Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans – Review
Drugs, prostitution and iguanas. You experience this and more as you trip away with Nicolas Cage in Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans. Terence McDonagh is the good cop who gets promoted up to lieutenant but due to his severe back issues starts up with some drugs. After that, it’s a quick downfall in his life as he gets entangled in all sorts of messes that he got himself into. We go through all the spins and craziness through his sleep deprived perspective, which is both head scratching and strange in good and bad ways.
Nicolas Cage is basically the best thing about this film. Cage normally is not everybody’s favorite actor. While his character jumps around from one bad situation to another, Cage shows an intensity that I never really thought possible by the normally some what comedic actor. Eva Mendes is completely one note throughout the film, easily replaceable and some what forgettable. The rest of the cast was decent at best, a lot of them practically being overshadowed by Cage’s hilarious and disturbing killer performance.
The director Werner Herzog displays the viewpoint of McDonagh as he stumbles through the ins and outs of his turbulent times wonderfully. One of the things that does not work at all is the cinematography’s seemingly grainy and sloppy look. There is nothing special at all with the cinematography and the design is nothing spectacular to look at either.
The story is one of the most intriguing things about this movie. Many have argued that it hinges on the edge of the 1992 film Bad Lieutenant and in some ways it is similar. The obvious good versus evil subtext is very loud so-to-speak and it takes a little too long to get to that point in the movie.
By the time the movie is over your regaining consciousness wondering what the hell did you just watch. If there is one really great thing about this film, it’s Nicolas Cage while the rest of it hinges on mediocrity.
Rating: 
