Product: Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans [Blu-ray] (2009)
Rating: 4.0
Weird, farfetched and totally enjoyable . . . for some (including myself)
This film is notable not only because it's directed by offbeat directing great Werner Herzog, but also because it stars Nicolas Cage at his insanely wacky best. Add to that a post-Hurricane Katrina New Orleans and you've got some cinema that is, at the least, intriguing and, at the most, a wild, humid, corrupt-cop, gambling and drug-fueled ride. Frankly, I was surprised at how much I enjoyed it. Cage is at his best here.Cage plays Lt. Terence McDonagh. At the beginning, he is, as far as the viewer can tell, a slightly corrupt cop. In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, he and his partner (played by Val Kilmer) discover a locked up criminal about to be submerged by rising waters in an abandoned jail. Despite his partner's desire to leave the prisoner to drown, McDonagh leaps into the water to unlock the man . . .CUT TOA doctor's office where Lt. McDonagh is getting a check up and is informed that his back--apparently injured when McDonagh leapt into the water--will always give him pain. In the ensuing scenes, we get to see McDonagh taking copious amounts of drugs, meeting with his prostitute girlfriend (which he may or may not have had at the beginning of the movie), betting on sports, taking advantage of nightclubbing couples for sex and investigating the apparent drug-related death of a family. The lengths that McDonagh goes to to solve the murders while simulataneously extracting himself from various precarious situations involving his addictions test the very limits of believability . . . but the ride is fantastic and enjoyable, particularly since Nicolas Cage gets crazier and crazier as everything comes to a head.The movie certainly won't be to everyone's tastes, but give it a chance. You might be pleasantly surprised. (I frankly thought it was a better cinematic endeavor than Abel Ferrara's "Bad Lieutenant" with Harvey Keitel.) Interestingly, Val Kilmer is strangely absent throughout all but the beginning and end of the movie. It would have been good to see more of him. And I disagree with the assessments that Val has gone over the edge . . .