Les insurgés de la terre

Kris Kristofferson is at his driest in this weird take on the classic loner-in-a-frontier-town tale. Take Shane and add a liberal dose of Blazing Saddles, although the humor in this film is unique for the genre. Of particular note is the running "fatcakes" gag and the bad guys' frequent lame attempts to flame Kristofferson: "It's kind of a bad taste smell." And a visit to Shorty's house is always good for a laugh.

Eugene Levy and John Hemphill, "SCTV" and "Maniac Mansion" veterans, take those shows' unique, droll humour and superimpose it on a classic Western storyline, and the result is spectacular. Hemphill and George Buza are hilarious as part of a hyper-Tarantinesque group of nefarious armchair proto-pop-philosophers trying to force several families off their land. Fred Willard is at his best as the dim-witted homesteader who stands in their way, gleefully unaware that his hired hand (Kris Kristofferson) is being openly pursued by his lascivious wife (very memorably played by Wendel Meldrum).

This type of humour works brilliantly in TV series, but experiences mild growing pains being transferred to feature length -- this movie does drag in spots. But it's still hilarious thanks to the great writing and performances, and is definitely recommended to all fans of this sort of drollery, and to anyone looking for a radically, refreshingly different take on the Wild West.

It's 1875 Colorado. Greedy cattle rancher Slade Cantrell (John Vernon) is pushing for the railroad to go through his land. The only problem is the group of settlers led by Clarence Gentry (Fred Willard). A stranger named Destiny (Kris Kristofferson) rides into town.

This is a spoof of the western genre written and directed Eugene Levy. The movie needs to settle on a spoof level. It doesn't start out as funny. The dildo bit sets it to be completely insane. The movie baubles between those two. It's like the two leads in Willard and Kristofferson. I do enjoy some of the weird humor in this especially with Willard performing. Wendel Meldrum and Don Lake are two of the better comedic actors. I get the comedy writing. I'm less sure about the directing. This is trying to be Blazing Saddles, but it's only hitting about half the time. Here's my suggestion. Eugene Levy should play Destiny.

Heh. A dumb western with a plot. So cartoonish and dumb characters you haven't seen since Beavis and Butthead. Sometimes it is so dumb it becomes to be funny. But humor is a way overdosed. Maybe it was meant to be a parody but they just put too much salt on it. Worth a try especially when you have nothing else to do, and I get cold lying in bed. Well something more. I wish I could met this Missy around :) And to speak with that immortal man with 18 open wounds ... Well that's life. It was not meant to be taken seriously. To the IMDb owners - do you REALLY think that all movies NEEDS to be reviewed in _TEN_ lines? In some cases, two lines are more than enough ...

This caught me by surprise being much better than I anticipated and a very likable film. Yes, it had its liberal bias but the comedy was consistent, the profanity low (it was a made-for-TV film) and the story very interesting.

It was a takeoff on "Shane" with Kris Kristofferson plays the low-key gunman (Alan Ladd's role in "Shane.") Fred Willard is the farmer who stands up to the local land-grabbing bully (John Vernon, who played a lot of villains in his day). It's nicely filmed, too. I didn't know it was out on DVD until I just checked this IMDb page, and perhaps I'll pick it up.

Wendel Medrum is a pretty woman whom I have never seen before or since. Even though this was a TV movie, I would not recommend it as "family viewing" with the sexual innuendos, gay guys, an adulterous wife, etc.

All in all, a fun movie that exceeds expectations.