Do not confuse Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans with the 1992’s Bad Lieutenant starring Harvey Keitel. They share a title and their main character is a corrupt cop, but then their paths split. This Bad Lieutenant stars Nicolas Cage. Not the Nic Cage that has starred in Bangkok Dangerous and Next. But the Nic Cage that starred in Leaving Las Vegas and Adaptation. In other words, he shows his true skills and talent in this film.
Lt. Terence McDonagh (Cage) has been put in charge of a brutal crime that involves the execution of an entire family. He must find the people responsible and bring them down. The murders are linked to drug dealers, so it has to be drug-related. The only problem is Lt. McDonagh loves drugs. Drugs and sex, to be exact. After he hurts his back on the job, he is hooked on pain killers. When those are no longer enough, he turns to heroin and cocaine. McDonagh starts to go in to a downward spiral, and he starts to lose his grip on his job and his life.
Eva Mendes plays an escort/girlfriend to McDonagh. He cares about her and they have a lot of common interests. Sex and drugs being two of them. Mendes plays her part well, but her character is just not that interesting. Val Kilmer is also in the film, but he has a few scenes and that’s it. It is kind of a shame, really. He is a good actor and if you do not believe me, go watch Kiss Kiss Bang Bang and Wonderland.
This film is all about Cage. He really is a sight to see in this film. He plays a Lieutenant who has gone mad. Most of the film is him getting in to all kinds of situations involving sex, drugs, and owing people money. And you have no idea how he will be able to get out of all of the shit he has gotten himself in to. But I guess that is part of the fun. Cage shows parts of himself that we have not seen in a long time. I cannot really explain how crazy he is in this film. It is one of those situations in which you have to see it for yourself. But nothing of him seems fake or ridiculous, unlike some of his characters in his other movies.
Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans is a film for audiences to see Nicolas Cage being the Oscar winner that he is. The film itself is nothing great. Werner Herzog (Rescue Dawn, Grizzly Man) directed this and his style is unique. He feels like he brings the camera in to this world of madness and we are all just witnesses to it all. There are close-ups that come out of nowhere of lizards and reptiles and it comes across as weird and a little creepy.
This film has the perfect location. It is New Orleans and it’s post-Katrina. There is theft, robberies, drugs, and murders going on all over the place. It is not the Mardi Gras city we are use to seeing. Bourbon Street is far away from the places that the characters visit in this film. But the film is slow and goes on for too long. The film almost ignores the murders but it does finally come back to it. Herzog takes us to more than a few places where Lt. McDonagh gets in to trouble. And it starts to get a little boring because you know what to expect.
I must say the film does come full circle, but it does wander off its path. Understandably, the audience will follow McDonagh on his wild adventures, but maybe we spend too much time with him. At a certain point, we understand that he is corrupt and can be an asshole. And at times he is even funny being one.
In the end, I think Herzog and Cage want to see how crazy Lt. McDonagh and the film can get. And they do a pretty good job. The film is entertaining and even funny at times, but ultimately it becomes a lot to handle. And the willingness to understand it all is lost.
Brandon Vick is a member of The Music City Film Critics’ Association, the resident film critic of the SoBros Network, and the star of The Vick’s Flicks Podcast. Follow him on Twitter @SirBrandonV and be sure to search #VicksFlicks for all of his latest movie reviews.
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