Product: Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans [Blu-ray] (2009)
Rating: 5.0
Bad Lieutenant good movie. Ouch, geez!
My back hurt after watching this movie; my neck, too. I won't tell you why, but you'll know soon enough if you give this sleeper of a movie a chance and watch Nicholas Cage do his acting thing in the Bad Lieutenant. Many people love him or hate him, but given the right material and the freedom to create, he can indeed surprise. I think he had a hand in inventing this role and maybe the director gave him a lot of leeway; because his character dominates every frame of this movie.And there's more good news. It's a taught and suspenseful thriller for those of you who love the crime, suspense and murder genre. Here we have to give Herzog accolades, the director, for choosing the setting (New Orleans), the music and the scenes. Certainly a bizarre thinker himself based on some of his other films. But in Bad he has woven together a frightening dilemma for our hero. Now that I think about it, we don't care too much about Cage, but we do care about those that surround him. That's a peculiarity, maybe a weakness of the story; why people like him. But some do and in the end I do, too. He's not a very likable sort at all and that's an understatement, but he is startling and hysterical; a dark, cheerless barrel of monkeys when he is high. You won't want to meet him otherwise.So, that's good news for many of you Californians, who love some of the weed. There is much in this story for you to rejoice in and relate to as it examines, fictionally perhaps, the underbelly of the use and abuse of recreational and pharmaceutical drugs in a hopelessly desolate city. I don't think the New Orleans Visitors Bureau woud approve of Herzog's depiction of their city. Though he does it artfully.I looked into this movie because Ebert gave it high marks. I might have ignored it because of Cage otherwise. He can be too `cagey' in films, especially in recent action-type flicks. But he is great in this one, over the top, as they say. The other characters are acted wonderfully and are as lovable as new born puppies - just kidding. You will find most of them repulsive and comical and you'll love to hate them. I think Herzog is a `bad director'. You'll know why I used parentheses after you watch.