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Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans

Started by El Unicornio, mang, May 02, 2010, 10:18:17 PM

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El Unicornio, mang

I wasn't expecting a great deal from this, as I can't stand Nicholas Cage, but he was perfect for this role. He plays a sleazy, drug-addicted cop recently promoted to the rank of Lieutenant, suffering from awful back pain (which causes him to consume even more drugs) and put in charge of solving the case of five murdered African immigrants in post-Katrina New Orleans.

There are some really bizarre scenes in the film, often you're not sure if what you're seeing is just going on in his mind or is actually happening (although a few moments, one involving some lizards and another involving a breakdancing mafia boss, are clearly figments of his drug-addled imagination) and director Werner Herzog definitely plays around with the viewers perception of what is unfolding on screen. It also could be easily viewed as a very black comedy, there's a scene near the end where Cage receives loads of good news which wouldn't be out of place in a Naked Gun film, and lots of other darkly humorous bits.

Cage is brilliant, totally unhinged and borderline psychotic, and has some good supporting cast, including Val Kilmer looking like he's gained about 10 stone, as his even more morally bankrupt partner, smoking hot Eva Mendes as his prostitute girlfriend, Fairuza Balk as a sexy female cop, Xzibit as a drug lord and Jennifer Coolidge (the busty MILF from numerous teen movies) as his alcoholic step mother.

Highly recommended

9/10

Doomy Dwyer

Didn't Abel Ferrera issue a curse upon everyone with any involvement with this? The original with Harvey Keitel is great. Weeping, wanking, drugging and gambling his way to some form of redemption. He's a great crier is Harvey. He makes crying hard, and that takes a real man.

vrailaine

I thought it was brilliant, but I love any film where Cage is given a decent role.

El Unicornio, mang

Quote from: Doomy Dwyer on May 02, 2010, 10:34:31 PM
Didn't Abel Ferrera issue a curse upon everyone with any involvement with this? The original with Harvey Keitel is great. Weeping, wanking, drugging and gambling his way to some form of redemption. He's a great crier is Harvey. He makes crying hard, and that takes a real man.

Yeah, Ferrera is off his trolley though. This film doesn't have anything to do with the Keitel one, although the main character is also a corrupt, drug-addict, gambling cop who pulls over pretty girls and makes them perform sexual acts with him in return for not arresting them. Cage's character is more complex I think. Unlike Keitel's cop, who is pretty much a sad husk of a man with a death wish, Cage's character has a great deal of emotional and physical pain but seems to rejoice in his lifestyle, and is oddly optimistic even in the face of incredible danger. You get the feeling that he'd never get to the point of crying like a baby as Keitel does, he'd take all the drugs in the world or let himself get gunned down before he got to that point. He's also pretty hilarious at times. I like the Keitel film but it's incredibly bleak. This one is bleak but also funny and almost whimsical in places, and definitely more entertaining.

lipsink

Yeah I love that mental crying that Keitel does. He does it at the end of Reservoir Dogs too.

YouTube - Broadcast Yourself.

So is Nic Cage having a bit of a comeback with this and Kick-Ass?

Doomy Dwyer

It is some mad crying. There seemed to be a whole slew of films in the nineties with Harvey crying and getting his cock out.

El Unicornio, mang

Quote from: lipsink on May 02, 2010, 10:40:45 PM


So is Nic Cage having a bit of a comeback with this and Kick-Ass?

Possibly. He had some good turns in the 80s and early 90s but has done some real stinkers in the past decade. His next film is about the Black Plague and features Christopher Lee, for what it's worth.

vrailaine

Quote from: El Unicornio, mang on May 02, 2010, 10:51:04 PM
Possibly. He had some good turns in the 80s and early 90s but has done some real stinkers in the past decade. His next film is about the Black Plague and features Christopher Lee, for what it's worth.
Matchstick Men, Adaptation.

I'd include Lord of War and the Weather Man too though.


El Unicornio, mang

I know what you were referring to, I was wondering why think that is the case? Don't think you're wrong or anything, just want to know why you think Cage's character is less complex.

SavageHedgehog

I look forward to seeing this, sounds like a return for Cage to his old Vampire's Kiss self.

The original is a great film, but this sounds like a very interesting project all round, even if it probably isn't as good.

lipsink

#11
I saw this today and it was fucking bloody brilliant. I really hope Herzog does some more movies with Cage, they're a perfect match. I may need to watch Herzog's back catalogue again cos I was never really that taken with what I saw (Aguirre, Nosferatu, Strosek, Woyzeck). Though I do love watching him in his documentaries or interviews. My favourite bits of this were:

Spoiler alert
As mentioned, all the good news coming at once in his office near the end
The "Oh yeah" guy
Cage laughing everytime he mentioned the 'G' character
The 'sparkling water' clip
Cage showing his girlfriend around his own childhood place ("That light doesn't work anymore")
The oxygen tube bit had me laughing like mad, especially Cage appearing behind the door shaving
The crack smoking scene in the carpark (that was horribly sleazy and just as disturbing as Keitel's wanking scene in the 'original')
[close]

I also like how half way through the movie Cage seemed to start doing a Jimmy Stewart impression.

