Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans (2009) by Werner Herzog - (5/10)

“Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans” is one of the two feature films that Werner Herzog released in 2009, the other one being “My son, My son what have ye done?”. Bad Lieutenant may have been the one that received better press but “My son, My son what have ye done?” is the one that I would recommend seeing.

Much like 2007’s Rescue Dawn, Bad Lieutenant feels too much like an average Hollywood film. This time around it is even worse, hardly anything about this movie feels like Herzog at all. He seems to have been only present to do some scenery shots, the scenes featuring or referencing animals and the “shoot him, his soul is still dancing scene”. Everything else could have been done by almost anyone else in Hollywood. It was billed as a black comedy but safe for the previously mentioned scene, hardly anything about this feels like a comedy to me. The script doesn’t feel like Herzog for 95 % of the time, he did not write the script himself (a very rare thing). I hated Cage’s acting in this one but that might be just a personal thing. To me, it feels like he does the same thing in every movie and here it was just too much. I wasn't too exited about Xzibit either. The ending did save it a bit, it was rather interesting and not that stereotypical. Given the large Herzog filmography and the fact that the recently released “My son, My son what have ye done?” was much, much better, I would recommend skipping this one unless if you are curious or have already seen a lot of Herzog movies. I do wonder what Herzog was thinking when he made this. I am certain that if I would go up to him and ask him, he would have no idea why I am saying these things and would consider me to be an idiot. I cannot shake the feeling that everyone would have been better off, if they would have let someone else make this one. There are plenty of hired goons in Hollywood that would have been happy turning out a passable cop story starring Nicolas Cage.