Wonderful character development!

SERIOUSLY. This is what the crap Hollywood still puts out?

Instant Favorite.

How wonderful it is to see this fine actress carry a film and carry it so beautifully.

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.

I'm one of those who watched Blueberry awaiting a comic book adaptation and, needless to say, wasn't impressed. Maybe the title itself was misleading, since i see there was a release called Renegade. That one i'd surely avoid, which, in turn, would have spared me the disappointment.Anyhow, if you're not familiar with the comic book, there's a whole level of discussion made obsolete. We're left with some nice visuals, yet they get swiftly forgotten by poor CGI which should represent psychedelic visions. Since Blueberry has been released in 2004, i.e. several years after Matrix and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon set new standards for special effects, there is no excuse for these visual blurbs.

I was a bit confused. Did Americans open saloon style cowboy brothels in Peru in the 17 or 1800s? Or did the horse carry him all the way through central & half of south America before he collapsed? Because I couldn't understand why the native north American medicine man would be dressed Shipibo style. I did try to ignore the cloth and watch the film, but it really wasn't engaging enough to manage. And then the ayahuasca came out... Usually found in the Amazon jungle, not the plains of now California. ????????? This film is full of continuity errors. The other one that really bothered me was the transition from young man to slightly older man. At least they could've got someone to play the younger man who's features matched those of the hero. It took a flashback before I knew it was supposed to be the same character. I mean, are we supposed to believe that they were doing nose jobs in the wild west? But all could have been forgiven if the story was any good. It wasn't.

If you popped this disc into the player expecting a post-90's style, souped-up western (as I did), you'll be surprised, most likely in a bad way.In short and without spoilers, this movie is a cross between Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, with a touch of Indiana Jones, set in a Western environment. Calling it a Western movie is a serious misnomer, as it doesn't contain any significant amount of the good 'ol Western elements (hard boiled cowboys/lawmen/mavericks on the western frontier, men with dark pasts going up against each other in battles on gun skill. nuh-uh).The most impressive thing about the movie is the computer generated effects (WHAT! IN A WESTERN?! - exactly my point...), but unless you are a PC game aficionado, that won't be memorable at all, just odd.If you are over age of 40, and not an old hippie, I'd advice you to stay away from this movie.