Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans

Theatrical Release Date: 2009 11 20 (USA - Limited)

UPC: 687797129666

Studio: First Look Pictures

MPAA Rating: R   Contains:[Violence, Profanity, Sexual Situations, Drug Content]

Summary: Abel Ferrara's cult crime drama Bad Lieutenant is given a sister film with this Werner Herzog-helmed production that takes its inspiration from the original, but focuses on new characters and plotlines. Nicolas Cage steps into Harvey Keitel's mold of a corrupt and drug-addled police officer, with the scummy setting moving from New York City to New Orleans. Eva Mendes, Val Kilmer, and Xzibit co-star in the Nu Image/Millennium Films picture. ~ Jeremy Wheeler, Rovi

Category: Drama

Awards: Film Presented – Toronto International Film Festival Film Presented – Venice International Film Festival Film Presented – London Film Festival Film Presented – AFI Fest Best Cinematography – Independent Spirit Awards Best Actor – Toronto Film Critics Association Film Presented – Rotterdam International Film Festival

Features: Bad Lieutenant: port of call New Orleans digital photography book; photos by Lena Herzog
The making of Bad Lieutenant: port of call New Orleans
Theatrical trailer
Alternate trailer
Previews

Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans

Format: Blu-ray

Release Date: 04/06/2010

Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 Theatre Wide-Screen

Audio: DTHD null

Runtime: 122 Minutes

Sides: 1

Number of Discs: 1

Language(s) English

Subtitles: Spanish

Region: USA & territories, Canada

Phillip Maher

Is it possible to write a raving two-star review? With this bewildering chimera of a movie, Werner Herzog has proven that he is incapable of making a boring film. Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans succeeds brilliantly as failure, as Herzog and the terrifically inept Nicolas Cage manipulate the conventions of the police genre for their own personal amusement, foregoing the standard tedium of inflated narrative tension and score-driven suspense in favor of moments of delirious dissonance and peculiar humor. The film's relation to its predecessor, Abel Ferrara's Bad Lieutenant, is never quite clear, other than the presence of a police protagonist with a penchant for cheap sex, expensive drugs, and gambling on sports. Cage hobbles through the title role of Lieutenant Terence McDonagh like a crackhead Quasimodo, ingesting a chemical m?lange of substances to stave off the pain of a chronic back injury as he tries to solve the brutal slaying of a Senegalese family in New Orleans. Cage visibly sheds charisma as the film progresses, devolving from a cocky showboat cop into a squawking dope who desperately projects false bravado and periodically erupts with awkward bursts of incoherent gibberish. Herzog gleefully feeds his scene-chewing star, adding to the already hallucinatory atmosphere of New Orleans with some incongruous iguanas, one alligator carcass, and the incomparable Brad Dourif. Val Kilmer makes an appearance, confirming rumors that he is still alive, and Eva Mendes smolders quite adequately as McDonagh's requisite prostitute/girlfriend. Herzog drives the preposterous plot off the rails early, and then begins discarding seemingly essential narrative elements like ballast from a sinking ship. For instance, while McDonagh is in the midst of a heated interrogation, trying to locate an elusive suspect, the wanted man simply walks into the police station and surrenders. Later, a key witness to the crime vanishes from McDonagh's custody, and is quickly forgotten. Herzog shreds the potboiler drama like wrapping paper, unveiling absurd little gifts like a twitching close-up of the aforementioned iguanas, an obnoxious arcade machine that mechanically chants, "Insert more coins! Insert more coins!" -- and 2009's most quotable movie line: "Shoot him again! His soul is still dancing." As the convoluted delta of assorted plotlines empty into a glimmering gulf of a finale, Herzog manages to skewer both the Hollywood happy ending and the Bush administration's response to Katrina. If Herzog's goal was to craft a compelling police drama, then he failed miserably, but if he intended to create a magnificent cinematic mess, then mission accomplished! ~ Phillip Maher, Rovi

Cast and Crew: Boaz Davidson  Executive Producer 
Werner Herzog  Director 
Mark Isham  Composer (Music Score) 
Avi Lerner  Executive Producer 
Edward R. Pressman  Producer 
John Thompson  Producer 
Danny Dimbort  Executive Producer 
Trevor Short  Executive Producer 
Alessandro Camon  Executive Producer 
William M. Finkelstein  Screenwriter 
Stephen Belafonte  Producer 
Randall Emmett  Producer 
Elliot Lewis Rosenblatt  Executive Producer 
Gabe Polsky  Producer 
Alan Polsky  Producer 
Nicolas Cage  Actor 
Eva Mendes  Actor 
Val Kilmer  Actor 
Xzibit  Actor 
Fairuza Balk  Actor 
Shawn Hatosy  Actor 
Jennifer Coolidge  Actor 
Tom Bower  Actor 
Vondie Curtis-Hall  Actor 
Brad Dourif  Actor 
Denzel Whitaker  Actor 
Irma P. Hall  Actor 
Shea Whigham  Actor 
Michael Shannon  Actor 
Joe Nemmers  Actor 
J.D. Evermore  Actor 
Tim Bellow  Actor 
Lucius Baston  Actor 
Lauren Swinney  Actor 
Nick Gomez  Actor 
William M. Finkelstein  Actor 
Samuel Medina  Actor 
Lance E. Nichols  Actor 
Tony Bentley  Actor 
Jeremy Aaron Johnson  Actor 
Bernard "Bunchy" Johnson  Actor 
Matt Borel  Actor 
Gary Grubbs  Actor 
J. Omar Castro  Actor 
Kerry Cahill  Actor 
Noel Arthur  Actor 
Douglas M. Griffin  Actor 
Lauren Whitney Pennington  Actor 
Dane Rhodes  Actor 
Jedda Jones  Actor 
Don Yesso  Actor 
Trey Burvant  Actor 
Robert Pavlovich  Actor 
Marco St. John  Actor 
David Joseph Martinez  Actor 
Danielle Elaine McAllister  Actor 
Kyle Clements  Actor 
Dorinda Deena Beasley  Actor 
Deneen D. Tyler  Actor 
Roger Timber  Actor 
Joshua Gillum  Actor 
Sean Boyd  Actor 
Katie Chonacas  Actor 
Brandi Coleman  Actor 
Michael Zimbrich  Actor 
Trenton Perez  Actor 
Stephanie Honoré  Actor 

Country: USA