Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans

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  February 5, 2010

  allan913

  A mesmerizing, taunt, compelling and powerful film. A tour de force performance by Cage. Nicolas Cage has never been better, he truly gives one of his best performances ever and has to be seen to believed. Cage has a type of crazy, wild mad man energy that stands with Heath Ledge...( read more)r's performance in The Dark Knight. A haunting, riveting and unforgettable performance by Nicolas Cage, he brings his game to a whole new level and shows us something great. A dark, sizzling and slickly sharp crime-thriller. It's raw, explosive and packing serious heat. It's a knockout..literally, it feels like a you get hit in the head with a steal bat, that's how much you actually feel it. A stylish, witty and well-crafted film. Director, Werner Herzog has crafted a visceral, darkly hilarious, disturbing, stunning and brilliant film. A triumph. This movie gets your blood boiling and your pulse-pounding. Eva Mendes is electric. Val Kilmer is terrific.

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  February 4, 2010

  mistershinobi

  Hilariously weird and kind of uncomfortable. You are truly clueless about what to expect from a Werner Herzog remake of an Abel Ferrara film. Is it going to be serious? A parody? Ultra-violent? Black comedy?
  
  Well, let's just say it's everything and nothing.
  
  A movie you have to...( read more) experience to believe.

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  December 28, 2009

  bort16

  1. The White Ribbon - a gripping whodunnit (maybe?) from Michael Haneke. Its a film, like all of Haneke's, that simmers on the surface, boils underneath, and begs more quetions than it answers. This beautifully shot alegorical picture has more than meets the eye.
  
  2. Ballast - a...( read more) very, very low key film from Lance Hammer in a great debut. It's performances are pure, its story is poignant and touching. An all around great film, full of artistic authenticity.
  
  3. Sin Nombre - another brilliant debut, this time From Cary Fukanaga, whom I've been in touch with a few times. Very much looking forward to his future work. Sin Nombre is a brutal depiction of the struggles of getting to America. It's an excellent companion to another great South American migration story, El Norte.
  
  4. Le Silence de Lorna - another brilliant, soul searching essay of a film from the Dardenne brothers, who seem incapable of making a bad film.
  
  5. Fantastic Mr Fox - Wes Anderson's first, and I'm guessing not last, foray into animation. The stop animation he uses calls back on history, and allows for the story to take front and centre. I loved it.
  
  6. A Prophet - a gripping and gritty French prison drama. Within its small confines it reaches somehow for epic and achieves it. Powerful, powerful stuff.
  
  7. Inglorious Basterds - Well Mr Tarantino, we've waited and you have given (unlike Mr James "chock a block special effects" Cameron). The Basterds were for some reason blasted at Cannes, but I thought it was an excellent and vibrantly told retelling of history. It's light fare, but that's Tarantino's bag, and for my money this is without a doubt his best work along with Pulp Fiction.
  
  8. You, the living - a delightfully deadpan bit of absurdism from the master modern surrealist, Roy Andersson.
  
  9. Antichrist - an uncomfortable, sometimes excessive but always artful bit of reverse theology. It's a movie with something to say (I think) that will leave most turned off. You better be ready for this one.
  
  10. The Hurt Locker - the first great film about the Iraq War. It's a nail biting thriller, taking an objective position among the soldiers themselves. War is a drug, the film tells us, and we can see why for some people.
  
  11. Bad Lieutenant - Is this a great work of art like Aguirre or Stroszek? Nah, but I'll be damned if it's not only of the most delightfully deranged movies of the year. It also doesn't hurt that Herzog creates a couple of the greatest scenes in recent memory (here's looking at you iguanas and dancing souls).
  
  12. Two legged Horse - rom Samira Makhmalbaf, daughter of Mohsen Makhmalbaf, the great Iranian filmmaker. Its a tale of a well to do man who hires a boy, mentally handicapped boy to carry around his son who lost his legs in a landmine exlosion. The wealthier boy dominates his "two legged horse," selling rides on him, feeding him straw and more or less turning him into a horse. It's a tough film and certainly not meant as entertainment, but it's powerful and meaningful.
  
  13. Goodbye Solo - another great film from Ramin Bahrani, this time about an immigrant cab driver who befriends an older man who hires him to drive him to a place where he will commit suicide
  
  14. Big River Man - in a year where we've had to do without any pseudo documentaries from Werner Herzog, Big River Man will suffice. It chronicles the journy of Martin Strel of Slovenia as he swims the Amazon River. Heres a guy who's swam the Mississippi and the Yangtze. He must be in peak shape, but he's not. He's in his 50s, he's overweight, and may or may not (likely the former) have a drinking problem. The documentary I assume is aiming for ecstatic truth as Herzog puts it, but nevertheless chronicles a healthy dose of insanity. Great stuff.
  
