The Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans
2009
**
Director: Werner Herzog
Cast: Nicolas Cage, Eva Mendes, Jennifer Coolidge, Val Kilmer, Brad Dourif, Xzibit, Fairuza Balk, Michael Shannon, Vondie Curtis Hall
Six months after Hurricane Katrina, decorated NOPD detective Terrence McDonagh is a human train wreck who will stop at nothing to feed his growing drug and gambling addictions. An emotional murder investigation finally pushes him over the edge. This remake/reimagining of Abel Ferrara's Bad Lieutenant moves the action from New York to New Orleans, and transforms a grim story of redemption into a pointless crime film about a bad cop. Apart from a few unusual but unsuccessful touches (shots through the eyes of an iguana and an alligator), it is a mystery what attracted Werner Herzog to this wacky police procedural. The plotting is so formulaic and implausible that maybe Herzog is just having a laugh. Unfortunately I'm not amused, only bored. The main problem is that McDonagh is never a particularly tragic or sympathetic character, especially when Nicolas Cage gives one of his annoying, shouty performances.
