"Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans," directed by Werner Herzog, was released last year. It stars Nicolas Cage, Eva Mendes, and Val Kilmer. Nicolas Cage plays Terence McDonagh, the bad lieutenant of the title...yep I kid you not. Eva Mendes is Frankie, his prostitute girlfriend...again I kid you not. And Val Kilmer is the drastically underused police partner, Stevie Pruit. Terence McDonagh, a poliee officer with a severe drug addiction, among other things is put on a case surrounding the horrible murders of six illegal immigrants. The way he goes about this of course is anything put normal because I guess McDonagh just breaks all the rules. I thought that the idea of the film was good, but several things went wrong in the final product. I am pretty indifferent to Nicolas Cage, sometimes I like him, like in "Moonstruck" or "Raising Arizona." Then other times I'm watching "Face/Off" and he's annoying, and not John Travolta. I didn't feel like he was convincing in his role as Terrence McDonagh. Several times throughout it was hard to take him seriously. Maybe this was his fault or maybe it was the scriptwriter's, I'm sure. The script was weak too. The end was rushed, lots of things were not explained well so I was confused like 20 times during the movie. I know confusing me is not hard...but in my defense the script for this one was legitimately confusing and there was just some awful dialogue thrown in every so often. The score also was not memorable, like it should be in a good movie. It added little and at times it's not really noticeable at all. Also, there were some pointless shots and scenes of random reptiles. Rumor has it it was because of some drug trip but I'm not sure about that. Eva Mendes was good in this, but she just wasn't used enough and her character, along with others were not developed. Although no one was used less than Val Kilmer, who literally says a handful of lines towards the beginning, you don't see him for an hour and a half, and then he shows up in the end. At least the movie didn't drag on at all...that wouldn't have ended well. So yeah I was disappointed by various aspects of this movie. However, it got great reviews....86% at RottenTomatoes...so I'm not sure how that worked...I must have missed several things while watching...or the critics just lied...again I'm not quite sure.
-Joseph Sbrilli
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