Based on the popular Franco-Belgian comic book series created by Maurice De Bevere, Lucky Luke manages to keep the same comedic style of the source material, which works wonders in this affectionate parody of the western genre.

The result is a wacky western that manages to avoid the pitfalls that films such as Barry Sonnenfeld’s overblown Wild Wild West and the more recent Jonah Hex.

Just before the opening credits, we are introduced to a young Luke who not also sees his father and Indian mother murdered, but also manages to escape from a dastardly gang who are known to never have a single survivor.
We then skip through time until we find that Luke has grown up into a quick-shot cowboy named Lucky Luke (Jean Dujardin), who is given a mission from the President of the United States to clean up Daisy Town before a great railway track can be completed.

Luke sets about putting all of the crooks in jail, becoming the new sheriff and in overthrowing the old, evil sheriff, Pat Poker (Daniel Prevost), makes a dangerous enemy.

Despite the failed attempts of hiring the childish Billy the Kid (Michael Youn), Luke and Poker eventually have a duel, which ends with Poker being killed. Shocked at his first kill, he moves back to his old home with Belle (Alexandra Lamy) to rediscover himself before taking down Billy the Kid and the remaining crooks in Daisy Town.

This is an extremely wacky and colourful film,  and it is great to see such a varied amount of design and character in a very fictional western world. The audience is constantly introduced to really interesting characters until halfway through the film and they all help to top-up the variety, giving entertaining performances by the actors and actresses that are both funny and quite dark.

Jean Dujardin gives a brilliant performance playing Luke, who is both funny and engaging to watch, while the cast members who play Jesse James, Billy the Kid and Calamity Jane also do brilliantly well at portraying iconic people from history with some unique approaches to them.

Director James Huth manages to bring the charismatic character and his comic book world to life, while making the ridiculous look and feel natural for the film.

Throughout the story, we see colourful costumes, distorted buildings and a talking horse and these elements work well because they make them all fit together without making one or the other look out of place.

My overall opinion on the film is that while this might not be everyone’s cup of tea, if you see this knowing that its going to be wacky, then you will (hopefully) really enjoy yourself.

Here’s a trailer for y’all to decide.