Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call, New Orleans review

I love contemporary noir films. They hold such bold constructs and characters, have that kind of stark imagery that's foreboding and often show you much seedier places than the average crime picture. All these things are very true in Werner Herzog's "Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call, New Orleans" and more. The more being Nicolas Cage creating as kick ass a character as he did. This is the kind of thing he did when he was younger and the dollar signs of big budget adventure spectacles weren't dancing in his head. Hell this is the kind of stuff that got him his reputation and his Oscar. The last time I've been this impressed with him was probably in 2005 with "Lord of War" and "The Weatherman", but this is the type of character where his talents really shine. You see his character Terrence is a junkie. A bad junkie. A junkie cop.

After saving a jailed inmate during hurricane Katrina, he suffered an injury that would give him severe back pain for the rest of his life. He's prescribed painkillers, but after a year or so... well that just ain't enough. He moves on to cocaine.... then heroin and crack cocaine. He has it stolen by friends in the evidence room or he steals it from local youth and drug dealers. But he's not a bad cop. Well... not in the same sense has like Denzel Washington in "Training Day" or something. He does care about what's doing down in the city and he is very good at what he does. Despite all his problems (which he has tons and tons of), he still finds time to deal with issues involving the murder of an entire family in one of the poorer sections of the city. Everyone knows who's behind the murder, a local gangster named 'Big Fate' played by rapper Xzibit; who finally is in a good film AND actually shows that after all his shitty work he CAN in fact actor pretty well.

But perhaps that's credited to the strong writing here and the great character moments throughout the film. Eva Mendas plays Terrence's high class hooker girlfriend. Cage and Mendas' chemistry in "Ghost Rider" might not have worked, but here they conversations and interactions are very believable. They both care for one another as one junkie to another. Mendas plays it noir style, perhaps even more than the other actors. In those films the love interest didn't have much to do in the film and here honestly she doesn't have a ton to do either, but involvement in Terrence's life is important. Because the time spent together that they have displays a slightly more human side and loving side to both parties and by the end you see how that helps everyone. And I shant leave out Val Kilmer as one of the fellow officers, who's a bit more toned down then you'd expect this sort of role, but manages to impress in his few scenes.

Something to remember is that this is... in a sense a "remake" of Abel Ferrer's 1992 film "Bad Lieutenant" with Harvey Kietel. However it's only in remake in that they have similar titles and both involve drug addicted cops. The characters are very different and the tone of each film is very different. Herzog's film is really a dark comedy, noir pretending to be a simple crime drama. There's a lot of funny things in the film. I mean they even bring back the ole' Nic Cage flip out scene. You remember those right? Back in the 80's and 90's he had to have at least one scene where he completely flips out on someone for some reason. He's good at it. Last time he really had one of those was in "Matchstick Men". But here's is one of his very best ones. I don't really wanna spoil it, but explaining how a cop, high off his ass on coke, tired and stressed to no end, decides to break into a nursing home and cut off the oxygen to an old woman in order to get information from her nurse, then pull a 45. on the two women and begin screaming about how they're ruining the country well... it's funny either way.

The film has been in limited release for a little over a month now and perhaps it'll spread, but I'm guessing it won't be as wide as some of the other films coming along right now. This picture is gritty and cool in the best sort of ways. Every character has their subtleties and they over-the-top show off moments. Herzog takes chances with plot and visuals as often as he likes without making it look like a test movie and Cage reminds us why he got that Oscar. Perfection.

"Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call, New Orleans" **** out of ****