Customer Reviews

Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans [Blu-ray]

5 star:		(30)
4 star:		(32)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(10)
1 star:		(20)

 

 

I have to say I was somewhat horrified when I saw the trailer for this; it looked very generic and unintersting. The first thought in my head after hearing about this collaboration of Herzog and Cage was 'trainwreck'. I mean, I knew it would be at least an interesting wreck, but I was not expecting much. I was dead wrong.

Also, let me say that the original film by Abel Ferrara is one of my all time faves, and Harvey Keitel's performance is the answer I automatically give to anyone who asks what my all time favorite film performance is.

That being said.....

While the first film is dark and just brutal, this film is actually quite funny. With the exception of drug addict cops and gambling debts, the films are quite different. The first was def more in your face w/both it's graphic portrayal of gutter life and the ever-present religious overtones. This film is far more subtle, both in it's scenery and supporting cast, all across the board I might add; both the locations and characters are there, just waiting to be noticed for their authenticity in even the smallest part. There is reality to them all, much of which can be very comedic. The same can be said for the backdrop of New Orleans; it plays second to the human cast, but there is much to be noticed upon multiple viewings.

Nicolas Cage is perfectly cast and pull this one off flawlessly; his energy and humor, crossed w/a few somber and even emotional moments(esp. the scene where he talks about his treasure hunt w/Eva Mendes....). Cage makes every scene enjoyable, which is basically every scene. His acting is consistent throughout, even changing his tone of voice after being up for 3 days(as people who have been packing their noses for 72 hours with no sleep often do.....almost a godfather type thing), with his hunched back and .44 magnum hanging from his belt. This may be Cage's best film, and he deserves so much credit for this performance. I actually had fun watching him, and I never thought of him as Nicolas Cage, despite some obvious 'Cage-isms' here and there in terms of delivery. But you can tell he was into this part, and the result is almost more of a comic tour de force than anything else....he delivers lines like 'don't worry about your clothes right now...this is uncut dope!' with a certain comic timing almost, and like Keitel, you are just waiting to see what he will do next.

Some people found this movie boring and linear; while straightforward on the surface(kind of reminded me of an early 70's cop movie at times...), it deepens upon multiple viewings. You can tell Cage and Herzog made some kind of connection, and to be honest I am thankful someone actually funded this and got the talent involved. You can tell there was not a huge budget for this movie, which I think helped in terms of getting unknown/lesser known actors to fill many of the smaller but important roles. It adds a certain authenticity. The result is something truly original, funny, but by no means without it's share of corruption, brutality, and intense moments. Not very violent, but there is def a feeling of something heavy coming throughout, given some of the situations.

I would also say there are some surprises in here I have not seen in any film; Herzog has a great control over this film, and from the opening scene in the flooded jailhouse to the final frames, you can see he put his heart into this film. Plus there are 3 things in this movie I have never seen before in any movie; they were surprising and gut busting. You are lucky if you get one good twist in a movie nowadays.

This is based on seeing 4 times in the theater, but I can only imagine it will look fantastic on blu ray. An odd film to some, lame to others. But hopefully some will see this for the brilliant movie it is and get past the title or any comparisons. They are both great films to me, and completely different.

A great example of what talented people all across the board can do w/basically no money, and outshine most 'funded' movies...Go figure.

***UPDATE: Looks amazing on Blu Ray; This is how this movie was meant to be seen. Great lighting, color schemes, location use, and detail in every scene. The theater did not do this movie justice visually speaking...***

Who could have guessed that the man who helmed art house classics like "Fitzcarraldo", "Woyzeck" and "Aguirre the Wrath of God" would one day make a film entitled "Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call-New Orleans"? Then again, one might argue that the iconoclastic Werner Herzog's career would be nothing, if not perennially unpredictable.

Herzog's latest film, arguably adorned with the year's most unwieldy title for squeezing onto a marquee, is a (sort of) sequel to Abel Ferrara's controversial 1992 neo-noir, "Bad Lieutenant" which was about a drug and gambling-addicted NYC homicide investigator. In that film, Harvey Keitel gave a fearless and maniacal performance as a "cop on the edge" who made most of the criminals he was paid to apprehend look like choir boys. Not an easy act to follow-but Nicholas Cage proves to be more than up to the task here.

To my observation, Cage has demonstrated two basic personas in his repertoire over the years. First, there is the Slack-Jawed, Dead-eyed Mumbler ("Peggy Sue Got Married", "Moonstruck", "Red Rock West", "Leaving Las Vegas"). His other character is the Manic, Wild-eyed Loon ("Wild at Heart", "Raising Arizona", "Kiss of Death", "Face/Off"). Personally, I get a real kick out of his performances in the latter mode, and it goes without saying that you can now add the role of "bad" Lt. Terence McDonagh to that section of his resume.

