Product: Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans [Blu-ray] (2009)
Rating: 2.0
To What Extent Was It Intended as Parody?
"Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans" isn't a remake or sequel to the 1992's "Bad Lieutenant" directed by Abel Ferrara. It's a reconception of the "bad cop" concept in post-Katrina New Orleans. Lt. Terence McDonaugh (Nicolas Cage), a homicide detective with the NOPD, keeps himself going by dosing Vicodin for his chronic back pain, which leads to heroin, cocaine, crack, and, by the time he is called upon to investigate the massacre of a Senegalese family, any mind-altering substance he can get his hands on. Terence tracks down the killers, creatively abuses his power to obtain enough drugs to sustain him, gambles, threatens honest citizens, rescues his prostitute girlfriend Frankie (Eva Mendes), and weaves such a tangled web of corruption that it's doubtful a crackhead cop could keep track of it all.I wonder to what extent this was intended as parody. Ostensibly, we have a police officer, a sort of crooked cop with a conscience stuck in an existential nightmare, whose bad habits are way out of control and whose world is crashing in on him: his victims are filing complaints, his gambling debts are due, goons are threatening him, and he has to babysit his alcoholic father's dog, while conducting a murder investigation. Terence has managed to stay one step ahead of his troubles through sheer audacity. But he's a lunatic. It can't last. There are some goofy reptile's-eye-view shots that director Werner Herzog must have intended to make fun of the characters. But how much of the rest of it was supposed to be funny? Nicolas Cage isn't acting. He's doing shtick, and he's barely doing that.The murder suspects come from out of nowhere. In fact, there is a lot of inattention to detail and continuity, where characters do and say things that don't fit. The dialogue is so bad that, with my eyes closed, I would swear this is a low-budget exploitation flick. Terence's drug-addled rants and rampages are so bizarre that no one would take him seriously. They'd have him committed. His indiscretions eventually congeal into a plot so absurd that I didn't know what to make of it. Watching "Bad Lieutenant", there were times when I was almost certain it was intended as a joke. Then it seemed to desperately want to be taken seriously. Then back to silliness. Whatever it is, it's not worth 2 hours of anyone's time. This is one of the 10 worst movies I've ever seen. And William Finkelstein certainly deserves a mention for his putrid screenplay.