Ross v Ross

I was watching Bad Lieutenant again last night when I suddenly realised I’d forgotten to put my review of it last year up on our crummy little site. That’s how bowled over I was by it: I forgot to hit ‘Publish’ on a new post. For anyone interested in reading something I wrote ages ago about a film that was out ages ago, the review is below. For those not interested… I’ll kill all of you. To the break of dawn (I won’t actually kill anyone, I’m just lamely quoting from the film. But then you probably knew that, so me explaining it here is pretty pointless).

Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans (five stars)

There are cinematic cops who play by their own rules. And then there is Terence McDonagh. The crack-smoking, dog-sitting, iguana-bothering anti-hero of Werner Herzog’s reworking of Bad Lieutenant doesn’t just break all the rules: it’s never entirely clear if he knows there are any. That McDonagh is played with frenzied exuberance by Nicolas Cage merely adds to the sense of fun. And make no mistake: this is a fun film, possibly the best police comedy since Beverly Hills Cop. Whether or not it sets out to be is plainly irrelevant when the finished result is this entertaining. McDonagh, an unorthodox detective who makes Harry Callahan look like Harold Bishop, is the role Cage was born to play. He does more here with an arched eyebrow and those big sad eyes than most actors manage with their entire bodies. Even the film’s alligators can’t take their eyes off him. There’s a sub-plot about a murder investigation in New Orleans but it’s really just background to McDonagh’s increasingly unpredictable escapades – highlights include sex with a stranger in a car park and hilariously holding a pair of old ladies at gunpoint. Halfway through, as his character’s mind becomes more substance-addled, Cage starts to channel Jimmy Stewart by way of Richard Nixon, an incredible gambit that inexplicably pays off. But then this is a movie in which Val Kilmer plays the straight man. That’s how far gone it is. A brilliantly bizarre picture that somehow makes perfect sense. And the dog in it is really cute. Awwww…

This review first appeared in the Metro newspaper

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This entry was posted on July 17, 2011 at 9:35 am and is filed under REVIEWS with tags Bad Lieutenant, Movies, New Orleans, Nicolas Cage, Val Kilmer, Werner Herzog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.