As far as I could glean, there is no effort to bridge with Ferrara's film and explain how Lt. McDonagh transitioned from NYC to New Orleans. Not that it really matters. Anyone who has followed Herzog's career probably has figured out by now that he is perfectly content to wallow in his own peculiar universe. Not that this is necessarily a bad thing-it's what makes his work so continually interesting to me. The "plot" ostensibly concerns itself with the murder of a Senegalese family, and the police investigation. Not that the "plot" really matters, either (although Herzog's post-Katrina milieu is quite atmospheric).

No, if you are going to watch this film (which has "destined to become a midnight cult item" written all over it), I'll tell you right now that you needn't concern yourself with trying to follow the (probably deliberately) convoluted and complex murder mystery. You'll be too busy asking yourself questions like "Did I just see what I think I just saw?" and making exclamations like "Oh no-he DIDN'T!" as Herzog and screenwriter William M. Finkelstein proceed to turn the "cop on the edge" genre on its head with every blackly comic twist and turn. Cage and the rest of the cast (including Val Kilmer, Eva Mendes, Fairuza Balk, Brad Dourif and Jennifer Coolidge) all seem to be in on the director's joke, and play it to the hilt. By the time you've processed Herzog's use of the "alligator/iguana-cam", you will have to make a decision to either run for the exit, or go with the flow and say to yourself "Well...I've bought the ticket, I'm gonna take the ride."

This is easily the most twisted noir I've seen since "Tough Guys Don't Dance". So do I think you should rush out and see this? That depends. If you are looking for a refreshing alternative to the usual Hollywood offerings, by all means, knock yourself out. But don't say I didn't warn you-if you don't consider an inspired line like "Shoot him again-his soul is still dancing!" to be pure genius, then you'd best keep away.

We all know the Nicholas Cage of recent years who seemingly has made one hackneyed movie after another just to indulge yet another big pay check and spending spree. Those of us who had been following him from the beginning, who loved his quirky indie films with offbeat directors, were horrified at what he'd become. Now he has teamed with the ultimate indie, offbeat director, Werner Herzog, to reclaim his roots. I believe that both Herzog and Cage have made a movie that is an extended metaphor about post Katrina New Orleans. Cage IS that post Katrina beleaguered city. He starts out the film injured and heroic and then zig zags through the rest of the film exhibiting the behavior of a post traumatic stress disorder patient who is untreated, like such a soldier from Vietnam or Iraq. For Herzog's part, he's always been about imagery and metaphors and he doesn't disappoint here in rendering the ultimate imagery and metaphor for post Katrina New Orleans. This is a very different movie from Abel Ferrara's movie starring Harvey Kietel set in New York. That film was a true character study of a really bad cop who worked for the NYPD. It was also excellent but very different from this film. Is Cage Herzog's new alter ego Klaus Kinski (his late leading man)? I doubt it. Although the two are an excellent pairing, Kinski and Herzog were a one off as a movie making team.

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

This is New Orleans, post-Hurricane Katrina. This is the city where Lt. Terence McDonagh works. He's not afraid to torture an old lady to get what he wants. He's not afraid to have sex with a girl outside a club just to confiscate the drugs in her purse. Nor is he afraid to risk his life in the call of higher justice. And when a family is murdered, he's royally pissed. Or maybe he's just looking to score a cheap high.

THE BAD LIEUTENANT: PORT OF CALL-NEW ORLEANS is not for everyone. It's not your average cop movie; there is very little to like in Terence, who in the hands of Nicholas Cage comes across as a needy, sadistic, drug-addicted purveyor of law and order. Sure, he's got a couple redeeming features; he'll do the right thing, eventually, if enough innocent people get hurt. In the hands of Nicholas Page (finally displaying his immense talent, after several years of slacking), Terence is strangely likable, and yet you're always afraid of what he'll do next. His friends aren't much better; his girlfriend (a haunting Eva Mendes) is a druggie and prostitute; and his partner (Val Kilmer, showing a fine return to form and grossly underused) is almost as crazy as he is.

Werner Herzog's direction is at times a bit too trippy for its own good; we get lingering shots of nonexistent iguanas and dancing souls that are absolutely hilarious at first; but the shots stretch on too long, and the humor is lost. Yet, when the film hits the right notes, it's almost like nothing you've ever seen before. You HAVE seen it--numerous times--but the fact that the film comes off as original is truly impressive. We can thank Nic Cage for that; his energetic, over-the-top performance roots this film in irreality, giving it that hard, dark edge that we don't get much of anymore. Watch this film at your own risk; you may come away thinking "what the hell"...but you may come away thoroughly impressed, as well.

