My Review: Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans (5/10)

¨What the hell are those iguanas doing on my coffee table? ¨

(5/10) Werner Herzog directs a different version of the 1992 film that starred Harvey Keitel as the bad lieutenant. This time around that role is played by Nicolas Cage and the action takes place in New Orleans several months after hurricane Katrina. Werner Herzog directed one of my favorite movies of 2006, Rescue Dawn, in which Christian Bale played a prisoner of war during the Vietnam War. Because of that my expectations for this film were high. Herzog also directed the Oscar nominated documentary Grizzly Man and several other German films; and he has received a lot of praise for this film although it didn`t fulfill my expectations. The screenplay, which was written by William Finkelstein, is decent and it focuses on Nicolas Cage`s character during the entire film, leaving the rest of the characters in a secondary position. The key ingredient in this film is Cage`s performance. This is definitely one of his best roles in a long time. He plays an eccentric character and Cage is always at his best when he has to play this type of role. Eva Mendes is a great actress, but her role was minor in this film; as was pretty much every other actor in the movie. Val Kilmer only has a couple of lines and I think we see him more in the trailers than in the actual movie. Nicolas Cage is the one who steals the show and his performance is terrific, but I got tired of the plot after the first twenty minutes and the movie seemed to drag from that point on. The only positive thing about Bad Lieutenant is Nicolas Cage; and hopefully he will continue to accept more roles like the one he played in this film.

Nicolas Cage is Terence McDonagh, a corrupt cop who constantly breaks the law in order to get what he wants. We are introduced to him shortly after hurricane Katrina and we see him saving a prisoner from drowning in his cell. Terence seems to be a good cop and he even receives an honorary medal for his service. Later he is at the hospital because he`s suffering from back pains and the doctor prescribes him Vicodin in order to control his pain. The movie suddenly jumps to six months after the disaster and we are introduced to a different version of Terence who seems to be suffering from drug and gambling addiction. He does whatever it takes in order to get his hands on some cocaine and even tries to bribe players in order to win some gambling money. It is during this addiction that he has to solve a murder case in which a group of Senegalese immigrants have been brutally killed over some drug scandal. Terence is probably not the right man for the job as he is probably guiltier than most criminals. The movie follows Terence everywhere he goes while investigating the murder. We are introduced to his girlfriend, who is actually a prostitute named Frankie (Eva Mendes) and she is also a junkie like him. Eva Mendes does a good job, but her character is not that important in the film (which is true for every other character other than the one played by Cage). Val Kilmer plays another corrupt cop named Stevie Pruit that works with Terence in some cases. Big Fate, played by Xzibit, is the prime suspect in the murder case and Terence actually uses him to get some more drugs and money. Terence is buried in debt and actually has to hide his girlfriend at his parent`s house in order to protect her from the collectors. His mother, Genevieve (Jennifer Coolidge from American Pie), is an alcoholic and his father Pat is played by Tom Bower. As the movie progresses Terence seems to get buried deeper and deeper in his drug, gambling, and sex addiction.

Bad Lieutenant might have resurrected Nicolas Cage`s career as we are reminded of some of his earlier works when he played more eccentric characters, but the movie just didn`t work for me. The hallucination scenes with the iguanas and the dancing souls were too bizarre and rather distracting although you do get a good sense of how Cage`s character was feeling. I didn`t like the way the movie ended either because everything seemed to work out just perfectly when it seemed impossible to get out of such a hole. I actually thought it was all another illusion that Terence was going through. The movie is dark and it has some entertaining parts thanks to Cage, but it just didn`t work for me. I found myself kind of bored after the first twenty minutes and was waiting for the movie to get somewhere. Perhaps I just had too many high expectations for this Herzog film because I enjoyed Red Dawn so much. One thing is for sure, the movie might not be so good, but Cage`s performance is great as he plays this antihero. I would recommend this movie for his performance alone, although if you are in to dark movies you probably would enjoy this because Terence is really a bad lieutenant