Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call – New Orleans (www.the-usher.com)

"What are these f@*kin' iguanas doing on my coffee table?"

On the day that hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, police sergeant Terence McDonagh (Cage) rescues a prisoner from drowning but permanently damages his back in the process. Six months later and after winning a medal and a promotion for his troubles, Terence is now addicted to cocaine and painkillers as he struggles to get through life and his demanding job. When a Senegalese family is murdered over drugs, this becomes a priority case for the department but with gambling debuts mounting, his drug supplying prostitute girlfriend Frankie (Mendas) in trouble and a drug territory war about to explode in his face, Terence has more on his mind than just his job.

Nicolas Cage as earned the reputation of being one of the most diverse actors working in film today but can his performance as a washed up Lieutenant show how good he really can be?

Since winning an Oscar for ‘Leaving Las Vegas’ in 1995, Nicolas Cage has become one of the biggest names in Hollywood and an actor who loves his work. Appearing in an average of two or three films a year, as well as providing vocal performances in many an animated movie, Nicolas Cage has gained a reputation for appearing in a wide range of different genres, playing many different kinds of characters. From police officers, professors, treasure hunters, soldiers, writers, magicians, conmen, thieves, criminals, fire fighters and superheroes, there is not a characters he won’t try or a genre of movie he will not appear in. This, of course, has produced mixed results and many of his characters have been similar ranting, over the top, mad men but when he gets it right, he can be great and in ‘Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call – New Orleans’ he is just that. It’s a same that the film cannot keep up with him however.

Using only the basic premise and the name of the 1992 Harvey Keitel original, the new version of ‘Bad Lieutenant’ follows Terence McDonagh, a police officer on the job trying to cope with the constant pain from a back injury and his own addictions. Gambling, drugs and his girlfriend is a prostitute, Terence is breaking as many laws as he is protecting them and when his debuts are called in, he has to manage a turf war and cover up a murder just to stay onto of his own problems. With his drug intake increasing however, he is making more and more mistakes and running out of time. This role would be a challenge for anyone, especially after Harvey Keitel set the standard but Nicolas Cage throws himself into the role and produces his second great performance of 2010, as lighting up the screen as ‘Big Daddy’ in ‘Kick-Ass’. Yes he is manic, yes he is over the top and yes he is annoying in parts but most importantly he is convincing as a man on the edge with everything to lose.

Nicolas Cage has worked with a diverse range of filmmakers, with mixed results and the pull to work with German director Werner Herzog must have been his main reason for taking on the role. Mixing Herzog unique approach and Cage’s own randomness, this should have been a film that was as strange as it was captivating but instead we have movie that meanders along at a slow pace, heading towards a conclusion that is not really surprising or unexpected. There are also moments that are unintentionally funny, with Cage’s Terence seeing iguanas while under the influence of drugs and showing the point of view of an alligator part way through the film, you can’t help but think that they must have got a little bored on set and decided to have a bit of a laugh at the audience’s expense.

‘Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call – New Orleans’ is notable only for the performance of Nicolas Cage. His supporting cast do their best with their limited and underdeveloped roles, with only Eva Mendas having any real screen presence to impact the proceedings, as they are let down by a script that is dominated by the lead character. There is just far too much bad for the film to be as good as it could have been.

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2010