City of Angels (5/10): It misses the mark and lacks an emotional impact.

“I would rather have had one breath of her hair, one kiss of her mouth, one touch of her hand, than eternity without it. One.”

Brad Silberling’s City of Angels isn’t a film that seems to have aged well and perhaps it suffers a bit from the Nicholas Sparks syndrome we’ve been exposed to over recent years. I’m not bashing on Sparks because I was a fan of The Notebook, but his stories seem to have been recycled over recent years and its hard not to find them emotionally manipulative. That’s the case with Silberling’s film as well, it seems as it is trying to force a chemistry that isn’t really perceivable. The film is a loose remake of Wim Wender’s German film, “Wings of Desire,” which I haven’t seen but heard is far superior. After seeing City of Angels I honestly have no desire to watch the original. I felt like something was missing from this screenplay (adapted by Dana Stevens) and perhaps it was simply the cast, but I never found the romance behind this story believable. Costner did a much better job than Cage does here playing the lead character in Stevens’s previous screenplay “For Love of the Game” which is a film I still admire despite its flaws. There was something about Cage’s performance here that simply didn’t resonate with me. I found his character more of a creepy stalker than anything else and his puppy dog eyes didn’t change my perception either. Cage is a talented actor and there are a number of films where I’ve really enjoyed his performances, but this wasn’t one of them. 

City of Angels introduces us to a guardian angel named Seth (Nicolas Cage) who watches over the people of Los Angeles along with many other angels. One day as he is sent to pick up a dying patient at a hospital he falls for a heart surgeon named Maggie (Meg Ryan). He is captivated by the way she fights for this patient’s life and how his death affects her.  He begins falling her around and after giving it some thought he allows her to see him. He’s never experienced touch or feelings before so he asks her to describe everything around her, such as the taste of the pear she’s eating and so on. He is surprised when one of her patients at the hospital senses his presence. Nathaniel Messinger (Dennis Franz) is a man who enjoys life to the fullest and while he is being treated at the hospital he acknowledges Seth’s presence. He confesses that he was once an angel who decided to give up on eternal life as an angel to become human. When Seth realizes this is possible he begins to ponder wether or not he too should fall to Earth to be with the woman he has become enfatuated with.

Silberling’s film isn’t simply a love story, it is a film about living life to its fullest and learning to appreciate the small things in life. That is what it tries to say anyway in a rather manipulative way through Cage’s character. I think that the film misses its opportunity to explore love and how it is much deeper than a simple feeling. Seth was the perfect vehicle to explore this considering he could not feel anything but somehow he felt attracted to Maggie. Unfortunately the film doesn’t explore this and it lacks that emotional impact that I though a film like this could deliver. The lack of a stronger chemistry between Ryan and Cage definitely hurts the film, but at least Dennis Franz elevates the material. It’s a shame this is the last film he made considering he went on to work in NYPD Blue for more than a decade and has retired from acting since. He showed a lot of potential here playing a very different role. Andre Braugher also gets to share some scenes with Cage as one of his fellow angels as the two philosophize about life. After having been released over 15 years ago the greatest legacy this film has left is its soundtrack, which is easily recognizable thanks to its popular pop songs.    

My Review: Joe (8/10)

"You pretend to be asleep, but I know you'd cry if I said the wrong thing."

Joe is a powerful and emotional drama that despite being slow grips you thanks to an intense realism and some excellent performances. Many have compared this to last year's MUD perhaps because teenager Tye Sheridan is in both films and they happen to take place in southern America dealing with some trashy characters. I really felt this film was more similar to Jennifer Lawrence's Winter's Bone in mood and tone, since MUD had an underlying romantic theme which this film lacks and you have two young characters that have to face great obstacles in order to sustain their families. With his performance in Joe, Tye Sheridan, has acquired quite an impressive resume despite his young age adding this performance to his work in MUD and The Tree of Life. As the title suggests however, the film benefits from a great lead performance from Cage who plays Joe, a man with a troubled past who gets a chance at redemption when he meets this young kid and becomes a sort of role model for him. This is one of Nicolas Cage's top 5 performances and a return to form for the actor that I grew up loving in the 90's. Perhaps my favorite performance in the film comes from newcomer, Gary Poulter, who plays the abusive alcoholic father. I can't think of a more horrifying villain than the character he portrays in Joe. Director, David Gordon Green, has also had a return to form after his disappointing turns in the comedies The Sitter and Your Highness. He is a very versatile director who received a lot of critical acclaim from his early small indies, George Washington and All the Real Girls, and then he also had success with his first stoner comedy, Pineapple Express. You would never imagine Joe was directed by the same person considering this is such a dark emotional drama.