  15. Broken Embraces - another great collaboration between Pedro Almolvodar and his muse Penolope Cruz. What a rich and vibrant looking piece of work this is.
  
  
  
  A few other films I really admired/enjoyed this year:
  
  Crazy Heart - a great film about the archetypal fallen country and western singer trying to get his life back together. Great performance from Jeff Bridges in particular.
  
  Precious - a film that has earned itself heaps of praise, and attached itself some big names AFTER it was made and released. Sure Oprah and Tyler Perry are "producers" but only have Lee Daniels and crew completed the film and had it released. They have nothing to do with the movie itself other than promotion. Nevertheless, a very strong film with very strong performances from its two leads (particularly Mo'nique).
  
  Up in the Air - another gem from Jason Reitman
  
  Vincere/Sweet Rush - two very admirable and very vibrant films from aging legends of the screen. Vincere is Marco Bellochio's story of Mussolini and his secret lover. Sweet Rush is a highly admirable film from aging Polish great Andrei Wadza that resonates with more experimentation and creativity than the great majority of young filmmakers today. Neither film is the directors best work, but both are admirable for their youthful vigor and granduer. Sweet Rush features moving monologues from Krystyna Janda recalling the real life death of her husband and frequent Wajda collaborator Edward Klosinski that are worth the price of admission alone.
  
  Knowing - a movie that got crapped on by nearly every critic out there (minus Ebert who gave it 4 stars). I was skeptical but must admit that I throrougly enjoyed the film and found it to be very well done for the most part (minus Rose Byrne who seems only to know how to shriek terribly). I found it effective, and you gotta call a spade a spade!

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  December 23, 2009

  sanjurosamurai

  herzog's newest film will never be confused with one of his great masterpieces, but i actually really enjoyed watching this film. nic cage gives the most eccentric performance of his already eccentric career, and the best word to describe the film is "bizarre", but in a good way...( read more). the film was far from perfect with some moments of sub par dialogue and an ending that was way too neat to fit the messy storyline, but overall this is a film i enjoyed.

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  December 20, 2009

  gilbertgumphrey

  Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans is one of those movies where when its over, you're not sure if you liked it or hated it; whether it was really good, or really bad. All you know is - you have to see it again. Well, I have watched it again, and I'm no closer to figuring ...( read more)out what the fuck this movie is than I was the first time. I don't know what it all means. I don't know the point of the iguanas, or why Nicholas Cage has an accent for half the flick, or why the last 20 minutes are so surreal it could be a dream sequence. The movie is both brilliant and maddening, insane and trippy, pretentious and lackadaisical, predictable yet wholly original. In short...you won't see another movie like this in 2009, or perhaps any year, and during a time where freshness is a quality lacking in many movies, this alone makes it worth a recommendation.
  
  This probably sounds like damning with faint praise. But make no mistake - I was not bored watching Bad Lieutenant. It's a film you can't take your eyes away from. Mostly this heightened interest is from Nicholas Cage, who's in every scene of the film and basically represents both the best and worst forms of acting he's displayed in his career. "Over the top" doesn't even begin to describe this performance. He thrashes, he gnashes, he smokes and snorts and laughs and fucks and slaps and shoots his way until eventually, the movie ends. Catharsis? The only redemption here is so hollow and seems so purposefully contrived, it HAS to be fake/"all a dream" (if this finale had been placed with the director's aggravation, everyone would be lamenting the studio fucking with a director's vision - but instead, Werner Herzog has gone on record saying he wanted the ending to be a hilarious depiction of descending to Hell, so now it's all deemed brilliant - remember the finale of Taxi Driver, and that's what we get here). Whatever the purpose of this character's arc, I can certainly say that Cage gives it his all, and goes for broke. It's an impressive and shocking performance.
  
