Monday, May 17, 2010

Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans - DVD Review

***

Starring Nicolas Cage, Eva Mendes, Val Kilmer, Xzibit, Fairuza Balk, Shawn Hatosy, Brad Dourif, Vondie Curtis-Hall, Michael Shannon, Tom Bower, Jennifer Coolidge, Irma P. Hall and Denzel Whitaker.
Directed by Werner Herzog.

Not really a remake or sequel. More like another installment in an anthology series about bad lieutenants. Maybe in ten years we'll see Ben Affleck in Bad Lieutenant: Beantown.

Nicolas Cage is the scumbag with a badge this time around (Harvey Keitel was the original in 1992). He has a bit of a drug problem and seems to be okay with making side deals and crooked cover-ups. Cage excels at stuff like this. I could always tell when he was hung-over, drunk, high, really high, or craaaazy high.

I was excited to see Val Kilmer get real work again, except he disappears for most of the movie to where I didn't get why they got Val Kilmer. (He was probably tired of starring in straight-to-DVD fare). Cage walked the line where he's our anti-hero but I kept going back and forth between rooting for him to find redemption or just get his just desserts.

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