Joe takes place in the wild South lands of Mississippi where we meet Joe Ransom (Nicolas Cage), an ex-con and heavy drinker who is trying to lay low working as a lumberjack. His life takes a turn when he meets a young 15 year old named Gary (Tye Sheridan) who comes to him looking for a job. Gary is the oldest son of a homeless family who suffers abuse from his alcoholic father, Wade (Gary Poulter). Wade spends all the money in booze and beats Gary on a regular basis. Joe's protective instincts come to play when he takes a liking for Joe who he tries to help. Despite having a lot of friends in the small local town, Joe also has made some enemies due to his heavy drinking and constant trouble with the law, and despite how much he tries to restrain himself from hurting others, seeing Gary being constantly abused awakens his anger towards his abusive father.

The characters in this film have a lot of depth and the realism with which they are portrayed by the actors is shocking at times. Sheridan gives a similar performance as that of Lawrence in Winter's Bone, Nicolas Cage is outstanding as well in his restrained role, and Poulter is so terrifying that he makes everyone's father look like a saint. The film has a haunting atmosphere and the drama is so rich that it is hard to remain emotionally detached to the story. It is a powerful and honest drama, one of the best from 2014. It's one of those rare emotional character studies that doesn't feel manipulative and never hits a false note. Cage reminds us why he was such a success in the past and I'm glad to see him back in form after a terrible batch of films.

My Review: Raising Arizona (7/10)

"Are you boys gonna chase down your leads or are you gonna sit drinkin' coffee in the one house in the state where I know my boy ain't at?"

Raising Arizona, the Coen brothers' sophomore film, is an eccentric screwball comedy that feels cartoonish at times but served as an exercise in form for their upcoming comedies. This perhaps is much lighter in tone and more humane, but some of their common trademarks can be found in this early film of theirs. I don't think it's as cynical as most of their other work, but it does have a similar quirky sense of humor that can be found in all their comedies. Besides being original, it also happens to be very entertaining introducing some wacky and memorable characters. If you are fan of the Coen's work you will see a lot of familiar faces (John Goodman and Frances McDermond in supporting roles), but it was the lead roles from Nicolas Cage and Holly Hunter that truly surprised me. They were great together playing this unconventional family that will be really hard to forget. Hi is one of Nicolas Cage's most memorable characters and his crazy hair was the highlight of his performance. As in most of their films, the stereotypes are captured really well and this time it was the Southwest's turn to play for laughs with their thick accents. The performances in this film were all highly exaggerated giving the film its cartoonish tone. Raising Arizona was a joyful experience despite the fact that I didn't find myself laughing too hard; it's a good film, but not as good as The Big Lebowski. Despite their familiar trademarks, the Coens show so much range in their films going from neo-noir to slapstick comedies. They are a force to reckon with. 

H.I. McDunnough (Nicolas Cage) meets his future wife, Ed (Holly Hunter), in the most uncommon of situations. She is a police officer in Arizona, and he is a criminal who keeps on getting caught for robbing convenience stores. Since he never carries a loaded weapon his stints in prison are short, but he manages to turn his life around once he falls for Ed. They enjoy their first years of marriage and are truly happy together, so much so that Ed convinces Hi to start a family because their blissfulness should be shared. The only problem is that they are unable to conceive a baby and due to Hi's criminal past they can't adopt either. The only solution is to kidnap one so they find their perfect victim: one of the quintuplets of a furniture tycoon, Nathan Arizona (Trey Wilson). They don't think it's fair that the Arizona's got five children, so they convince themselves that they have more they can handle anyway. This event changes their lives forever as friends from Hi's past show up (John Goodman and William Forsythe), as well as his coworkers (Sam McMurray and Frances McDormand), and an evil apocalyptic bounty hunter (Randall Tex Cobb) who haunts his dreams. This baby has changed their lives forever.

