Nov
23
The original “Bad Lieutenant” doesn’t exactly come across as a franchise starter. Abel Ferrara’s NC-17 police procedural makes “The Shield” look like “Dragnet.” I love the movie. Harvey Keitel really brings it. I have a particular fondness for the scene where he shoots his car radio upon learning he just lost a bundle on a bad sports bet. That scene got rewound about six times.
Against Ferrara’s wishes, “Bad Lieutenant” now has a follow-up, what I consider a spiritual sequel, starring Nicolas Cage. Apart from the title, there’s really nothing that links the Ferrera film with this one. Director Werner Herzog(!) claims to have never even seen the 1992 version. Tonally, the new “Bad Lieutenant” is more of a black comedy than a gritty drama. It also has a more audience-friendly R-rating.
Cage has a field day with the character of Lt. Terence McDonagh, casually strutting around with a .44 Magnum shoved down the front of his pants. McDonagh suffers from back problems, the result of having rescued a suspect from a flooded lockup in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Now he goes about his police work in a drug-fueled haze. He has a guy in the property room who supplies him with coke. When that dries up, he starts confiscating controlled substances from suspects. He has a sports gambling habit, too. And his girlfriend is a prostitute. He’s also the lead investigator in a brutal homicide that leads back to a powerful New Orleans drug kingpin named Big Fate.
What I liked about the film is how tangential it seems in its first two-thirds. Herzog’s not terribly interested in how policiers are plotted, and as such, the film sort of goes off in different directions. McDonah’s trying to solve the case, but he’s working a few other things on the side as well. The investigation takes a backseat for part of the film when the local mob and Internal Affairs both start putting the screws to McDonah for his various foul-ups on either side of the law. Then the movie brings everything together, wrapping it all up nicely in a bow and rewarding you as a viewer for going along with its seemingly unfocused storytelling.
It’s great to see Cage in a role that reminds you of what fun he can be. I wish he’d strike more of a balance between the commercial films and the edgier fare. Here’s a character that challenges him, one that asks him to dig deep inside his bag of tricks. What he comes up with is so bad, it’s good. Yeah, I went there.
-Brad Lohan
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