Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans: Review

Jan. 11
Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans
Directed by Werner Herzog
Starring: Nicolas Cage, Eva Mendes, and somebody impersonating Val Kilmer

All right, everyone should see a movie like this every once in a while. People who only see Avatar and the latest Martin Lawrence movie should see movies like this once in a while … by the way, Avatar totally rocked.

I’m not saying this in a snobby, film junkie, “I know better than the masses way,” I’m just saying it’s good to look at film in a different way. Shake things up; embrace the iguana that’s telling your tale.

And trust me, just because a film is independent or “different” doesn’t necessarily make it good. Many critics raved over the artistic brilliance of the original Bad Lieutenant. I found it tedious, boring, one-noted, and I got tired of Keitel’s “angst” in about ten minutes. And I don’t always like Herzog’s movies—I know, I know, he’s a genius, and I’ve really liked some of his films and as an actor, he was hilarious chasing down the Loch Ness monster; but that doesn’t always guarantee a home run. This Bad Lieutenant however is like a drug induced ride that you can enjoy even if you’re sober.

Nicolas cage gives his best performance in years playing the title role. You have to love Cage, or at least, love hating Cage. He’s like William Shatner, you may scream to the heavens that the guy can’t act, but can you imagine anyone else playing Kirk? Shatner can act, go ahead, hate him all you want, it’s kind of fun, actually. Cage is similar. Very easy to loathe at times, at times, freakin’ brilliant—Leaving Las Vegas, Adaptation, and to a lesser extent, Moonstruck, Peggy Sue Got Married, and Raising Arizona. Well, add Bad Lieutenant to the list. Now I’m a fan of Harvey Keitel, but I found his character to be someone I just wanted to leave alone in a room so he could work out his problems by himself. Cage is no less troubled and dark, but is more connected and engaged. He seems to be participating in his trip rather than raging against it; that allows the audience in, too.

Herzog does all he can to drug us up as well with dancing souls and reptiles acting as Nicolas Cage’s fellow merry pranksters. However, he avoids the mistake of overloading us with drug-hazed scenes that would just become monotonous and tiresome, by interjecting some straight ahead scenes. No lizards, no soundtrack, and no multiple cuts, but a still scene here and there, like a splash of cold water to snap us out of it before we continue on our crack rock ride.

Check it out if you get a chance.

Oh, by the way, at one point Nicolas Cage taps a lizard and says, “This iguana, right here,” but it totally wasn’t an iguana, it was a bearded dragon! I bet some reptile nerd noticed that right away … ok, I was the only reptile nerd that noticed that at all.

Point of interest: When referring to the original Harvey Keitel film, you should always pronounce “Lieutenant” in the Canadian/British way, “Leftenant.” It’s worth it to see the look on your film snob friend’s face to call this “gritty” movie The Bad Leftenant. For those of you who don’t know what I’m talking about, learn something about your country. For those who do, but like to point out that there’s no “f” in Lieutenant, yeah, well, it’s not pronounced “leeooohtenant”, either—both pronunciations are wrong, and we’re Canadian damn it, so it’s The Bad Leftenant around here, just for fun.