KnotMissPriceless Why so much hype?

Claysaba Excellent, Without a doubt!!

Forumrxes Yo, there's no way for me to review this film without saying, take your *insert ethnicity + "ass" here* to see this film,like now. You have to see it in order to know what you're really messing with.

Lucia Ayala It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

jonnybardo Renegade (aka Blueberry in Europe) is a classic case of most people simply not understanding what the movie is really about. On the surface it is a "weird Western" with some trippy elements, a very loose adaptation of the Blueberry graphic novel series. From what I gather, the film was hated by fans of the graphic novels and Westerns alike.What the film is really about is psychological wounding and spiritual transformation - that is, it is a film about shamanism. It depicts this very human journey in a mythic, archetypal, visionary fashion that is almost unheard of in cinema.The film includes three or four main parts, or acts. The first 20+ minutes describes the protagonist Mike Blueberry's backstory. In short, Blueberry is a spoiled and unruly Cajun youth sent to work with his uncle, who experiences a trauma that gets him involved with Indian shamans. The next almost 50 minutes is a relatively standard Western fair, with only glimmers of what is to come. It is presumably years, even decades later, and Blueberry is the town sheriff. Various folks seek the legendary gold of the Sacred Mountains, which incites conflict between the Indians and settlers, who view Blueberry with distrust due to his sympathies towards the Indians. A mysterious traveler, Wallace Sebastien Blount, enters the scene - played by Michael Madsen at his creepy, menacing best - seeking the Sacred Mountains. And so it develops...About 70 minutes into the film, and for the last 45 minutes or so, the film takes a different turn, especially the finale that is the last 15 minutes of psychedelic imagery. I won't spoil it for you - it is intense, beautiful, and profound, especially the final scene of awakening and mystical union.The real heart of the film is its depiction of psychological wounding and transformation. If you don't get this, the jewel that this film is will be missed. If that's not your bag, it is a good enough film on its own--with some standout performances, especially by Cassel, Madsen, and Lewis--but maybe not as good at pure Western fair as some others.

NateWatchesCoolMovies Jan Kounen's Renegade, or Blueberry as its called in some regions, is the strangest western I've ever seen. To call it strange is an understatement in fact. First off, it's not a perfect movie, and I'm not raving about it. But despite its flaws with pacing, it's a damn interesting one with some really beautiful, sweeping cinematography, a great cast and some really unique sequences that are just unlike anything you've seen in the genre before. Vincent Cassel plays Mike Blueberry, a man who after a tragedy in his youth, flees to the nearby mountains and is raised by the natives there. When he emerges in adulthood he becomes Marshal of a small town set on the plains there. He's forced to deal with marauding outsiders led by Wallace Sebastian Blount (Michael Madsen) who also figures into his tragic past. Madsen gives the work of his career as an enigmatic, terrifying outlaw who's on the hunt for an unconventional treasure hidden in the mountains. He blows into town like the winds of hell and stirs up trouble with Blueberry, the mayor (Ernest Borgnine), and all kinds of folk. Blueberry and his old flame Maria (Juliette Lewis) are led on a haunting quest to the mountains to stop Blount and locate the treasure. The film's distinct quality is one 15 minute sequence near the end that jumps the shark and leaves you floored, as it's essentially a peyote trip happening on screen, with scintillating cg artwork, slithering ethereal snakes and all sorts of metaphysical chaos happening as Cassel and Madsen do battle in the Astral plane, and Cassel comes face to face with his baked soul, and the surprising revelation that has haunted him for years. It's worth seeing just for that alone, as it's like nothing I've ever seen. Seriously. Djimon Hounsou has a grisly appearance you won't forget, Eddie Izzard shows up as a snivelling weasel, and there's nice work from Temuera Morrison, Geoffrey Lewis, Tchecky Karyo and Colm Meaney as well. It's also aesthetically pleasing to look at, some of the shots are pure gold and I wish it played in theaters so I could have a chance to see it on the big screen. Like I said though, it's far from perfect. There's some tonal issues. The writing is sometimes clunky. But it's worth it just for the earthy, ethereal spectacle of it alone, and like it or not, you'll be glad you checked it out.

