Renegade (2004)

Powerful

Fresh and Exciting

best movie i've ever seen.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

There was always a taste for the mystic in comic books, 'Blueberry' is a western derived from a comic book and that is a great starting point. It also tries to reach you on a spiritual level specially by showing hallucinations, reminding us of Stanley Kubrick's '2001'. But Jan Koonen should have followed Kubrick's style in what this film lacks the most: clearness, precision, well explained scenes. Instead you see vague and confusing scenes which makes you have to see the film again to understand it. Nowadays, this is not such a problem, but is it worth it? Vincent Cassel is an ideal Blueberry, Juliette Lewis is pretty, interesting and charming as Maria and Michael Madsen is a hateful Wall Blount. If Sergio Leone innovated by creating a showdown of three people in 'The Good, the Bad and the Ugly' ,Koonen tries to shows us a spiritual, psychedelic showdown. It just does not reach us enough to make it worth seeing.

It all boils down to Jan Kounen's personality. He likes to play with images, or more precisely to toy with his camera and visuals. Not a bad thing per se provided the guy knows how to tell a story. Now the problem is Jan Kounen went to Mexico and lost any kind of professional outlook he might have. In exchange he discovered Other Worlds, i.e. Worlds inside his soul or whatever you may experience thanks to shamanism.As an audience you don't care about the director's personal journey unless it makes for a good story. It's not that I only stick with down-to-earth narratives: a story should be told mostly visually. Kubrick's 2001 entranced audiences of pot-smoking hippies, but you needn't pot to enjoy the psychedelic ending. As a matter of fact Kubrick never got lost in a project, and that's why some may find his movies too cerebrally cold, but he never indulged in a pseudo personal therapy.Enough with Kounen who never grew up with his camera (it's amazing he never seems to understand a camera may stand still at times), the producers who trusted him even after he lost his professional mind while preparing Blueberry are to be blame before. Too bad for them, the comic book Blueberry is an homage to westerns and the stunning locations of the Wild West (right, Moebius is credited and some shots are a nice tip of the hat to his drawings), with wonderfully scripted adventure (hey guys you lost J-M Charlier in the process, no wonder the story sucked). The original story was a quest for gold, we all end up with a quest for a meaning. Next time please, make the quest for meaning an inside story of the adventure synopsis, thanks.

I had never heard of this film before I saw it on cable. Because it was based on the work of the great Moebius, I thought I would check it out and was pretty amazed. This is a great psychedelic western with cool effects and great acting, particularly from the lead hero and heavy. Some scenes were a little confusing and the narrative seemed a little awkward. Still, this is a cool film that will surprise many people. I am surprised that more people have not made this a cult film on the level of a "Donnie Darko." The movie really picks up steam as it heads to a final confrontation between Cassel and Madsen, and this is the best thing that Juliette Lewis has done in years. Highly recommended.

This may be the dumbest film I have ever seen! The previews say "This movie breaks the mold of the Western genre". No. This movie stuffs the Western genre into a blender, adds in sci-fi, puts in a drop of porn, hits frappé, and then pours the concoction down the toilet! Who the (expletive) came up with the idea of the spiritual visions that look like a kaleidescope on PCP? These journeys take up a good 10-15 minutes of the movie! With a small bit of voice-over, you're watching a spectral lights show instead of a movie!The most awful thing is this: there is almost nothing in this piece of junk that can identify it as a Western! Yes, the location is in Colorado or something (an assumption because of all the mountains) and everybody wears Western-style clothing, but that's it! There are only like 3 bullets shot in the entire movie...and that's what you watch a Western to see! There's none of it! And for all the talk about revenge, you don't see any freaking revenge being taken! Come on!The only plus is that the acting didn't suck. Several good actors in this thing--Michael Madsen was good, Vincent Cassel and Juliete Lewis did their parts well (with that bit of porno at the end that added absolutely NOTHING to the movie at all!!!!!!), and the supporting actors were good.I beg you all, if you've not seen this movie, for the love of heaven, DO NOT SEE THIS MOVIE! IT IS HORRIBLE! SAVE YOUR BRAIN MATTER AND SPEND YOUR EVENING MORE PRODUCTIVELY!!!!!