Half-Assed Movie Reviews

January 27, 2010:  The Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call – New Orleans

This is one of those movies where you just have to say “wow”.  The Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call – New Orleans is not some great masterpiece, and it might wear thin after a bunch of viewings, but it’s a hell of a ride and a testament to the originality which can still be conjured in film after well over a century of exploring the medium.

I’ve never really thought of Nicolas Cage as being a bad actor, and in fact I doggedly cite his Best Actor Oscar win for the 1995 film Leaving Las Vegas as “proof” that he’s a good actor.  Having since turned out a few Simpson/Bruckheimer entries (OK, technically only one before Don Simpson died in 1996 and Jerry Bruckheimer took over the production of cheesy and overwrought action films on his own), not to mention a couple of National Treasure films and the ESP-sixth-sense doppelgangers Next (2007) and Knowing (2009), I’m left wondering what ties together all of his performances, good or bad.

Then the answer hits me.  This guy plays bat-shit crazy better than anyone else.  When channeled for good, we get Adaptation (2002) with a multiple-personality-afflicted wannabe screenwriter, The Rock (1996) with a soft-spoken FBI agent thrust into chaos, and Raising Arizona (1987) with a wannabe adoptive father.  When simply unhinged, we are treated to Cage in the likes of Lord of War (2005) as a risk-taking arms dealer, 8MM (1999) as a man going underground to investigate the source of snuff films, and Con Air (1997) as a convict on the loose.  Here in The Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call – New Orleans, we have master director Werner Herzog channeling an unhinged Nicolas Cage for good, and that’s exactly how he should be seen.

I could name-drop classic films and act like I’m intimately familiar with Herzog’s career, but that would be disingenuous since I really haven’t seen much of his output, ever.  I saw Rescue Dawn (2006) a few years ago, but it doesn’t look like I’ve seen anything else he’s done.  Yeah, yeah, I know.  Anyway, people love him, and I hear that he makes great movies and that any actor would be lucky to work with him.

So here we have Cage playing a seemingly corrupt cop in New Orleans in the time frame immediately following Hurricane Katrina in 2005.  The psychological torture and subsequent rescue of a drowning prisoner nets him a medal and a promotion, but leaves a bad taste in the viewer’s mouth.  Cage genuinely seems to want to get his job done and get his cases solved, but a nasty drug habit and an unstable personal life involving unannounced drop-in visits to his prostitute girlfriend make it clear that he’s a man who, if he hasn’t yet fallen off the edge, is teetering on it.  Sauntering around the muggy and buggy city in an ill-fitting suit with a huge .44 Magnum pistol jammed in his belt, he doesn’t seem to be the classic picture of a detective on the job.  He is given a major drug case to try and bust, and when his rough techniques stall, he takes another approach for which he may be better suited.  Just don’t ask too many questions about it.

This really is a fascinating ride, and doesn’t drag for a minute.  Cage gets deeper and deeper into the drugs, and acts more and more off the wall as the film progresses, possibly influenced by the lizardly visions he experiences at times.  A bloated-looking Val Kilmer struggles to keep up with Cage’s fevered technique.  Cage’s swagger deteriorates into more of a stagger as his back pain and drug use escalate and we don’t know how much of the world around him he even sees any more.  Is it coincidence, luck, or inspired brilliance that lets him solve the case and get yet another questionable promotion?

I should point out the minor Die Hard 2 (1990) reunion here, as a surprisingly wrinkly Vondie Curtis Hall and a still-vibrant Tom Bower again appear in the same movie without sharing any scenes.  Eva Mendes, Fairuza Balk and particularly Jennifer Coolidge bring strong but strongly flawed female characters to these proceedings which otherwise remain mired in the typical movie maleness of cops and drug dealers.  I can’t give The Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call – New Orleans a really solid recommendation based on typical film quality metrics, but I can almost guarantee you won’t be disappointed.

Nicolas Cage is channeled for good.