Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans
(B or 3/4 stars)
In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, New Orleanean police sergeant Terence McDonagh (Nicolas Cage) rescues a prisoner, injures his back in the process, & earns a promotion in 'Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans', directed by the controversial Werner Herzog. When we 1st meet Terence, he's a pretty good cop (partnered with a cop played by Val Kilmer, of all people). But 6 months after his permanent back injury (and having received the lieutenant commendation), he has secretly become addicted; not only to sports gambling, but to vicodin, cocaine, & heroin, as well. As his addiction(s) get worse, & his behavior becomes increasingly erratic, his actions endanger the case he's working on: the killing of 5 Senegalese immigrants; committed by drug kingpin Big Fate (rapper, Xzibit).
Everything starts falling apart for Terence, with a client of his prostitute girlfriend, Frankie (Eva Mendes) sending thugs to extort $$ from him, his bookie (Brad Dourif) demands that he pay his $5,000 bill, his crippling back pain persisting, run-ins with 2 elderly ladies, police property theft, & Internal Affairs going after his badge (& gun). It is at this point when Terence decides to join the bad guys for a while. He's high on drugs, stealing them from the police station, fueled by compulsion, hallucinating at crime scenes (nothing like a few lizards showing up), & caught up in all of these crazy tangential complications (both personal & job-related). Can Terence function, close the investigation, escape danger, heal himself, & come out unscathed? It all unfolds in a darkly humorous fashion.
I dug 'Bad Lieutenant ...'. Really, it's little more than an extended CSI or Law & Order episode with odd plot points thrown-in and a great leading performance. But I was entertained for large stretches of the film. Most of the compelling parts involve Terence's struggles with morality, struggles with his personal demons, & how he reacts to them. Terence is never 'bad', but the drugs change him for the worse (i.e., making compromises on the road to solving the homicide case). By the end of the film, Terence (via Cage) descends into certain madness, & turns into a wild animal; practically frothing at the mouth - it's something to behold. That said, the movie loses some narrative bite when he gets all crazy, & the denouement of the film is the weakest aspect of it.
That said, I liked that while the framework is pretty standard (a police procedural), there are unpredictabilities. It's off-kilter, go-for-broke spirit/mood kept me watching. I enjoy New Orleans as a setting. And furthermore, this movie goes to show just how straightforward & un-ambitious police films like We Own the Night & Pride & Glory are. Those films are totally fine, just nothing special. Nicolas Cage brings a real lurching, wild-eyed, yet sad dimension to Terence. We like him (even in his amoral states) because we know who he 'was' and have hope that he'll achieve redemption. And so, I recommend 'BL:PoCNO' as a drama with intermittent moments of the 'unorthodox' mixed with the 'ordinary'. Just like Nicolas Cage, himself.
Everything starts falling apart for Terence, with a client of his prostitute girlfriend, Frankie (Eva Mendes) sending thugs to extort $$ from him, his bookie (Brad Dourif) demands that he pay his $5,000 bill, his crippling back pain persisting, run-ins with 2 elderly ladies, police property theft, & Internal Affairs going after his badge (& gun). It is at this point when Terence decides to join the bad guys for a while. He's high on drugs, stealing them from the police station, fueled by compulsion, hallucinating at crime scenes (nothing like a few lizards showing up), & caught up in all of these crazy tangential complications (both personal & job-related). Can Terence function, close the investigation, escape danger, heal himself, & come out unscathed? It all unfolds in a darkly humorous fashion.
I dug 'Bad Lieutenant ...'. Really, it's little more than an extended CSI or Law & Order episode with odd plot points thrown-in and a great leading performance. But I was entertained for large stretches of the film. Most of the compelling parts involve Terence's struggles with morality, struggles with his personal demons, & how he reacts to them. Terence is never 'bad', but the drugs change him for the worse (i.e., making compromises on the road to solving the homicide case). By the end of the film, Terence (via Cage) descends into certain madness, & turns into a wild animal; practically frothing at the mouth - it's something to behold. That said, the movie loses some narrative bite when he gets all crazy, & the denouement of the film is the weakest aspect of it.
That said, I liked that while the framework is pretty standard (a police procedural), there are unpredictabilities. It's off-kilter, go-for-broke spirit/mood kept me watching. I enjoy New Orleans as a setting. And furthermore, this movie goes to show just how straightforward & un-ambitious police films like We Own the Night & Pride & Glory are. Those films are totally fine, just nothing special. Nicolas Cage brings a real lurching, wild-eyed, yet sad dimension to Terence. We like him (even in his amoral states) because we know who he 'was' and have hope that he'll achieve redemption. And so, I recommend 'BL:PoCNO' as a drama with intermittent moments of the 'unorthodox' mixed with the 'ordinary'. Just like Nicolas Cage, himself.