Squink

Quote from: lipsink on May 23, 2010, 05:58:28 PM
Spoiler alert
The oxygen tube bit had me laughing like mad, especially Cage appearing behind the door shaving
[close]

Spoiler alert
Yeah, the shaving part was hilarious, one of the funniest things I've seen in a cinema in a very long time. And Cage's gurning during the lizard sequence was inspired.
[close]

I like this movie a lot more than the Abel Ferrara one.

Peru

I saw it and enjoyed it, but I do feel that some people are going a little overboard in their praise. It's good but not great, especially by Herzog's lofty standards. Philip French called it Herzog's best work in a decade - sorry pal, this is just completely inaccurate in a decade that has seen some of Herzog's very best and most original work - Grizzly Man, Wild Blue Yonder, Encounters At The End Of The World to name a few.

I love the fact that this is a Herzog film that seems to be getting a pretty wide release - and much of my enjoyment was imagining the reaction of people who went into this thinking it was going to be a straight cop thriller. What will they make of it?! I would love people to get into Herzog through this film.

However, with my critical hat on I would argue that a good 60% of this is basically a straight to video thriller, 40% some sublime weirdness and strange performances. Cage's performance is good though this is not quite the departure I'd been led to believe. All the stuff with the double crosses plays like a.n.other gangster movie, to be honest.

However, the weird touches are wonderful indeed and the 'dancing' scene (you know what I mean if you've seen it) was just amazing. The thing about Herzog is that while critics have been saying how it is an excoriating satire of Hurricane Katrina-era USA, I can't help but feel that if you asked Herzog he'd disagree - the animals in his stuff often aren't meant to be symbolic - just animals!

His best for me are still Heart Of Glass, Aguirre, Kasper Hauser, Wozzeck, Strozcek and Fitzcarraldo, though Grizzly Man and My Best Fiend are brilliant too.




lipsink

Quote from: Peru on May 23, 2010, 10:22:32 PM
However, with my critical hat on I would argue that a good 60% of this is basically a straight to video thriller, 40% some sublime weirdness and strange performances.

That's kind of what I loved about it. It was so jarring to see a Channel 5 type cop thriller mixed with completely bonkers black comedy surrealism.

This bit had my sides splitting and seemed like it could be David Lynch (sadly it's incomplete) :

Bad Lieutenant - Clip 3

Mr Colossal

I havent watched it yet,  but I caught a clip on the review show recently and was wondering if Herzog geninely uses the same 'dancing chicken' music from Strozek or did they just put that in the clip?

scarecrow

Quote from: Mr Colossal on May 23, 2010, 11:23:38 PM
I havent watched it yet,  but I caught a clip on the review show recently and was wondering if Herzog geninely uses the same 'dancing chicken' music from Strozek or did they just put that in the clip?
He does, yeah, I got off on that.

I've nothing to add except that the film was absolutely brilliant. I loved the way it kept shifting in tone, even within the same scene. As people have mentioned, the 'good news' bit is terrific. I think Cage is brilliant in general, so it's great watching him work with good material.

Has Ferrara commented on the film since its release?

Sam

I haven't seen this film yet but I'd quite like to. The trouble will be trying to drag my partner along - the last couple of films I've insisted on were The Road and Kick-Ass so when I told her the synopsis for thissun she were less than enthused....I'll probably have to watch Robin Hood or something to earn it.

Obviously I am fully on board with anything Mr H does, but "scenes from the point of view of an Alligator" had me nodding approvingly, and as someone else said if it gets more people into his films that's only a good thing.

I like Peru's list back there and would pretty much agree. I still think the ending of "Heart of Glass" is my fave moment in cinema (except maybe the opening 10 mins of The Thin Red Line LOL!!!) and Stroszek and Kaspar are thoroughly brilliant too.

But as in threads passim, the standard advice is to newcomers is watch Grizzly Man and then buy those two bargain box sets.

copylight

Nicolas cage has done less shit that De Niro that's for sure. Bringing Out the Dead is an exceptional film, see it if you haven't. It proves to you that he's been prolifically good amidst being terrifically shit.

Funnily enough I watched Ferrara's original 2 nights ago and really liked Keitel getting all fucked up. As M.I.A would wholeheartedly agree I can't believe that 1992 is so far away but the first BL ages less than say, Requiem for a Dream does nearly 10 years later. It's a study of a fucked up man without any humanity near him physically, nor without him emotionally. I liken the Keitel Lieutenant on a scale below Dennis Hopper's fuckjob character in Blue Velvet in a scale of cinema character sanity. It's said that Harvey Keitel did something with this character that De Niro stopped doing with Taxi Driver and as they both have a certain ''method likeness'' I tend to agree with this criticism.

Cage though, hmm. Will watch soon as my hopes are high. He is a good actor and I tire of people jumping on the fact that he's done a fair few shit films compared to the fair few he's done very fucking well.

thugler

Quote from: copylight on May 24, 2010, 02:58:31 PM
Nicolas cage has done less shit that De Niro that's for sure.

I like Cage but that's balls. 'knowing'? 'national treasure 1/2'?

scarecrow

The National Treasure films are great for what they are.

lipsink

I've never seen the National Treasure films but I remember Adam and Joe did a bit about this clip which cracked me up:

Nicholas Cage acts Drunk


Mr Colossal

One thing that struck me is that he looks a lot healthier in this role...  In bankok dangerous, national treasure and the last few films he's done its struck me just how OLD he looks, and his face has looked strange as if he had prosthetic jowls, a big nose and earlobes stuck on and they'd filled the gaps in his face with polyfiller.