Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans Movie Review

Abel Ferrara's original Bad Lieutenant didn't really strike me as a movie that cried "sequel". It was dark, gritty, and and a little hard to watch at times, but was well worth watching, if only for a great gonzo performance from Harvey Keitel, and the scene where he pulls over two New Jersey club rats and makes them do sexually degrading things while he pleasures himself.

In Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans, there's no scene quite on par with that one. It tries, that's for sure. and it's not the fault of either Nicolas Cage or the director Werner Herzog. Surprisingly, they have turned in a police procedural. Sure, it's a procedural directed by Werner Herzog, about a police officer with a drug and gambling addiction seeking redemption in his world, but it's still far more straightforward than one would expect given the "source material." The movie shouldn't exist in any conventional world, but since it does, it winds up being rather entertaining.

Nicolas Cage stars as Terrence McDonagh, a police detective who at the beginning of the film performs an action that a) screws up his back, requiring pain killers to subdue his chronic pain; and b) promotes him to Lieutenant, which provides us with a title. McDonagh seems to be a cop that's not above planting evidence, and pushing the extent of his powers to their breaking point. He also has a hooker girlfriend (Eva Mendes), a recovering addict father, and a huge gambling problem that's only matched by the debt he owes. Bonus points to the casting directors for making Brad Dourif the bookie Cage owes.

A family is murdered in New Orleans, and Cage takes the case a bit personally, and he dedicates himself to trying to bring justice to the victims. Making this difficult are his addictions to money, drugs, and sex. I did enjoy the scene where he follows a couple as they leave the club, then steals their drugs and has sex with the woman while holding a gun on the guy. (I liked this scene because to the girl, this seemed like an everyday event), Eventually, the drugs begin to take control, and McDonaugh's life begins to spiral violently out of control, but that leads to some wonderful hallucinogenic drug sequences involving iguanas and breakdancing souls.  

Truth be told, if this was a straight-up cash-in on the popularity of the original, it would not work one bit. Herzog claims to have never seen the Ferrara film, and I almost believe him, even though there are a lot of familiar plot points that are hit. But as is commonly said, it's the singer, not the song that attracts us, and the singer this case is a 1-2 punch of talent you would not expect working well. But I'll be damned, Herzog wrings a good-crazy Nic Cage performance. (More Wild at Heart madness than Wicker Man lunacy) Consequently, though, this makes the film itself a bit more conventional, and optimistic than a movie with the moniker "Bad Lieutenant" deserves to be. And then there's the ending, which spectacularly tears down everything that came before it. It doesn't ruin the film, but it reminds you of what the film deep down at it's core really is: A product.  

To be fair, times have changed since the Ferrara film. What was shocking and insane to people in 1992 is now considered tame. Hell, there's more gruesome imagery in a typical CSI-episode than in horror films these days, and you get that shit free on your TV! The impact of this type of film has been softened to the point where we can now officially call Bad Lieutenant a franchise, like a Saw movie or an Arby's. This robs power away from the film. what was once shocking is now the norm, and instead of raising the bar of shocking, this film winds up being a tamer, sanitized version. There shouldn't be anything safe about this movie, and alas there is. Sure, there are a lot of bizarre digressions and sidetracks, but you can't help but feel that this is a product, and not a vision.

I would certainly never discourage you from checking out this strange movie. Bad Lieutenant: PoCNO is highly entertaining, better than most fare out there, and well worth checking out. It's too bad that it didn't push the envelope further instead of playing it safe, but what we got is certainly more worthy of the "Bad Lieutenant" moniker than a PG-13 Zac Efron led sequel that sets the story in high school. Click Here to Contribute your Own Review.