  And the rest of the movie basically revolves around that - and also Herzog's camera, if you notice that kind of thing in the movies. I love the way he moves his camera, pulling in and out and around in ways I would never have thought of. It's a perfectly shot film, helped by having a very intrusive musical score by Mark Isham (also on purpose, though, and also therefore kinda cool). But I'm just not sure what to make of it all. The script has some really great moments; Cage going ape shit in a drug store, the now infamous Iguana scene, or the even more peculiar moment where a man is shot and then Cage says his "soul is still dancing', and we see a younger version of that character breakdancing around to the sounds of a banjo. But there's a lot of stuff, too, that just doesn't work. The script has some dialogue clunkers. Cage's relationship with Eva Mendes doesn't really go anywhere, and a lot of the subplots manifested from his "badness" (like the trouble he gets in with two old ladies in a retirement home), aren't satisfactorily dealt with. But then, I get the feeling this was all part of the point - that Herzog and his writers were trying to say something about the nature of most cop movies by making it so bizarre and twisted and, essentially, such a mess. If that's the case, then good for them - but I sure don't fucking know what the point was.
  
  My biggest complaint would perhaps be the comparison to the first film. Other than the title and the fact that the main character is a drug addicted and power hungry cop, there's no relation to the 1992 Abel Ferrara movie (he's also a lot better behaved in this version, if you can believe it). Maybe this is just as well. But that film had a strong power to it, a religious urgency brought about by the heavy Catholic stuff in the film. Here, the Bad Lieutenant doesn't give a shit about religion, and I think that's missing something that was really important and pivotal in the first film. But whatever. Port of Call: New Orleans is still a fascinating flick, one that narrowly sidesteps being a masterpiece - but one that also barely misses being a total disaster. If you're open to very different types of filmmaking, then you owe it to yourself to see this flick. If not, then steer clear.

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  February 7, 2010

  paulparsons2

  For me, this is a very uneven film. There is a good cast and director but the material that they are using is paper thin and I just couldn't buy into it.
  
  Pushing the material to the side, Cage is clearly having a blast. He has an amped up presence that is very watchable, his a...( read more)ccent changes from scene to scene and the awkardness with which he carries himself is just bizarre. I'm not a fan of Cage, especially based on his current output, but this is more of a return to Edgy Cage which is always welcome. His scenes in the old people care home in particular are most amusing. Kilmer is good value as per usual and it was a mystery as to what Eva Mendes was doing in this film. She looks great but aside from that, she doesn't bring a great deal to the film.
  
  Always interesting,a bit of consistency within the film would have made this a lot better...

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  February 3, 2010

  EddieGunner

  nice movie,
  
  "he's soul still dancing"

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  February 1, 2010

  cinemaassassin

  Bad Lieutenant Port of Call New Orleans is the Sequel/Remake of Abel Ferrara?s Bad Lieutenant that only shares a title and a bad cop in common. Set in New Orleans it follows policeman Terence McDonagh (Nicolas Cage) who after hurting his back rescuing a criminal during Hurricane ...( read more)Katrina becomes addicted to drugs and begins a downward spiral that he cannot control.
  
  Set in Louisiana Terence has gone from being a cop awarded for his bravery to a cop who due to back pain starts taking prescribed Vicodin and then with no explanation is dating a prostitute, shaking down alleged suspects for drugs and stealing drugs from the property room. Lesson Learned is that If you have a back problem Vicodin is the gateway drug to crack and heroine. Nicolas Cage is now a Caricature of his former self; he shuffles around hunchbacked with a .45 down his pants, and about an hour and ten minutes into the film decides he needs to start using a ridiculous accent ripped from a 1930?s gangster film. Even more distracting than his over the top performance is that in homage to the giant rodent of New Orleans called ?Nutria?, Cage decides to wear something that resembles it as his hair piece. (The guy has made enough money off of awful movies this past decade, can they not get him a wig that isn?t distracting.)
  
  After having zero chemistry in the completely awful ?Ghostrider? Eva Mendes is paired up again as Nic?s Girlfriend ?Frankie? Eva who?s best work has been in print ads where she doesn?t have to speak, move or act stars as the Girlfriend/Prostitute who gets Terence mixed up with a well connected John who starts squeezing him for cash when Terence interrupts his session with her. Terrence is also a degenerate gambler who is about as good at gambling as he is being a cop. The actual main plot of the story is loose cannon Terry trying to put together a case against Big Fate (Rapper Exhibit) who is responsible for five murders over his drug turf. You know the movie is convoluted when the host of ?Pimp my ride? gives one of the better performances of the film. All loose strings in the film are tied together in a pretty bow and given a Disney type ending that is so unbelievably awful you think Terrance is experiencing a drug fueled hallucination unfortunately he isn?t. All is not lost however as there is one scene that is reminiscent of the original film?s famous masturbation scene this time it involves shaking down a couple after they leave a club and Terrance ends up having sex with the girlfriend against a car while screaming to make the boyfriend watch. While that scene is unintentionally hilarious, that is as good as it gets with this mess of a film.

