Product: Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans [Blu-ray] (2009)
Rating: 4.0
Entertaining, But Lacking the Depth of Ferrara's Original
It's worth noting that I'm familiar with the work of Werner Herzog, but I'm no aficionado on his career or film work. I have not seen all of his movies and the few I have seen I've only seen once. With that said a remake of Abel Ferrara's gritty, powerful dramaBad Lieutenantdid not seem the most obvious film for the famed German director to make. Minutes into the film I realized I was watching something very different from Ferrara's movie and Herzog's insistence that this film is not a remake is more than correct. The two films are only similar in title and in the fact they have a crooked cop at the center of it all. The way the material is handled, as well as the story itself is completely different and while Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call, New Orleans will get just as much criticism as acclaim, it should not be compared directly to the original film.The film opens in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Nicolas Cage plays Terence McDonagh, who saves a drowning prisoner and winds up with severe back problems. He's prescribed vicodin and six months later he's been promoted to lieutenant and picked up a cocaine habit. The story involves five people being killed execution-style in a drug-related homicide and Terence investigating it while stealing drugs from the property room, misusing his power as lieutenant for sex, and all other sorts of "bad" things.Eva Mendes plays Frankie, a prostitute and Terence's girlfriend, while Val Kilmer appears here and there as Terence's partner Stevie. The film has many other well-known actors popping up such as Brad Dourif (as Terence's bookie), Fairuza Balk, Michael Shannon, and Xzibit.Ferrara's Bad Lieutenant didn't have much of a plot...The story just sort of followed the lieutenant through his downward spiral of depravity. Herzog's follows his lieutenant through a story while illustrating his depravity; which, I'd argue, isn't quite as depraved as the original. This film does borrow some of the elements of that previous film, but if you were to drop the title you'd realize this is a completely different film.The film, aside from being glossier than the gritty original film, also has no problem going completely over-the-top or lurching over into something random and weird. The "iguana scene" is so ridiculously random, yet it gives this film it's own unique stamp in a way. I haven't seen many movies by Herzog but there are some creative touches which could have only come from his mind; the scene with the iguana and the scene with the alligator for example. Despite Herzog being a terrific, highly respected director I'm not sure he was taking his work here entirely seriously here opting for having fun rather than making a masterpiece.Performance-wise, Nicolas Cage can not match the soul-bearing performance by Harvey Keitel. A lot of people don't like Nicolas Cage at all; I think with the right material that Nicolas Cage is one of the greatest actors working today, never better than when he's playing a character that's completely unhinged. Terence McDonagh is a great role for him and no one besides Cage would've interpreted the character in this way. However, his performance is not flawless. While entertaining and fun to watch, there are some creative choices I'm not sure about such as when Cage's accent fades to a different accent mid-way through the movie for no apparent reason. The performances all over-the-top in one way or another, although Kilmer and Shannon are pretty subdued over all. No one will win an Oscar for acting in this film, but they make their character's fun to watch.The film has some good cinematography and Herzog picked some great locations to film; the film has a film-noir quality at times, but the musical score by Mark Isham didn't fit with the overall tone at times. Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call, New Orleans works as entertainment, but it didn't draw me in the way the first did. Ferrara's film is a tragedy, a compelling character study and morality tale. Herzog's film is a comedy, entertaining and unique. I'm not sure there's a point in telling this story without the morality or redemptive aspect to it. As I said though, I will not base my enjoyment of this film off of how it compares to the other.This film is marvelously weird and the pairing of Herzog and Cage, both known for being quirky in their professions, is a match well-made. What other director would have a shoot-out scene where the main character says, after a few people are shot, "Shoot him again; his soul's still dancing?" And who, aside from Cage, could say such a line? Furthermore, who would actually film the dancing soul? It's not a perfect film and it's not the masterpiece a few critics have called it. It does deserve to stand-alone from the Ferrara film and hopefully those who watch this film will be lead to watch the original. There will be those who absolutely loathe this film and that's to be expected. Over-the-top, ridiculous, and unique; I found it hard not to be amused and entertained. The first film left me shaken and stunned, this film left me shaking my head at how a similar story could be handled in such a different way.GRADE: B-