The Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans Review

Posted by Joseph Lee on 12.01.2009

Who knew Werner Herzog and Nicolas Cage made for such a great combination?




Starring:

*Nicolas Cage as Terrence McDonagh
*Eva Mendes as Frankie Donnenfeld
*Val Kilmer as Stevie Pruit
*Brad Dourif as Ned Schoenholtz
*Fairuza Balk as Heidi
*Jennifer Coolidge as Genevieve
*Michael Shannon as Mundt

Story: Terence McDonagh is a drug- and gambling-addled detective in post-Katrina New Orleans investigating the killing of five Senegalese immigrants.

Trivia: Although being promoted as a remake of Bad Lieutenant (1992) during its early production, director Werner Herzog claims that this is not a remake. He says he has never seen the original and therefore does not consider this movie a remake. Additionally, producers seemed to have added "Bad Lieutenant" to the title in order to get a better marketing. Whether remake, re-imagining, follow-up or none of the aforementioned, both movies are clearly connected by the basic plot of following a drug addicted, violent cop during his encounters with crime and sex.

In Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, Ben Affleck has a throwaway line where he mentions that sometimes "you have to do the safe picture" as an actor. This motto seems to be truer for Nicolas Cage than most actors in Hollywood. He does family-friendly fare (National Treasure) and uninspired action films (Next, Bangkok Dangerous). He plays it safe with movies that are guaranteed to make some money with a built-in audience. Even if he's been looked at as something as a joke recently, you can't deny the man can act when he wants to. It's been so long since we've seen Nicolas Cage, the actor that when I began to view Bad Lieutenant, his performance snuck up on me and knocked me to the ground. It's his best performance in years, possibly of the decade.

Now if you're like me, you're of the mindset that if you've seen one "bad cop" drama, you've seen them all. I mean, the genre was practically perfected by the tv series The Shield. But Bad Lieutenant is not your average bad cop drama. It has it's dramatic moments, and the things that Cage's Terrence McDonagh does are despicable. He takes a myriad of drugs, gambles, rapes, steals, lies and threatens lives. The only thing he seems incapable of doing is killing. The trick is that he doesn't kill, but makes his victims believe that he is going to. But even though this has many of the standard corrupt cop motifs, it's a totally different animal. Werner Herzog's latest film is one part police drama, one part black comedy and one part Nicolas Cage at his manic, over-the-top best.

Now we've seen Nicolas Cage act crazy before. Usually the part doesn't call for it or he just chews the scenery as though he were starving (Ghost Rider immediately comes to mind). But in Bad Lieutenant, it perfectly makes sense as to why this man is so out of touch with reality. He's addicted to drugs of all kinds, be it prescription medication or cocaine. This causes him to act the way he does, whether it's to pay off his debts or to score some sort of drugs to alleviate the addiction and chronic back pain. Since he's always on drugs of some kind, it makes sense that his mind has taken a turn for the worse. He laughs at inappropriate moments, he says randon non sequiturs and he hallucinates the souls of men breakdancing while iguanas crawl nearby. Cage knows how crazy Terrance McDonagh is and he acts accordingly. For this role in this movie, he was absolutely the perfect choice.

The rest of the cast performs well, but it's hard to tell as they are overshadowed. Eva Mendes reunites with Cage and plays a prostitute who is also addicted to the same drugs he uses. Val Kilmer plays Cage's sometimes partner who is a bad cop long before McDonagh steps into that role. We also have Xzibit and Brad Dourif in supporting roles. If you think that's a bizarre ensemble, you're right. But somehow in this movie it works. Dourif doesn't do much in the film but he puts 100% into what he gets. Xzibit plays a standard drug dealer. He doesn't do poorly, but he does nothing to distinguish himself from any other actor that could have played the role. As I've mentioned, next to Nic Cage and his zany performance, it doesn't really matter. He casts a large shadow over this movie and makes it all about him...similar to McDonagh attempting to make everything he does benefit him.

That's not to say this film doesn't have some flaws. First of all, it becomes very disjointed towards the latter half as McDonagh appears to be in trouble but outside of one scene this isn't really brought up again. Other similar subplots seem to disappear and reappear when it's convenient, making the viewer forget they were even set up. I won't bemoan the lack of proper scenes on the investigation of the plot, because the film isn't really about that. I will complain about the fact that at least twenty minutes could have been cut out for a smoother film. Those twenty minutes are usually just of Cage doing drugs or trying to obtain drugs. It gets a tad repetitive after a while.

The ending is going to split some people, I think. I can't necessarily give anything away but there are some who will feel that it's unrealistic. Others will say it's ridiculous. All I can say is that everything that occurs is resolved in some fashion (there are no loose ends) and there may be some who don't like how this happens. Personally, I feel it's brilliant and gutsy. The way it happens also fits right in with the story and the tone of the film. Bad Lieutenant is almost farcical at times, and the ending just makes sense when you look at this film as dark satire. The film appropriately ends with another non sequitur and while some may be scratching their heads, it's just more of the same and the ending fits the rest of the movie.

I would say that watching the trailer for this film will give you a good idea of whether or not you'll enjoy it. But that wasn't the case with me. I hated the trailer, and watched the film based on the rave reviews Cage was getting. As it turns out, those reviews are earned. The insanity of Cage in the trailer looks stupid out of context. Within the film, it makes perfect sense and is actually a strong performance. Adding in Herzog's direction makes this a great film overall. If you want something different than what Hollywood is offering right now, look no further.

The 411: The Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans is half of a cop drama and half a very dark comedy. This film sees Nicolas Cage at his absolutely manic best and love him or hate him, he fully commits to the role here. His performance is over-the-top, yet it fits given the nature of the character. Throw in some other strong acting, the typical great direction from Werner Herzog and you have a winner that could be considered for some awards in the new year.

Final Score:  8.5   [ Very Good ]