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  January 30, 2010

  ChimiChanga21

  - Shoot him again.
  - What for?
  - His soul is still dancing.

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  January 29, 2010

  xtremeandy

  So a damned that saves the damned!! well sort of but it really is a nice movie with a good story to tell and that is it!!
  
  
  Terence McDonagh is a drug- and gambling-addled detective in post-Katrina New Orleans investigating the killing of five Senegalese immigrants.
  
  One th...( read more)ing you can always count on when you go into a Werner Herzog movie is that you can always expect to find a story surrounding a very bizarre individual. With Bad Lieutenant, I saw both Herzog and Nicholas Cage in a new light, or rather a new darkness. Labeled as a black comedy, there should be more emphasis on 'black' than on 'comedy'. The film bears a strong resemblance to the thematically surreal and contrived nature of a Coen Brothers film, but the difference is that this one is more character driven than plot driven. More specifically, this is a film that lives on one performance. Nicholas Cage for the first time in a while has done something worthy of recognition, possibly even award worthy.
  
  He plays New Orleans cop Terence McDonagh, recently promoted to Lieutenant. The film follows his latest homicide investigation. Due to a back problem and a drug addiction he is grumpy and unstable. He is sort of an anti- American hero, and the film concludes on a very bizarre note but clever anti- conventional/Hollywood manner.
  
  Though not Herzog's best, it is certainly one worth watching. With each film I see from him, past or present he continues to intrigue me, but I think in this case, it might be Nicholas Cage who deserves the most credit.
  
  Cage plays good-cop-turned-bad Terence McDonagh, who descends into corruption and drug addiction after injuring his back during a heroic rescue in the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. When not spending time with his call-girl girlfriend Frankie (Eva Mendes), he investigates the death of a family of African immigrants and becomes involved with local drug kingpin Big Fate (Xzibit).
  
  Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans is the story of a director finding his actor, and vice-versa. Herzog's career (varied though it's been) is for many defined by the five films (Aguirre: The Wrath of God, Nosferatu the Vampyre, Woyzeck, Fitzcarraldo and Cobra Verde) made in the '70's and '80's with the legendarily volatile actor Klaus Kinski, and in Cage Herzog has finally found an actor that can match Kinski's vibrating, bizarre intensity. What other pairing of actor and director could in 2009 make a film in which the lead interrupts a tense procedural cop stake-out scene to remark on a pair of non-existent iguanas looking at him from on a coffee-table? Cage is better in this film than he has been in anything in years, maybe a decade or more, and his frazzled, unravelling, wide-eyed glee is used by Herzog in a way that renders it human and real, where it would be scenery-chewing in the hands of almost any other filmmaker. The film is a gloriously weird explosion of creativity bound within the still-somehow-convincing shell of a cop drama. While it lacks the rote good-guy-bad-guy tension and shoot-out thrills of your classic thriller, it more than makes up for that loss with unhinged, weird, maniac creative freedom. I particularly liked the moment when we learn after-the-fact that we've been watching a scene from the point of view of a crocodile,
  
  The Bad Lieutenant is a touching story of Terence McDonagh, a corrupted cop on his epic quest to screw up his life beyond repair, later trying to repair it by screwing up some more.
  
  We don't know for sure if Terence was like this before or just after his back trauma. The back pain resulted in a Vicodin prescription, but soon Terrance moved up the chain with cocaine and other substances. That, along with him being a not so good guy in general, can make him more dangerous than some criminals. To quote another review, he only Serves and Protects himself. He is the Law and the Law exists for his personal benefit. But soon everything goes to hell, as he starts to mess with dangerous people that ignore the law themselves.
  
  This is one of Cage's finest performances as the corrupt cop, drug addict, rapist, thief and paranoid wreck with a strange habit of seeing iguanas that aren't there. Cage really showed that he in fact does have talent, which he sadly usually wastes on crap movies like Ghost Rider. But here he's simply brilliant.
  
  Though it was supposed to be a remake of the 1992 film of the same name, it's not. Apart from the title and corrupt cop theme, it has absolutely nothing to do with it. In fact, it's actually a lot better, richer with colorful characters and generally more crazy than the 1992 film, with Cage doing things that would make the original lieutenant shy.
  
  The movie is really entertaining, dark and bizarre but also well written and has some humor to brighten things up a bit

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• Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans
• Iguana sings Release Me