its opening (July 16), to prevent them from writing about it before the release date.
In fact, plans are in place to bar Internet-based reviewers from advance screenings, to keep them silent on the film as well. Evidently, secrecy -- not word of mouth -- is the key here.
WHEN NO NEWS IS REALLY GOOD NEWS: On the other hand, no one's really quite sure what Walt Disney Studio's marketing team is up to with the new Spike Lee film, "Summer of Sam."
The dramatic thriller, which was released by Disney's Touchstone Pictures arm, has received positive reviews from the national critics who have seen it. Note that latter phrase, because the studio pulled its promotions budget for the R-rated film, thus ensuring that critics in smaller markets (such as Salt Lake City) wouldn't see it before opening day last Friday.
If that's not weird enough, the studio has decided it will pre-screen "Inspector Gadget," the upcoming, PG-rated kids' comedy that's had disastrous test screenings and which has supposedly been chopped from an original 100-minute running time to 80 minutes.
Forgive me for being confused by these moves, but exactly what kind of signals are Disney officials trying to send -- that they'll screen anything as long as it's not rated R?
QUOTE OF THE WEEK: "(Director Barry Sonnenfeld) and I agreed that we're not doing sequels. If people want sequels, it means they enjoyed the first one, and it's almost better to let it live on that way." -- "Wild Wild West" star Will Smith, on the possibilities of sequels to his hit "Men in Black," as well as the new film.
Deseret News movie critic Jeff Vice can be reached by e-mail at jeff@desnews.com