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Fantastic!

This is a tender, generous movie that likes its characters and presents them as real people, full of flaws and strengths.

Great movie! If you want to be entertained and have a few good laughs, see this movie. The music is also very good,

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

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.

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 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.