Release Date Out Now
Director - Werner Herzog
Actors – Nicholas Cage, Eva Medes, Val Kilmer
Where to start with a film such as Bad Lieutenant? For those who know there stuff, it isn’t a remake or a sequel to the Abel Ferrara starring Harvey Keitel. That out of the way we can move on.
So Bad Lieutenant: Port of call New Orleans, is Herzog’s tale of a (get this) bad lieutenant Terence McDonagh (Nick Cage) as he descends into madness through corruption and drug abuse. At the beginning of the movie McDonagh and partner Stevie Puirt (Val Kilmer) are walking through their former police station after hurricane Katrina when McDonagh is injured in the line of duty saving a prisoner from drowning. Six months later we meet McDonagh again however this time he’s snorting coke on the crime scene and threatening old ladies at gun point.
The film as you can expect is a lot light hearted then the original but nether the less quiet extreme at times. When the hunched McDonagh hallucinates the film goes into lizard or crocodile mode where there are close up handheld close up footage of an alligator or iguanas. This ending up being a hilarious gag and I agree with Herzog when he said “I wanted to put in more iguanas”.
What surprised me the most with Bad Lieutenant is Nicholas Cages’ performance. Before I saw Kick-Ass I noted that if Nick Cage was passable in the movie I will take back my hate for him. So I went into this movie with high regards (not that I or any true horror fan, can forgive him for Wicker Man) and I wasn’t disappointed. He’s a comical character and I do actually believe through his character he does glorify and make comical the use of clack smoking and cocaine using which is a negative. Val Kilmer’s character only pops up once or twice which I was disappointed by because him and Cage could have had a comical cop duo (imagine Starsky and Hutch on crack). And finally I have found a movie where Eva Mendes doesn't annoy me by shoving her Latino heritage down me throat.
In the end the movie becomes a comical over the top story about a ridicules corrupt cop who steals drugs from everyone and spouts classic one liners: “Shoot him again, his soul is still dancing” and “Till the break of dawn”. Riding off the success of Kick-Ass Cage has finally found what he was ment to do (and apparently it’s crazy) and Werner Herzog was perfect to lead him through all this. Even though this will fuel Herzog's ego, I think people will remember this as a Nick Cage movie instead of a Werner Herzog movie. If your expecting a hard boiled detective story you won’t find it here. Instead you’ll find an outrageous and hilarious film.
Anticipation 2
Enjoyment - 4
In Retrospect – 3
In Retrospect – 3
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