Blu-Ray Review: Nicolas Cage Rocks ‘Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans’

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CHICAGO – 2010 is clearly the year of New Orleans with a Saints Superbowl victory, HBO’s highly acclaimed “Treme” debuting this Sunday and the highly underrated and somewhat excellent “Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans,” starring Nicolas Cage and Eva Mendes, debuting on Blu-ray and DVD tomorrow, April 6th, 2010.

HollywoodChicago.com Blu-Ray Rating: 3.5/5.0
Blu-Ray Rating: 3.5/5.0

Expertly directed by one of the best living filmmakers, Werner Herzog (“Grizzly Man,” “Rescue Dawn”), this bizarre remake/spin-off of the Abel Ferrara/Harvey Keitel drama defies all expectations that rebooting a film that didn’t really demand a reboot was a really bad idea. When most of us heard that Nicolas Cage was doing another remake (after the disastrous “The Wicker Man”) and given his recent track record, we approached Herzog’s “Bad Lieutenant” with a raised eyebrow.

Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans will be released on Blu-ray and DVD on April 6th, 2010.
Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans will be released on Blu-ray and DVD on April 6th, 2010.
Photo credit: First Look Entertainment

Surprisingly, “Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans” totally works as a clever, dark, twisted thriller that not only justifies its existence but is that rare thing: pure, unadulterated, non-melodramatic entertainment for grown-ups. It’s definitely not a film for everyone, but you may be surprised that it is one for you.

Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans will be released on Blu-ray and DVD on April 6th, 2010.
Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans will be released on Blu-ray and DVD on April 6th, 2010.
Photo credit: First Look Entertainment

The Cajun cocktail that results in the blend of Herzog’s nature-driven lunacy and Nicholas Cage’s instinctual brand of crazy is essentially an origin story for a corrupt cop. The plot of the original film has been completely discarded; as has the setting and even the thematic focus.

Cage stars as Officer Terence McDonaugh, a man who we meet with his partner (Kilmer) as the waters rise during Hurricane Katrina on a drowning inmate. After ridiculing him for awhile, McDonaugh jumps into the water, misjudges the depth, hits the concrete, and begins a long addiction to painkillers. Leave it to Herzog to open a film with one force of nature creating another.

Years later, McDonaugh has been made Lieutenant and becomes involved with the case of a brutal murder of five Senegalese immigrants. The drug world hit sends Terence into the path of a turf war, but Herzog’s film is not a typical crime drama. That’s merely the background for a slide into insanity that includes a prostitute (Eva Mendes), drug dealer (XZibit), mobster, and iguanas. Yes, iguanas.

One of the refreshing things about Herzog’s approach is that he’s completely unapologetic and unconcerned about whether or not you “like” Lieutenant Terence McDonaugh. He doesn’t look down on him, sympathize, or demonize. Like Hurricane Katrina, McDonaugh just “is”. Herzog’s film is almost a character study in corruption as Herzog is clearly not making any grand points about policemen as a whole or even conditions in New Orleans. His focus is to present a fascinating character study with one of the most underrated performances of 2009 from Nicolas Cage. Sure, it fits his most popular persona but that doesn’t make it any less inspired. Why is Cage making crap like “National Treasure” when he could deliver like this more often?

Yes, “Port of Call New Orleans” feels a bit long and could leave you thinking that it’s about as shallow as the water in that opening scene, but it’s still surprisingly consistent and entertaining. Herzog’s wild touches, like a POV shot from a crocodile or a hallucination involving iguanas, blend perfectly with Cage’s out-of-left-field choices to create something unlike anything released on Blu-ray in a very long time.

With smaller studios like First Look Entertainment, it’s never quite clear what kind of video and audio transfer one is going to get with their HD purchase but “Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans” is actually above average. The special features are more mediocre. What is included - some excellent photos courtesy of Lena Herzog and a half-hour making-of featurette - is strong but there’s no commentary nor deleted scenes. This is clearly a cult hit in the making so maybe that material will surface down the HD road. For now, the quality of the film itself will have to do.

‘Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans’ is released by First Look Entertainment and stars Nicolas Cage, Eva Mendes, Val Kilmer, Alvin ‘XZibit’ Joiner, and Fairuza Balk. It was written by William Finkelstein and directed by Werner Herzog. It will be released on Blu-ray and DVD on April 6th, 2010. It is rated R.

HollywoodChicago.com content director Brian Tallerico

By BRIAN TALLERICO
Content Director
HollywoodChicago.com
brian@hollywoodchicago.com

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