Sadly Over-hyped

Must See Movie...

Dreadfully Boring

The acting in this movie is really good.

After Katrina, police sergeant Terence McDonagh (Nicolas Cage) finds a prisoner trapped in rising waters and makes fun of him. He relents and rescues him but he gets a permanent back injury in the process. He is promoted to lieutenant. His Vicodin regiment leaves him addicted. Six months later, he and Stevie Pruit (Val Kilmer) are investigating the murder of an illegal family who are small time drug dealers. His girlfriend Frankie Donnenfeld (Eva Mendes) is a drug addicted prostitute. Officer Mundt tells him that he can't steal drugs for him anymore because cameras are being installed. He robs people of their drugs and willing to break any rules or laws.It's a really fascinating character. However, the investigation gets second fiddle to this character. I find myself not following the case and unable to figure out the characters related to that. I almost want the case to be dropped. McDonagh can run around in circles while Pruit solves the case. The case simply meanders and I lose interest in the procedural. I got so bored with it that I stopped caring about the story. His personal demons are so much more interesting. I'm also fine with Cage's overacting. His character has a reason to be hyper-crazed unlike some of his other roles.

Herzog's popularity, and some might say his entire career, came from his long partnership with the incomparable firestorm of an actor Klaus Kinski. In Herzog's own words, their "joint derangement must have converged to create great art". Whether Herzog was referring to Kinski's explosive fury on screen or something more insidious such as the real life allegations that Kinski sexually molested his daughter from age 5 to 19, we don't know. My point is that Herzog had the ability to draw on Kinski's madness & evil to create some very memorable films about precisely that: madness & evil ("Aguirre", "Fitzcarraldo", "Nosferatu"). After Kinski died, Herzog's films were considerably less explosive although he still pushed those dark themes.Here in "Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call - New Orleans", once again we get the familiar themes of madness and depravity, and although it doesn't quite strike that horrifying Kinski vein, it has moments of brilliance thanks to an excellent acting job by Nicolas Cage.We also get, at the core, a well-written story by William Finkelstein who wrote extensively for gritty TV crime dramas like "NYPD Blue", "Law & Order" and "L.A. Law".It's the story of a rogue New Orleans cop who is investigating a series of murders while he himself flirts with depravity as he battles with drug-related issues and moral degradation. What's important to note is the familiar Herzoggian theme of madness and the thrill of of evil on the human soul. Cage plays a detective who, on the surface, is a cool-tempered & intelligent hero, a likable guy really. But he begins to descend into depravity, and there are 1 or 2 moments of outright sickening behavior (such as falsely arresting, then having sex with a woman in exchange for letting her go). This is not a film for the morally faint of heart. It is intended to morally shock us, and that it does.But what's interesting is the way Cage's portrayal remains heroic (the good guy), unlike Kinski's villainous portrayals (the monster). In the past, Herzog-Kinski films presented us with a vision of evil which thrilled us in a guilty way, as if we're passing a gory car wreck. Here we have the much more comfortable yet equally challenging perspective of watching a good guy who can't resist the thrill of depravity. So from a safer distance from evil, we can watch the story unfold.I don't know if it's that subtle thematic difference, or simply the idea that Nicolas Cage is not an alleged incestuous child abuser, that made me enjoy this film in a lighter way. I should note that this film also carries much more humor and playful dark comedy than any of Herzog's other films I've seen. In the 2nd half of the film, Cage's frenetic portrayal of a coked-up, cracked-up drug fiend was done a comedic air... along with some hilarious surreal visuals & music (the break dancing scene had me laughing out loud).Ultimately, we get a "morality tale" which is very gritty, very comic, very morally disturbing, and yet it doesn't leave us with a sick feeling like certain other films which explore the evil nature of human beings. In fact, with the exception of the disturbing sexual bribe scene, "Bad Lieutenant" could almost be watched as a dark comedy from start to finish. It's a different approach for Herzog, one which would be great to see him explore in the future.Final note worth mentioning, since Herzog's early films were notorious for having real animal abuse/killing that may disturb some viewers: Yes, there is a scene of a dead alligator with her guts spilled out, and yes it is real. But according to the DVD extras, the alligator carcass was purchased from (presumably) New Orleans animal control because it was a "nuisance alligator eating people's pets and stuff." I think there was an American Humane "no animals harmed" disclaimer at the end of the movie.

This film is not at all what I expected from Herzog - I haven't laughed so much in a long time during a movie. What we've got here is an over-the-top, crazy ride with the best Nic Cage in years. Funny little anecdote on the side (as told by the director, Werner Herzog): when Cage asked for advice on how to best approach his role, Herzog told him to go with "evil is bliss". Cage obviously obliged - and the result is hilarious. This film got a lot of negativity because apparently, people expected a serious, dark drama (knowing the original, I did, too). Well, Herzog had other plans: this is a wickedly funny black comedy that borders on satire. Fantastic acting by all involved, inventive camera and just one hell of a ride. Herzog's most entertaining film to date and Cage's best performance in ages. 9 stars out of 10.Favorite Films: http://www.imdb.com/list/ls054200841/Lesser-known Masterpieces: http://www.imdb.com/list/ls070242495/Favorite Low-Budget and B-movies: http://www.imdb.com/list/ls054808375/Favorite TV-Shows reviewed: http://www.imdb.com/list/ls075552387/

A very strange and not entirely satisfying movie from maverick director Werner Herzog. While it bears narrative similarity to the cult Abel Ferrera film starring Harvey Keitel, it's an entirely separate movie that looks and feels totally different. It stars Nicolas Cage as a drug-addled, out-of-his-mind detective on the track of some murderous drug dealers, but the narrative is by far the weakest part of the movie.It's rambling, insincere and at over two hours, overlong. But Herzog is one of the most interesting directors of our time, and his style does count for a lot. He also elicits a decent performance from Cage; while some might class his acting here as hammy, I think it goes beyond that to offer a touch of inspirational genius. Certainly Cage is entirely convincing as a drugged-up madman.Herzog goes on to include a handful of truly outstanding and darkly funny scenes in his film, the highlight of which is the jaw-dropping "his soul is dancing" sequence; there are other bits involving iguanas which are equally entrancing. Come the end, it's true to say that the end result is less than the sum of its components, but this film's refusal to be pigeonholed and its touches of madness make it a more than interesting curio.