Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans was the film I was most looking forward to this winter and boy oh boy did it not disappoint. Nic Cage is on some next level here, and it's hard to think of another actor who would have taken the comedy this far. Though he has his die hard fans (of which I know more than a handful), Cage is still under-appreciated on balance (considering how many folks I've talked to who think he's a legit bad actor).
More than pretty much any major actor these days (DDL in There Will Be Blood is another great one), Nic Cage understands that there are places to go past realism and restraint. Sometimes this works and sometimes it doesn't and a lot of the time the movie around him is so shitty that whether his acting is working or not is barely relevant. In Bad Lieutenant, it most certainly works as Cage and Herzog create one of the most unforgettable characters of the decade. Christ, just look at that eyebrow. And the movie works outside of Cage as well, Herzog treating the story in a completely original way (you'll know what I mean when the Captain pops into frame like a Close-up Monster in an old arcade shooter except pitched at the exact opposite mood).
Two crack pipes up.
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