Nicolas Cages stars as Lieutenant Terence McDonagh, a newly promoted officer who is tracking down the drug king that massacred a family of African immigrant. During the after math of hurricane Katrina, McDonagh hurt his back while saving someone’s life. Since then McDonagh has developed an addiction to a cocktail of prescription drugs and various narcotics. McDonagh doesn’t hesitate to abuse his powers as lieutenant so long as it helps him score more drugs or even sale large amounts of drugs in order to pay off his large gambling debt. And for the icing on the cake, his girlfriend is a cocaine addicted prostitute (played by Eva Mendes).
If you have a high sense of morals and can not distinguish movie violence from real life, then I suggest you skip this film. Cage’s Bad Lieutenant does just about anything and everything that is morally wrong; such as snorting cocaine in front of children and pulling a .357 magnum on an elderly woman. And strikingly it is all kind of humorous, like a dark and twisted Bill Hicks joke.
Nicolas Cage is really the best part of the movie. With his last string of films it almost seems weird to be commenting highly on his acting performance. However, here Cage demonstrates his wide acting range without going too over the top. It is reminiscent to his Oscar winning and nomination performances in Leaving Las Vegas and Adaptation, respectively. Cage does an excellent job of presenting McDonagh as having a stiffness and restricted movements that come with having back problems. McDonagh is a character whose bad deeds and addictions are a product of the injury he suffered while being a good cop.
Val Kilmer also stars in the film, though not much of it. However, the parts that he is in are well done and make me wish that he took on more adventurous theatrical productions. (Yet, look for Val Kilmer in the new SNL film McGrober).
One of the few down sides to the film is the story, or at least the events and how they unfold. It could be stronger, and the pacing of the film a little more sharp and finely tuned. New German Wave director Werner Herzog has put together a good film, but a quite a bit short of great. There are some interesting close ups of various animals, serving the narrative of Nicolas Cage hallucinating, that seem amateur at best, especially for a feature film by a director of Herzog’s stature.
None the less the film is still dangerous and fun at the same time.
Grade: B
This film was released last November and has also been showcased around various film festivals but still remains in limited release.
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