I was surprised that my theater actually got this movie today. It doesn't seem to be getting much play around the country and will likely hit DVD before most people can witness this strange little gem. I read some really positive reviews from critics and movie watchers alike, so I figured I would give it a shot. I haven't been a fan of Nicolas Cage for a long time, mainly because he seems to be taking every bad movie and turning in a subpar performance. Now that we know he has money problems in real life, it at least makes sense now. I'm happy to say the he is back in top form here. His character is as bad as Denzel Washington's in Training Day and he is played in the same over the top way, without seeming to be unbelievable. He has a hunched back and carries his .44 magnum in the front of his pants wherever he goes. Most of the characters in Bad Lieutenant are predictable scum, but Cage throws so much into this performance that you really have no clue what's going to happen from one scene to the next. He is at his crazy best here and reminded me that few people can play weird as well as this man. Eva Mendes is looking pretty good here and her acting is decent, but her role doesn't amount to much other than a slight bright spot for Cage's loose cannon. Val Kilmer shows up and is quite good, but he is barely in the movie. Maybe five minutes tops.

On the negative side, this film is very dark and often mean, but thankfully some humor forces it's way through in some of these scenes. There are also some bizarre visuals, such as a point of view shot from an alligator and another from a couple of iguanas for no reason at all. A few scenes also linger on a bit to long and the pacing slows at times, but I was sucked into this corrupt man's life and couldn't keep my eyes off the screen. Welcome back Mr. Nicolas Cage of old and don't go anywhere this time around.

I was surprised that my theater actually got this movie today. It doesn't seem to be getting much play around the country and will likely hit DVD before most people can witness this strange little gem. I read some really positive reviews from critics and movie watchers alike, so I figured I would give it a shot. I haven't been a fan of Nicolas Cage for a long time, mainly because he seems to be taking every bad movie and turning in a subpar performance. Now that we know he has money problems in real life, it at least makes sense now. I'm happy to say the he is back in top form here. His character is as bad as Denzel Washington's in Training Day and he is played in the same over the top way, without seeming to be unbelievable. He has a hunched back and carries his .44 magnum in the front of his pants wherever he goes. Most of the characters in Bad Lieutenant are predictable scum, but Cage throws so much into this performance that you really have no clue what's going to happen from one scene to the next. He is at his crazy best here and reminded me that few people can play weird as well as this man. Eva Mendes is looking pretty good here and her acting is decent, but her role doesn't amount to much other than a slight bright spot for Cage's loose cannon. Val Kilmer shows up and is quite good, but he is barely in the movie. Maybe five minutes tops.

On the negative side, this film is very dark and often mean, but thankfully some humor forces it's way through in some of these scenes. There are also some bizarre visuals, such as a point of view shot from an alligator and another from a couple of iguanas for no reason at all. A few scenes also linger on a bit to long and the pacing slows at times, but I was sucked into this corrupt man's life and couldn't keep my eyes off the screen. Welcome back Mr. Nicolas Cage of old and don't go anywhere this time around.

At first, Herzog's latest was just plain exhausting. The picture-perfect ending initially came across as a sneering, nihilistic slap in the face after all the misdeeds accumulated in the movie. But then I got to thinking. In the scenes between Nicolas Cage and Xzibit, Cage's character adopts precisely the one attitude that has any chance of success. Not that he'd consciously planned it, but he couldn't have done a better job if he had. A character like Big Fate understands extravagantly sleazy and reckless behaviour, it fits into his worldview. If one demonstrates sufficient extremes of recklessness (like pulling a gun on him while driving), that just might sort of begin to elicit respect, assuming one didn't instantly get killed. In that situation, acting crazy is the only way to stay alive.

Despite being high all the time, the lieutenant pulls off a very delicate balancing act. Thugs come to extort money from him, threaten to disfigure his girlfriend and shoot his dog. He can't fight them, but showing any sign of weakness will just goad them into carrying out their threats. So, he agrees to their demands for money, but acts in a businesslike, sleazy manner. He won't hand the girl over to the thugs, but only because (he says) she hasn't had time to make herself look attractive. Miraculously, they don't press the point. He's speaking exactly their language.

