Even with several TV seasons' worth of source material to draw from, ''West'' director Barry Sonnenfeld (who did so well with ''Men in Black'') winds up employing a lot of the same tired devices to advance his so-called plot.
* EVIL ARCHVILLAIN James West's nemesis is the legless Dr. Loveless (Kenneth Branagh), a demented genius who's kidnapping top scientists to build a giant, spidery walking fortress that will help him take over the country.
* DISTRESSED DAMSELS ''West'' has Salma Hayek as a feisty senorita who tags along with the hero to save her kidnapped scientist father.
* POP CULTURE IN-JOKES ''West'' pays appropriate homage to 007 (''West. Jim West''), but also makes dumb references to the RCA mascot pooch, and to that other hybrid TV Western, ''Kung Fu.''
* SUPER-KEEN ACCESSORIES True to their TV image, West and his partner Artemis Gordon (Kevin Kline) use such secret-agent aids as belt-buckle derringers, exploding billiard balls, and a spring-action corsage (suitable for punching) concealed on the bosom of Gordon's saloon-girl disguise.
* PLANES, TRAINS, AUTOMOBILES West chugs around in a custom-built railroad car full of secrets and booby traps, while Gordon grafts wings onto a rocket-powered bicycle and dubs it ''Air Gordon'' (see Pop Culture In-Jokes).
Theoretically, all this fancy thingamajiggery should set ''Wild Wild West'' apart from most recent action fare. Yet because it has so little else on its mind, the movie quickly settles into a videogame-like rhythm that, for all its frantic activity and pumped-up volume, gets kinda boring.
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