Reviewed by Ike Holter
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I don't believe in Nic Cage.
He's a centaur. Some mythical beast who could rear up on his hind legs and massacre a whole town in the middle of the night.
He terrifies me.
Watching "Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans" was like returning to the scene of some traumatizing childhood nightmare. Based on a 1992 feature staring Harvey Keitel, "New Orleans" attempts to be deep, shallow, sexy, repulsive; violent, slutty, and obnoxious.
In the film's opening, we're introduced to Cage and Val Kilmer(?!?!): two burly, brash bad-boys patrolling the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. When Cage jumps into a flooded prison to rescue a drowning inmate, he permanently screws up his back, leading him down the "American Beauty" road of popping pills and doing various amounts of illegal substances.
Watch Nic Cage hallucinate! Watch Nic Cage solve crime! Watch Nic Cage assault two old women in a nursing home! (Actually, that scene is wonderful.)Famed director Werner Herzog lenses the film like a two-bit after hours noir flick on Skinemax but, with all this B-movie drama, "Orleans" can't quite muster the might to look into the mirror and find out what kind of film it truly is. It's not an action film, a drama, or a comedy. It's a performance piece for Cage; a fairy tale about bad men getting away with bad things.
If that's up your alley then step right on up to see the twisted tale of Mr. Cage.
I'll be hiding under my bed.
Do you like Herzog?
ReplyDeleteI actually haven't seen anything by him, but constantly hear positive feedback about his work, so I put a bunch of his stuff on Netflix.