So, in the end, the lieutenant does a neat job of work, in a sense. He solves the murder of the drug-dealing immigrants, and the culprit is punished, though not for that particular crime, and not in a particularly orderly fashion. It's important to note that the lieutenant insists on the mobster's arrest; Val Kilmer's character wants to play the corrupt cop and steal the mobster's drugs, but the lieutenant forces him to make the arrest. He does jeopardize a bunch of innocent people's lives, but happily they suffer no permanent damage. A few thugs died, but they were obviously pretty low types, so the film's audience doesn't have to feel bad.

If you've ever read the classic crime novels of Dashiell Hammett, you'll recognize this setup. Hammett's novel Red Harvest explores this idea of the morally ambiguous crime-fighter, who descends into the underworld, engages in questionable acts, makes all kinds of bargains and alliances with criminals, pretends to be after money or women, while all this time, deep down, none of this really affects him, and he is truly motivated only by his distaste for the criminals. There is not much inner monologue; you see what the detective does, but you're often left guessing as to why. As a result, bodies pile up and many thugs die gruesome deaths, but the idea is that they all had it coming anyway, so the reader is supposed to ignore the lack of due process.

Hammett's concept was, "Plans are all right sometimes. And sometimes just stirring things up is all right." The detective doesn't really have a master plan, he just acts on instinct and eventually things work out. That idea seems to be present in Herzog's film, and also in his previous film Rescue Dawn, where Christian Bale's character also had a sort of vague general moral code, but then just did whatever came into his head, and counted on his instinct and willpower to get him through. Cage's character here just throws himself headfirst into the chaos, always going all the way and living on the edge, but carefully modulating his reactions to suit the situation at hand.

Fortunately, Herzog tempers his paean to impulsiveness with sympathetic details. At one point, the lieutenant starts to look, hilariously, like a harried family man, trying to simultaneously handle witness protection for the murder case, ferry his girlfriend to safety, and even take care of his parents' dog. This is completely goofy, but it shows you that he does have a bizarre sense of responsibility. This makes it easier to accept him than it is to like the detective in Red Harvest, who has no human connections of any kind. It also makes the film more suspenseful, as he means well, but seems to be spiraling out of control.

So, the message (if there is one) is mostly about the joys of winging it and throwing caution to the winds. Which fits into Herzog's worldview well enough. And just in case you forget who's behind the camera, he recycles the music from the end of Stroszek during a hysterical hallucination scene. There are many other odd images in the film, mostly involving iguanas, as well as occasional philosophical lines in the dialogue that would never be spoken by real-life thugs (although they do greatly resemble Herzog's narration in Grizzly Man), but are convincing enough in the film. Many of the generic supporting characters are given just enough quirks to be interesting, like the awesome dude with a mullet who says "whoa" and "oh yeah."

Herzog's reinvention of himself as a Hollywood director in the 2000s, starting with Invincible, is an odd development. Maybe it's because, these days, no one is willing to fund the kinds of films he used to make, and even a more mainstream film like this can't get released unless it's billed as a remake (Herzog's film has nothing in common with Abel Ferrara's "Bad Lieutenant," the title was forced on him by the producers). "Port Of Call New Orleans" won't supercede classic Herzog (though I'd love to hear him try to explain where the "poetic truth" is here), but it is suspenseful and memorable. After one thinks a bit about the details that stayed in one's mind, it becomes clear that the film is very entertaining and delivers a great time.

This is a crime drama set in the dark, dingy and damp back streets of New Orleans. In it, Nicolas Cage is perfectly cast as a drug-addicted, pain-ridden corrupt cop. The director is Werner Herzog at his best. Cage and Herzog were meant to work together.

If this was a "straight" crime drama, it probably would be boring for many viewers. It is not straight at all. It is an "in-stitches" dark comedy made hilarious by Herzog's genius for darkness and surprises, many involving seemingly senseless introductions of animals.

Those who see humor in the smirk on the face of the undeserving recipient of a worthless and rigged "employee of the month" award will love this movie. Others who take everything "straight" will not get it, are certain to be disappointed and would give it two or three stars.

Comparing this film to Bad Santa does not make much sense, but I will say this: If you thought Bad Santa was funny and it did not offend you much, then you will probably like this movie. It is totally different, but I suspect if you were offended by Bad Santa this movie would offend you as well.

The movie has perhaps the best performance of Nicholas Cage's career. He is so over the top and frankly just hilarious. I could not quit laughing after some scenes. When the camera moves off-topic a bit and has its little sideshows it was also hilarious.

Someone else said the story in this movie does not really matter, and I believe that is true. Cage's various scenes are so good they could each stand on their own.

I'm the type of person who can laugh at anything funny, no matter how dark, if you are not like that this it is not for you. Some people can't disassociate themselves from the movie. I have no trouble with that. It's just a movie so it is ok to laugh at any of it if you find it funny.