Ledger Pop Journal - Celebrity News & Sports

Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans stars Nicolas Cage and Eva Mendes - Overall Great - 4 out of 5 beams. It’s a good thing that a bad title and bad blood don’t trump brilliant execution of a perfect set-up, ‘cause otherwise Bad Lt. NO wouldn’t be such a wildly entertaining time at the movies. But it is. Oh man is it ever.

Nicolas Cage & Eva Mendes at the Venice Film Festival (Image: WENN)

Dark comedy gets no more grim nor rarely as LOL funny as here. Think of this intense genre picture as Drugstore Cowboy with a badge – informed by a demented Dirty Harry ethos. Feeling lucky? Oh yeah.

Legendary director Werner Herzog uses Nic Cage’s trademark brittle edginess to great effect as an obsessively self-medicating detective. Rarely do superstars find vehicles this in tune with their acting peccadilloes, complete with wild-man director and off-the-hook script. Cage does here and the result is one of the best and most enjoyable performances of his long career.

About the bad blood: Nominally a remake of 1992’s Bad Lieutenant starring Harvey Keitel, this unauthorized edition has provoked outrage from Abel Ferrara, director of the original.

Be sure to hide the ladies and children from this crude movie. Bad Lt. NO ain’t called Bad for no reason.

Full review at WikPik.