Summary: This week we’re taking a trip down to The Big Easy with Werner Herzog’s Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans. Depending on who you ask this movie is either a horrible remake or not inspired by the original movie at all. The story follows Lt. Terence McDonagh, a crooked cop with a drug problem, as he attempts to solve the murder of a family of five and hold his life together at the same time. He has only one witness to help him link the killers to the crime scene, a teenage boy named Daryl. He brings Daryl along to visit his girlfriend, a beautiful hooker named Frankie, but Daryl is scared off by a combination of the weight of the situation and Terence’s lifestyle. Eventually, Terence’s missteps begin to catch up to him and he must go to several extremes to try to make things right. Is there anyone better at portraying a madman on film than Nic Cage? What’s with all the weird shots of reptiles? Why is no one in the movie speaking with a Louisiana accent? Why didn’t any of the other police question Terence for using a .44 magnum or for brazenly tucking it into his waist? Didn’t the ending seem happy to the point of being dreamlike? This movie is the perfect combination of a maniac actor and a maniac director coming together to make something special.