The wacky and over the top performances in this film worked really well thanks to some skillful writing from the Coens and some clever one liners. I already mentioned how good the lead performances were, but some of the supporting turns were also quite impressive, the standouts being Frances McDormand and Randall Tex Cobb. Cobb's character reminded me a lot of a cartoonish version of Javier Bardem's turn in No Country for Old Men. There are also some very funny scenes revolving around Trey Wilson and once again the Coens make the victim look really unsympathetic, allowing the audience to root for the wacky outlaws. It's a charming film with some great scenes, one involving a long crazy chase across an Arizona neighborhood. It is a very sharp and clever comedy that also happens to be very entertaining taking us through an adventure that only the Coens could come up with.

My Review: Bringing Out the Dead (5/10)

"Saving someone's life is like falling in love. The best drug in the world. God has passed through you. Why deny it, that for a moment there, God was you?"

Bringing Out the Dead presents a dark and bleak view of New York City as we get to experience it through the main character's depressive perception. Working as an ambulance paramedic, Frank Pierce has always found purpose in his life in saving others, but after not being able to save a young girl and feeling haunted by her ghost he has lost his passion and begins to question his existence. The torment he is experiencing leads him to an identity crisis that impacts the way he (and therefore we the audience) sees the city. Martin Scorsese gets all the technical aspects of the film right, teaming up with his usual collaborators: the cinematography done by Robert Richardson and the editing by Thelma Schoonmaker, but somehow the story doesn't work as well. I understand what he was trying to do, but I just couldn't care for the characters in this film and it all felt a little too surreal for my taste. This is the first film from Scorsese that I've seen that hasn't worked for me, but I do have to give him credit for delivering on the technical aspects. There are also some great moments and some supporting performances that worked really well for me, but it only made me wish the film focused on those characters instead of on Frank. The unique way in which the city was portrayed through Frank's eyes as he's dealing with his personal demons and nightmares really never engaged me because I didn't care for his character. His partners on the other hand were much more engaging and I wish we could've seen it through their eyes instead. 

The screenplay was adapted by Paul Schrader from Joe Connelly's novel of the same name. This was Schrader and Scorsese's fourth and final collaboration together after having worked in Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, and The Last Temptation of Christ. Bringing Out the Dead is perhaps most similar to Taxi Driver in tone, but it is a departure from most of his work considering its surreal and nightmarish tone. The film follows Frank Pierce (Nicolas Cage) as he drives across New York City in his ambulance during the night shifts. It's a two man ambulance team although his partners switch every night. Frank is completely burned out considering he hasn't been able to save anyone over the past few weeks and is eagerly awaiting to be fired. His partners don't seem to be experiencing the same problem as they all seem to deal with their demons in different ways. There's Larry (John Goodman) who is constantly thinking about food, Marcus (Ving Rhames) who is a religiously devoted man, and Tom (Tom Sizemore) who borderlines on psychotic behavior. They work for Mercy Hospital, which is always full of wacky characters and very crowded. Frank begins to fraternize with the daughter of one of the patients he brings in, her name is Mary (Patricia Arquette), and she seems to be the only good thing about his job now. Tormented by the ghosts of those he couldn't save, he searches for his salvation through trying to help Mary and saving both of them in the process. 

Despite not enjoying this film as much as I have other Scorsese movies, I have to admit that there were some incredibly entertaining scenes. Ving Rhames has an amazing scene along Nicolas Cage and one of the patients they are trying to save. It was hilarious. He was by far my favorite character in the film. Patricia Arquette was also pretty interesting, and Cliff Curtis also had a couple of great scenes as Cy. Those were the highlights for me in an exhilarating and fast paced film that failed to engage me with the main character played by Cage. Scorsese does manage to capture the chaos and darkness of the city in a very unique way and the technical brilliance of this film stand out above the story. It's a demented film, but it just wasn't my type of movie because the story was emotionally uninvolving. I will give it credit for the hilarious scenes, but I was let down by the lack of an engaging story.

My Review: The Croods (5/10)

"Anything new is bad. Curiosity is bad. Going out at night is bad. Basically, anything fun is bad. Welcome to my world! But this is a story about how all that changed in an instant."

