Product: Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans [Blu-ray] (2009)
Rating: 2.0
The Not So bad Lieutenant
This is a sort of remake of Abel Ferarra's powerful The Bad Lieutenant. It's "sort of" because they've set this version in New Orleans, I guess because of its reputation as sin city. It's also sort of because this bad lieutenant isn't really the totally corrupt person the original one was. In fact, when they have him do things inspired by the original, they don't come off as probable because Nicholas Cage simply doesn't exude the stench of rottenness that Harvey Keitel did to perfection. What's worse is that Cage is not only not rotten, he's also not capable of looking at himself and repenting, which Keitel's character did in spades. Even worse is that the new bad lieutenant gets no punishment for his crimes. Nor does Lady Luck abandon him. In short, this movies lacks the morality and moral of the original. Then, too, the original was a tightly knit, suspenseful movie that keeps you glued to the screen. This version is long and meandering so that I at least kept wishing it would end. The only reason I didn't turn it off before it did was that I had a guest watching with me. Get the original if you want to see a good bad lieutenant.Bad Lieutenant