Review - 'Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans'

Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans Starring Nicolas Cage, Eva Mendes, and Val Kilmer Directed by Werner Herzog Rated R

Werner Herzog's Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans is not much like the 1991 Abel Ferrera film Bad Lieutenant, no matter how similar the names. In fact, Port of Call New Orleans isn't much like anything, really. Is that a good thing? In this case, it actually is. There's some abiguity about the actions of our bad lieutenant that you'd probably prefer to be better explained by Herzog, and there are definitely some directorial decisions that are a little strange, but it's hard not to roll with the punches overall, even if they almost always come out of nowhere. Port of Call New Orleans is over the top through and through, and when that's the design, there's only one actor you should consider: Nicolas Cage. And although Cage can be as awful as any major star in Hollywood when he's unhinged and left to his own devices, that kind of insanity is unmistakably the right call here, with Cage embodying a police officer bound by his mountain of debts, both financial and moral, while spiraling further out of control while under the influence of lots and lots of drugs. You can go back to Cage's Oscar-winning work in Leaving Las Vegas to see a different way Cage can capture this kind of bankrupt desperation. His Terrence McDonagh (the character name is another leftover from the 1991 movie) is so completely manic that you don't know where the drugs begin and the self-awareness leaves off. Is he acting like this because he's so edge or is he so on edge because the drugs are making him act this way? Cage manages to keep it in the same ballpark, which is usually a measure of success for a performance as whacked-out as this, and the result is one of his most effective performances in years.

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New 'Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans' Trailer

Now that some reviews have been filed for Werner Herzog's Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans, it begins to make a little more sense. When we first saw the trailer this summer, it just looked like it was way out over the cliff.

But apparently, that's kind of the idea, so some of what you see in the trailer is supposed to be this bizarre. The film stars Nic Cage, a good choice if you want to walk hand-in-hand with the strange, and he even received some good notices in Toronto playing a cop dealing with all sorts of demons, real and drug induced. This new trailer is quite a bit like the first one, meaning you would'nt think this was anything close to a Werner Herzog movie or in any way related to the first Bad Lieutenant. You'll see some of the Toronto quotes here, too, and it's worth showing just because it's of a much higher video quality than the first trailer.

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'Bad Lieutenant' Now Opening November 20th

I didn't expect this news until after Toronto and Venice, two major international film festivals where the movie will be shown, but my old friend and True West film editor Henry Beck forwarded me an e-mail from First Look Studios announcing that Werner Herzog's Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans will hit U.S. theaters on November 20th.

If the title sticks in your head for some reason, it's because of the 1990s Bad Lieutenant that starred Harvey Keitel. That film, directed by Abel Ferrera, was one of the first major NC-17 releases, along with - I believe - Almodovar's Tie Me Up, Tie Me Down. However, the new Bad Lieutenant has as little to do with the original as possible, outside of taking the name and maybe some of the same basic behavior of the cop, who in this instance is Nicolas Cage.

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Coens, Drew, Herzog, Michael Moore Set for Toronto

Activity for the 2009 Toronto International Film Festival is starting to heat up, with several key additions joining the list of North American or world premieres at what is, in my opinion, the best bang for your film festival buck if you're just into watching a ton of new movies.

We already discussed the late night programming, which will include Jennifer's Body, but now we're learning that the new films from the Coen Brothers, werner Herzog, Michael Moore, and director Drew Barrymore. You heard me. The Coens will unveil A Serious Man, which is probably the brothers' least showy movie ever. The biggest name in the cast is probably Adam Arkin, so that should tell you something. Don't let the title fool you, though; it's rumored that A Serious Man is anything but.

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Whacked-Out Nic Cage in the 'Bad Lieutenant' Trailer

It's not a remake of Bad Lieutenant, and the new trailer for Werner Herzog's Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans makes it seem like the title of the films are about the only things these two movies have in common.

The original, directed by Abel Ferrara, was a very rough NC-17 film that helped usher in a grittier kind of indie cinema in the 1990s. The new one just looks like a bizarre drugged-up cop movie that tries too hard to be funny. Nic Cage is the drugged-up cop, and he appears to be at his most Cagey. That's not really a compliment. On the plus side, we'll be able to introduce "His soul is still dancing" to the pop culture lexicon thanks to this movie:

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