The Croods is one of those animated films that kids will love, but adults will barely find amusing. Kids will pretty much enjoy anything, even co-director Kirk De Micco's previous film Space Chimps. I on the other hand was completely disappointed with this film considering the other co-director involved here was Chris Sanders, who brought us the highly acclaimed How to Train Your Dragon (now that is a sequel I'm really looking forward to). I didn't have a problem with the visuals here, because they were great, but my major issue with this film had to do with the story. The Croods suffers from a completely formulaic narrative where you have the young daughter wanting to go out and experiencing life, while the over protective father doesn't allow it. Last year's Pixar film, Brave, dealt with this very same issue and I personally feel a bit tired of it. These animated films have a history of putting up children against their parents and always giving them the reason. Usually it's the parent that has to change his ways and learn the lesson from their younger child. I understand that this is what is appealing to kids, but pretty much every film targeted towards them is appealing (they won't even hesitate to watch The Smurfs movies again). I am used to these cliched stories and usually forgive them if the film has clever characters with funny dialogues, but The Croods has neither. I don't remember laughing at any scene, and I don't think any of these characters is really memorable.

The story focuses on a family of cavemen whose patriarch, Grug (Nicolas Cage) has kept everyone safe thanks to his extreme rules. He has shielded them from the outside world and kept them inside the cave for most of their lives, only abandoning the cave to collect some food for a few minutes every three or four days. Grug lives with his partner Ugga (Catherine Keener) and her mother Gran (Cloris Leachman). They have two kids: Eep (Emma Stone) and Thunk (Clark Duke), and a young baby. Everyone seems content with Grug's rules, except for Eep who is desperate to explore the outside world. One night after following a strange light out of her cave she runs into a nomad named Guy (Ryan Reynolds) who has discovered how to make fire. Guy is an inventive individual who has managed to survive in the outside world on his own. He warns Eep that the world is coming to an end and that they should head to the high lands. When Grug sees that Eep is missing they immediately go find her and bring her back to the cave, but before they can arrive Guy's predictions come true. Now the entire family will have to embark on a journey with Guy and discover a whole new world while facing the threats in the outdoors.

There are several interesting action scenes in The Croods and some beautiful visuals (although nothing as near as beautiful as Pixar's Brave) as they explore and are in awe of this new world. None of the characters here are developed very well and most of the film centers around Grug and Eep. The story does begin to pick up with the introduction of Guy who reminds us of the power of new ideas and the importance of being creative. Unfortunately the film isn't creative with its narrative and that is what left me disappointed. The vocals here were done pretty well with Nicolas Cage, Ryan Reynolds, and Emma Stone standing out mostly because their characters are basically the only ones who have much screen time. The Croods isn't a film the entire family will enjoy, but I am sure the kids will have a blast because it involves outdoor exploration and has plenty of action. I was expecting this film to be a lot funnier, but nothing really stands out.

My Review: Trespass (2/10)

¨Run, Avery, run¨

That is the same recommendation I`m making to the audience: Run away from this movie as fast as you can, because it is really terrible, one of the worst heist films I`ve seen in years, with the dumbest thieves in film history. The further the movie continues to go with its revelations, the worse it gets. It gave me a really bad headache because there is so much screaming and crying going on. At first I thought this would be an interesting movie considering it starred Nicolas Cage (although he can`t be too reliable lately) and Nicole Kidman, but I couldn`t understand how I had never heard about this movie or seen it screen in theaters. Then after the movie was over, I kind of figured it out; and later I read that the movie was only in theaters for 10 days breaking the record for being the fastest ever to go directly from theaters to home video. It was available in DVD 18 days after the film had been released in theaters. Why? Because it is really that bad. Trespass cost an estimated 35 million dollars to be made, and it grossed less than 25 thousand dollars. This is probably something that director Joel Schumacher won’t be proud of. I think the last film that he directed which I actually enjoyed was Phone Booth way back in 2002. He seems to be in a bad streak recently. Karl Gajdusek was the man responsible for the terrible script, and the story is probably the worst part of the entire film.

Kyle Miller (Nicolas Cage) seems to be a successful diamond salesman. He lives in a big and highly secured house, drives a fancy sports car, and has a beautiful wife, Sarah (Nicole Kidman), and a teenage daughter, Avery (Liana Liberato), who is going through her typical rebellious state. Things seem a little shaky at home since Kyle has to travel so much and Sarah spends a lot of time on her own, and she doesn`t like the fact that her daughter Avery is spending so much time with Kendra, who she considers a bad influence. Avery wants to go to a party with her, and her parents say no but she escapes anyway. That night a group of officers show up at the house asking if everyone is at home because a series a kidnappings have been reported. Kyle and Sarah are convinced Avery is with them so assume nothing is wrong, but when they go to speak to the officers they invade their home and begin searching the home for diamonds. The thieves are played by Cam Gigandet, Jordana Spiro, Ben Mendelsohn, and Dash Mihok. They are extremely aggressive and heavily armed, but Kyle isn`t willing to open the safe so things begin to get out of hand. There is a lot of threatening and screaming going on, but that is about it. The thieves also seem to have some secret agendas of their own, but I don`t want to spoil the movie with all its revelations and ¨twists, ¨ so that is about all I`m going to reveal about the plot.

