Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans

These pictures cannot properly do justice for the wonderful addition to the thriller genre that writer/director Werner Herzog has masterfully created in Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans, which stars Nicolas Cage and Eva Mendes. A very loosely based remake of a 1992 film, this exciting and cinematically film satisfying centers around the fictional story of a New Orleans police lieutenant who finds himself addicted to a life of work, drugs, rape, and sex. In between all of this, he is assigned to the case of a quintuple (5-person) homicide in which five people were gruesomely killed “execution-style.” The setting and story may sound normal enough, but the way in which the story is both shot and told bring it to a level far above most cop dramas.

I’ll begin with the unorthodox storytelling which the move presents. The most intriguing detail of the story is that the main character doesn’t appear to be loyal to any particular side, although his true colors are revealed at the end of the move, one is still left slightly baffled about where his morals truly lie. This sense of suspense and wonder follow the viewer through the entire two-hour experience, which make it not only intriguing but very satisfying. Another interesting aspect of the film is the constant switch between good and evil that Nicolas Cage undergoes during the movie, for example one second he’s in a parking lot having sex with a young woman while her boyfriend watches and in another he’s arresting one of the biggest drug bosses in New Orleans. The story seems simple enough in that is starts with a homicide and ends with an arrest of a villain, but in between the movie seems to hop around in such a random yet rhythmical manner that one can’t help but be drawn in.

The cinematography is very noteworthy in this movie, it’s only the movie that I know of that contains shots from the perspective of a hallucinated iguana on heroin and the soul of a criminal break-dancing and being shot gunned to death. The sheer amount of creativity involved in the filming of this movie is simply amazing and is something that must be seen on the big screen to be enjoyed properly. From reptile point-of-view shots to close-ups of anger and drug-induced frustration, the movie covers the gamete of Hollywood filmmaking and some very un-Hollywood filmmaking as well.

In the end, this movie isn’t admittedly the best film every made, but what it does it does well. Everything from the unconventional story to the strange cinematography help weave together a movie leaves one feeling happy spending 10 bucks to have seen. For anybody fortunate enough to see this movie while it is still in Ventura, I highly recommend shelling out the cash to see it for the short time it’s still playing (because it’s independent).

The Verdict: 7.8/10-Very Impressive (1 being atrocious and 10 being a astounding)