Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call, New Orleans [Blu-ray]

Is this film a serious film? I think not, at least mostly not. If you go into this film, expecting a serious, crime/noir drama. It's unlikely you'll finish it. It can be enjoyed, to some degree as a straight film. But you have to go along with all the extraordinary aspects.

Cage plays a self medicating NOLA police officer. Down on his luck, embroiled in gambling debts, attempting to catch a NOLA drug dealer. But this film has almost nothing to do with whether or not he actually catches the guy. It pretends to, but it's more about how Cage's character manages to juggle all of the broken pieces of his life, while still managing a case, while under the influence of whatever drug he can get his hands on, prescription or otherwise. Whether or not he solves the case, the details, these things are not really important.

This is Werner Herzog and Nick Cage doing whatever they want. The end result, is pure awesome in my opinion. Nick Cage waltzes through this film with insanity as his dance partner. But for you to enjoy that, you have to find the comedy in it all. The intentionality of it all. Moments which, would in another film simply be unintentionally awkward , are supposed to be that way in this film.

In that sense this film relies on your interpretation. For instance you could consider none of what goes on in this film intentional, and therefore just bad.

An example of what I'm talking about would be, when out of nowhere, the camera stops to watch some Alligators.. the Alligators have nothing to do with anything, they're just there, on the side of the road. Or when Cage interrogates/tortures an elderly lady by holding her oxygen hostage. He also hallucinates Iguanas at some point. The Iguanas are irrelevant.. but so is most of what Cage experiences. Does that sound hilarious and awesome to you? Your answer to that question could have a lot to do with whether or not this film is for you.

If you enjoy that sort of thing than you'll love this. If not.. I find it hard to believe anyone is middle of the road on this film.

This film could have been very good if it hadn't been for the fact that the director chose to turn it into some kind of black comedy. There are some very serious issues in this movie, yet too often it veers into the absurd, using humour in the most inappropriate ways. As a consequence, it becomes difficult for the viewer to take what is happening to the Nicholas Cage character with any seriousness.

Frankly, I do not understand why Werner Herzog took this film into the realm of the bizarre. Undoubtedly, he does get a magnificent performance from Nicholas Cage, his hunched back in the film giving him a surreal and ghoulish disposition. If this film is meant to be some kind of allegory about the corruption of an inherently good cop and decent man, or I hope I am wrong, how corruption is innate in the New Orleans police department, then I suppose this film can be justified by its approach. However, I did not expect this kind of tongue and cheek direction about the corruption of a good cop, but more a serious film that described the corruption of a good cop and his descent into oblivion and violence. Maybe Werner Herzog wanted to make another film a la Pulp Fiction.

This film garnered pretty good reviews from the professional critics, but I personally was disappointed with it. The film is entertaining enough thanks to Cage's performance, but the film veers too often into the absurd for its own good.

I rented this...What a waste of $5. This was so bad I stopped it just before halfway. I couldn't even force myself to finish it. In fact it has to be one of the WORST movies I have ever seen. SKIP IT!!!