Trespass had an interesting beginning, but once the home invasion takes place and the thieves begin to threaten and keep on threatening without getting anything out of it the movie begins to go downhill from there. There inside the house with the family held hostage and they can`t manage to get anything done. All they do is yell, threaten, and scream, but make one stupid decision after another. Nicolas Cage`s character was also very unlikeable, and after everything that was going on I could really care less is his family survived or not. This was probably one of the worst home invasion thrillers I`ve seen, and that is too bad considering there were some talented actors involved in the project. Halfway through the movie a series of revelations are made about the family and the thieves, one worse than the next. Trespass seems to go downhill from that point on, and all you want to do thirty minutes into the film is run away from the chaotic script. It`s a shame because Nicolas Cage used to be one of my favorite action heroes, especially during the 90`s with Face/Off being the highlight of his career in my opinion, but recently in the last decade he has made a lot of poor choices and it will be a pity if people remember him for these roles instead of his other greater films.

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My Review: The Sorcerer`s Apprentice (4/10)

¨I have been searching all over the world for you. You're going to be a force for good and a very important sorcerer. But for now, you're my apprentice ¨

From the producer of Pirates of the Caribbean, Jerry Bruckheimer, and the director of the National Treasure franchise,  Jon Turteltaub, comes The Sorcerer`s Apprentice, a film with big names, a great amount of CGI visual effects, but little imagination. The movie is loud and stupid; it reminded me a lot of Dragon Ball Evolution with all the fire balls and the dumb plot. I don`t understand how a film like this with so many good actors, with such good visual effects, powerful producers, didn`t take time to hire a decent group of screenwriters. The story just didn`t live up to my expectations and the cast did what they could to save the movie. Nicolas Cage was probably the best thing about the movie, the visuals were decent, but it takes a lot more than that to make up for the terrible plot. I actually enjoyed the National Treasure franchise more than this film so this was a step back for Turteltaub`s career and hopefully he will stay away from a sequel. The introduction alone explaining the history of the sorcerers and their rivalry was so weak that I knew I was going to have to lower my expectations during the remainder of the film. My favorite scene in the movie was the one from Disney`s Fantasia in which the mops and brooms come to life to help clean the lab, but that was perhaps one of the few positive things along with some funny scenes from Cage that I can say about this movie.

And now it`s time to explain the plot, my least favorite part about The Sorcerer`s Apprentice. The movie opens with a Lord of the Rings style narration in 700 AD where Merlin, the greatest sorcerer ever, is teaching his three apprentices Balthazar (Nicholas Cage), Horvath (Alfred Molina), and Veronica (Monica Bellucci) the secrets of the sorcerers. Horvath betrays Merlin and joins Morgana (Alice Krige), his greatest enemy. Morgana plans to awake all the dead evil sorcerers so she can destroy the world, and in a battle with Merlin she kills him with the help of Horvath. Balthazar and Veronica try to fight off Morgana, and Veronica is able to absorb her soul although she is so powerful that Morgana starts to possess her from inside. That is when Balthazar has to imprison both of them inside a grimhold, which is a Chinese nesting doll. Before Merlin takes his last breath he gives Balthazar a dragon ring telling him that it will come to life when he finds his successor, the Prime Merlinean. Centuries pass and Balthazar doesn`t find the kid until we arrive in modern day New York City. Balthazar finally finds the successor and decides to recruit and teach Dave Stutler (Jay Baruchel) how to become a sorcerer before Horvath comes to destroy him. Meanwhile, Dave begins to get a little distracted when he runs into his old childhood sweetheart, Becky (Teresa Palmer), and Horvath find an apprentice of his own in entertainer and magician Drake Stone (Toby Kebbell).

