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I feel like Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans' director Werner Herzog would be proud of the way I first saw his movie. You see, Herzog claims to have never seen the original Bad Lieutenant starring Harvey Keitel that came out in 1992, and I dig his style. Despite one of the original writers penning the script for the 2009 rendition, Herzog still refused to check out the original. It’s not like he couldn’t have very easily ordered the DVD from Amazon; he just flat out didn’t want to see it. So the fact that I walked into the theater having watched the trailer for the original film and was still wondering when Keitel was going to show up right before the credits rolled, I’d say Herzog would be pleased.  

The reason I tell you all of this is because it's best to go into this film without any kind of expectations because, by not meeting your expectations, the film will far exceed them. What starts off as a serious, very dark, dramatic, and seemingly intense film devolves over the course of the movie into an uproarious comedic affair. But the disconnect between these two realms is steep; the first couple times you want to laugh but you almost feel like you shouldn’t. By the time Herzog has rolled out the extended iguana cameos you’ve chuckled a few times and you’ll almost wish you could go back and laugh harder at some of the stuff you couldn’t decide was funny or not in the beginning of the film. 

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Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans tells the tale of an eventful couple of weeks in officer Terence McDonagh’s (Nicholas Cage) life. It all starts when the officer in the evidence room stops stealing drugs on his behalf, forcing McDonagh to go down other, more dangerous, avenues. Things get tricky when he gets mixed up with his hooker girflriend’s (Eva Mendes) personal affairs and gets behind with his bookie. The audience can feel McDonagh slowly being backed into a corner as he resorts to shaking down citizens outside of strip clubs so he can use their dope for personal use and stealing from the police station’s evidence room. You know, typical cop stuff. When his badge is revoked, he takes it upon himself to become a vigilante (albeit a crooked one) to solve the case his boss has been busting his balls about. All of the plot lines seem to come to a head in a Guy Ritche kind of way, and just as the film comes dangerously close to being far too ridiculous to be invested in, Herzog reins it back in for an unpredictable, thoughtful finish that should leave you with a smile on your face. After Ghost Rider and National Treasure 2, there is little Cage can do to save his career, but with a performance like this he reminds us all of the potential he once had. Like a crafty veteran coming through in the most opportune of times, Cage seems to let go, get back to his original gritty characters, and portray someone as unpredictable as himself (this is the man who once got in a bidding war with Leonardo DiCaprio for a dinosaur skull). This must have been an intensely difficult role to play seeing as how Cage’s character is on screen at least 80% of the movie and is on some kind of upper or downer for more than 100% of the film. The fact that Cage is so good at roles like this should tell us a lot about his personal life. His performance was so spot on that Herzog thought he was actually snorting blow. If you are able to convince somebody as crazy as Herzog that you’re really on drugs then I don’t know what to say other than ‘bravo.’ Cage’s performance was backed up by the other actors’ (especially Val Kilmer and Mendes) ability to emphasize the redeeming qualities of their characters, which is so effective that it has you feeling nervous that something bad is going to happen to one of them. When your main character is a renegade cop hyped up on blow you’ve got to fear for the worst, but when the worst doesn’t happen you can’t help but look at the glass as half full. And with a glass half full this movie isn’t half bad.

--Mark Collins
 


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