Thierry Massihians I'm a huge fan of Blueberry:the comic. There are actually many American heroes in french comics that Americans have probably never heard of. There's of course "Blueberry", "Buck Danny", "Comanche", "XIII", etc. Some are quite naive, and others are very, very good. The story that inspired the movie: "The lost German's mine" and its sequel "The specter with the gold bullets" is actually one of the best graphic/scenario combination I've ever read and is still one of my favorites.Unfortunately they never thought of giving the director's job to someone who understands the epoch and the place's context. In making this movie, two big mistakes were made.The first one was to give Apache mysticism a way, way too prominent role (it is only addressed as a superstition linked to an Apache sacred and forbidden territory in the original) and magnify it to proportions that have no relation with reality. This utterly robs the story of its adventurous flavor and transforms it into a story of revenge.The second one was to give the role of Mike Blueberry to Vincent Cassel. Don't get me wrong, Vincent Cassel is a great actor. You only have to watch his impersonation of Mesrine, France's public enemy to see it. In that role he is just fantastic. But Blueberry is another thing altogether. In that role he is totally unconvincing and despite his best efforts, he just can't manage the American slang. It's just not natural. It's clearly fabricated. He also moves and walks like a Frenchman, not like an American. And as the whole cast orbits around this acting failure, it then fails to deliver itself. As this works as a cascade, if neither the hero, nor the cast is convincing, then even the background becomes out of key. It is also worth mentioning that using Louisiana or Canada to justify the use of french in an American movie has become so stale and stereotyped that it is now totally counterproductive. Instead of catching your attention on a clever twist, it now shows a serious creative limitation.The screenplay brought the original story crashing down in such a way that it became almost painful to watch. Even Steven Spielberg (who is obviously not a Frenchman and who took an enormous risk with Tintin's fans) managed to cut and paste several TinTin's adventures and make a homogeneous screenplay.There was nothing wrong with the comic's story and it should not have been tampered with. With such an adaptation disaster, I seriously doubt that a sequel might be attempted, and it's too bad, because the other very good Blueberry adventure is such a good material for a movie with a lot of sequels that one can only shake one's head at the lost opportunity. That saga comes in ten consecutive comics whose titles are: "Chihuahua Pearl", "The man that was worth $500,000", "Ballad for a coffin", "The outlaw", "Angel Face", "Broken-nose", "The long walk", "The ghost tribe", "The last card", "The end of the trail".The story is about the fate of the confederate gold after the civil war and what happens to Blueberry after being framed for its theft.So...I don't recommend Blueberry, the movie. Read the comics instead, you won't be disappointed. If you don't know where to find them, contact me, I'm on Facebook.

DojDoj I understand there are some annoyances with this movie that made many people feel it was a letdown or didn't comprehend the story.First of all many fans of the original comics have been offended by this movie. First of all, i have never seen or read the comics which might be a blessing in this case because i find this movie fascinating and simply beautiful to watch. After all this movie never promised to be a true-to-the-original kind of movie, 'loosely based' like people describes it here in IMDb. Therefore i understand why many rejected it.What many people fail to understand when watching this movie is the rather complex way of telling the story. I think many people would expect a more linear way of telling a story when it comes to 'western movies'. But the most important thing you have to understand in order to understand the movie as a whole, is that Mike is reliving, or retelling, his memory through a state of changed consciousness (from the effects of ayahuasca.) Therefore the story is decorated with eyecandy, visual effects that enhances feelings and thoughts and leaves out less important stuff, like how he becomes a man of the law, hence some brutal cuts made in this movie. Some questions are left unanswered, but in my opinion it shows how this movie respects the intelligence of it's viewer. Anyone who's willing to spend time thinking about this movie afterwards will appreaciate it. Anyone who knows that words isn't the only medium that can tell a story will appreaciate this. And if you are willing to open your senses about other cultures it certainly is something for you. Perhaps this movie tells some about the clash of what we can perceive as 'riches', materialistic and spiritualistic.It's a damn fine movie if you consider this when watching it.