The plot is very silly and really doesn`t work in a film that invested so much in the visuals and in the cast. Nicolas Cage does what he can to save this movie, Alfred Molina is also a good villain, Jay Baruchel probably wasn`t the right choice in a movie like this, but his character was silly anyway, Teresa Palmer played the girl of his dreams and she was alright, and the surprise in this film was Toby Kebbell who had a pretty funny role as Molina`s apprentice and entertainer, but he had very little screen time. The movie really suffers from little imagination because if you have the resources to make a film about sorcerers several entertaining things can be done, but the story is pretty simple and we`ve seen most everything before. Someone said why have sorcerers chase each other in cars when they could fly all over the city. It made a lot of sense; they went for the simple instead of the spectacular. I really hope they don`t make a sequel for this movie even though the end of the film gives the possibility for one. This was a pretty bad movie and one you should skip.

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My Review: Kick-Ass (9/10)

¨ Had I ever been a real super hero? The most I`d ever had to offer the world was good intentions and a slightly elevated capacity to take a kicking. With no power comes no responsibility, except that wasn`t true. ¨

(9/10) Director Matthew Vaughn has done a fantastic job once again directing this super hero movie, where these heroes actually don`t have anything super about them. This is Vaughn´s third feature film after directing Stardust and Layer Cake, and both films were received warmly by the critics and audiences alike. I have to admit that I really loved this ultra-violent movie and was really entertained throughout the entire film. Hit-Girl makes Beatrix Kiddo from Kill Bill look like an amateur. Of course we don`t have the Tarantino dialogue with this film, but the action and the performances are highly entertaining. Jane Goldman and Matthew Vaughn adapted the screenplay from Mark Miller`s comic book of the same name. Miller`s previous comic book, Wanted, was also made into a film starring Angelina Jolie, but I think Kick-Ass is far more superior and probably one of my favorite movies of the year. Yes, the violence is gratuitous and the language is strong, but watching this 11 year old girl fighting all these criminals is just priceless. She steals every scene she is in. This is not your regular super hero movie and definitely not one you will want to miss because it is an extremely fun ride. In my opinion Kick-Ass is last year`s Zombieland combining violence with comedy. Many people were turned down by the violence and the language in this movie, so I know it is not for everyone, but I think that what Matthew Vaughn did in this film was just brilliant, and one can tell he is influenced by his close friend Guy Ritchie.

Dave Lizewski (Aaron Johnson) is an ordinary kid who isn`t very popular in school. He hangs around with two of his close friends, Marty (Clark Duke, Hot Tub Machine) and Todd (Evan Peters), reading and visiting comic book stores. Dave begins to wonder why no one decides to become a super hero and fight crime. Despite not having any special powers or any fighting abilities whatsoever he decides to become a masked vigilante and calls himself Kick-Ass. One day while he is on his super hero duty he encounters a couple of thieves and tries to stop them from stealing a car. Kick-Ass gets seriously injured and ends up in a hospital. Several metal plates are put in his body due to all his fractures, and they actually make him a little more resistible to punches. Little does Dave know that there actually two other masked vigilantes with vast experience on fighting organized crime. Big Daddy (Nicolas Cage) and his highly trained eleven year old daughter, Hit-Girl (Chloe Moretz) have been fighting against a mafia boss named Frank D`Amico (Mark Strong, Sherlock Holmes). One day the three masked heroes meet and they give Kick-Ass some advice on the business. Kick-Ass seems to have inspired other people to become super heroes and suddenly there is a new one in the streets who calls himself Red Mist (Christopher Mintz-Plasse) and is actually Frank`s son. None of these super heroes actually have any special power and the violence begins to escalate as the movie progresses, but always combining it with a great dose of comedy.

The true star of the film is Chloe Moretz who plays the eleven year old Hit-Girl who is highly trained in fighting and instead of playing with dolls, she plays with knives. She is just fun to watch on screen and one of my new favorite characters. Nicolas Cage is also good playing the eccentric Big Daddy and Aaron Johnson is great in the lead role. Kick-Ass can be compared to Clive Owen`s Shoot Em Up because of all the cartoonish violence on screen, but I found it more similar to Kill Bill, although with a much more climatic ending. I found the dialogue to be quite funny and mixed well with the action scenes. The movie isn`t deep and you probably can`t get anything out of it, but it is highly entertaining and such a fun experience. I haven`t been this entertained in a long time and Kick-Ass is one of those movies I wouldn`t mind watching over and over again. I definitely recommend this film and know it will be hard to top entertainingly wise.

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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