Nicolas Cage bugs out in The Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call - New Orleans
Throughout their lengthy filmographies, both German director Werner Herzog and American actor Nicolas Cage have proven they can bring something consistently compelling to the screen, and they share more in common than one might guess. From Aguirre through to Rescue Dawn, Herzog’s films are regularly epic in ambition, unflinching in their ideologies and somewhat batshit crazy. And throughout his career, Cage’s performances have often been completely nuts as well, and while they’ve largely been awful and unintentionally hilarious of late, at least a stinker like the Wicker Man remake provided the most amazing YouTube highlight reel of all time.
With The Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call – New Orleans, Herzog has pulled a Quentin Tarantino and re-contextualized an actor most had given up hope on years ago. Casting Cage as a police officer who’s not only corrupt but is also a drug- and gambling-addicted sex fiend unafraid of breaking the law to support his many habits, Herzog found the ideal star, unafraid to let it all hang out. We’re not talking Klaus Kinski levels of lunacy, but the results are still an incredibly entertaining and endlessly quotable black comedy.
There are way too many highlights to mention them all, but here are a few that rise to the top of the crack pipe: The Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas-inspired hallucinations of iguanas and a dead man’s soul busting a move. The squirm-inducing shakedown of two club-goers in a parking lot, giving us the alternate dimension catchphrase “OK, who’s got the kibble?” The electric shaver scene (you’ll know exactly what I’m talking about when you see it). Val Kilmer, Fairuza Balk, Jennifer Coolidge (a.k.a. Stifler’s mom), a surprisingly decent Xzibit and an especially wooden Eva Mendes are on hand as the supporting cast, but it’s unarguably the manic Cage who steals the show.
In recent interviews, Herzog has repeatedly stated that his Bad Lieutenant is neither a remake nor a sequel to Abel Ferrara’s 1992 thriller of the same name. In fact, the notoriously ornery Herzog asserts that it was his producers’ idea to title this movie as they did, and that he has never even seen Ferrara’s Lieutenant. Longtime Ferrara fans like New Order’s Bernard Sumner (who fronts a band sharing the film’s name as well) can believe this or not, but watching Cage flip his wig sure sounds more fun than full-frontal nude scenes from Harvey Keitel.
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