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Web-Exclusive Review: Bad Lieutenant: Port Of Call New Orleans

Alternative Press - Tim Karan on 11/19/09 @ 11:50 AM - altpress.com

DRAMA
BAD LIEUTENANT: PORT OF CALL NEW ORLEANS (First Look)
STARS > Nicolas Cage, Eva Mendes, Xzibit, Val Kilmer, Jennifer Coolidge, Brad Dourif, Fairuza Balk, Tom Bower
DIRECTOR > Werner Herzog
RATING > 3.5/5
OPENS > NOV 20 (limited), NOV 25 (nationwide)

Though most of the cineplex-sweating universe knows him for recent documentaries like the award-winning Grizzly Man and Oscar-nominated Encounters At The End Of The World, German director Werner Herzog has a long and storied career that stretches over four decades and has produced some of the most memorable feature films in European cinema. In the '70s and early '80s, his tumultuous and legendary working relationship with actor Klaus Kinski produced such classics of the German New Wave as Aguirre, The Wrath Of God (1972), Woyzeck (1979) and Fitzcarraldo (1982). Lately, he's been enjoying a renaissance due to the mainstream success of the aforementioned docs, though-so much so that he remade his own lesser-known 1997 documentary, Little Dieter Learns To Fly, into a dramatized feature (2006's Rescue Dawn) starring Christian Bale.

Like Rescue Dawn, Bad Lieutenant: Port Of Call New Orleans is based upon a pre-existing film (though it's not a remake)-in this case, Abel Ferrara's Bad Lieutenant. Released in 1992, it's a dark, depressing and slightly surreal film most remembered for Harvey Keitel's slovenly full-frontal nude scene. Also like Rescue Dawn, Herzog's Bad Lieutenant is far more straightforward than many of his previous features, though random scenes involving extreme reptile close-ups, breakdancing ghosts and Nicolas Cage's increasingly exaggerated manic outbursts clearly serve no other purpose than that of reminding us that we're watching a Herzog film. Meanwhile, Cage plays Terence McDonagh, a compulsive gambler, raging cokehead and New Orleans homicide detective on the trail of a murderous local drug kingpin played by Xzibit. Compounding McDonagh's numerous problems are his junkie hooker girlfriend (Mendes), his alcoholic father (Bower) and his slightly less alcoholic stepmother (Coolidge). It's a shockingly humdrum plot by the director's usual standards, and though the film itself is by no means pandering, its cast and noir-heavy cinematography are far more Hollywood than Herzog. Even the acutely post-Katrina shooting location, selected for its attendant tax subsidies, would seem like an almost exploitative move were it not for the dollars it inevitably pumped into New Orleans' economy. Which isn't to say that Bad Lieutenant isn't enjoyable; in fact, it's highly satisfying through and through. But it also proves that Herzog might be the only director on the planet who can surprise us by doing what other directors do routinely. -J. Bennett

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