Nicolas Cage is at his over the top best here, playing crooked cop Lt. Terence McDonagh. Everytime McDonagh sees an opportunity to be an asshole he without fail takes it. He's addicted to drugs, but he's mostly addicted to chaos. And we understand and forgive him for his addictions, because he's a hell of a lot more fun than those around him.

Like the entire run of The Shield condensed into two hours, it's decent enough dirty cop stuff with Cage fitting his role well in a film that feels somewhat lost throughout, be it intentional or otherwise (for example, we are given practically no background to his character's drug addiction; the conclusion; why New Orleans?). Xzibit shows some acting chops, Kilmer is criminally underused (again). Will be remembered for the hilarious scene where an off-his-face McDonagh threatens two old ladies.

So much crazy packed into one little innocent movie, with Nicolas Cage clearly being urged by his director to go bigger and more unhinged at every turn. Herzog's whirling turbine of nutty ideas is unleashed full on in to film as he manages to take the details of William Finkelstein's dark, dire script and turn them into crashing visual opera. This is a grimy, disjointed nightmare painted by a madman. It may not be fine art, but it's surely entertaining.

I really need to see the original

It was nice to see Cage doing some of that there acting again. Herzog's direction is lucid and fuzzy, and perfect for this film. Enjoyed.

What starts off as a fairly straight procedural slowly unfolds into the blackest of black comedies, with some great surreal touches. There is no moral redemption here as in Ferrara's version, but Hertzog shows a surprising optimism in the ability of human beings to help each other. Very entertaining.

Cage's receding hairline and hunchback performance evokes Conrad Veidt -- a Klaus Kinski-like maniac -- because this is, in fact, a German Expressionist horror film and comedy.

I don't know how you could ever figure out that this is a Herzog film just by looking at it. It's no secret that Herzog is a versatile director, but this is a pretty big departure even for him. Nicolas Cage gives a quite awesome performance in the kind of role he was born to play. The film plays like a satire of police procedurals, with a bit of film noir added for good measure. It's also a funny film, and I don't think you're really supposed to take it all that seriously.

82.125

Herzog might be advised to look up the difference between camp and kitsch, because i think here he has mistaken one for the other. A failure for being not only inferior to (not to mention less "crazy" than) Ferrara's Bad Lieutenant, but also failing to be crazier than his best work with Kinski, and even failing to be the craziest Nicholas Cage movie set in New Orleans (that would be Zandalee, which is infinitely more insane and entertaining than this movie is).

Overall Enjoyment: 30/40, Plot/Themes: 15/20, Cinematography/Direction: 15/20, Acting/Writing: 20/20 Really fantastic acting by Nicholas Cage. Hilarious and depressing at the same time. Mostly hilarious though.

I don't know, I love Cage at his most insane, and I love Herzog, but this just didn't grab me. It was entertaining, but I'm not sure it was good.

A perfectly unhinged Nicholas Cage drives this dark satirical police procedural.

holy shit.

There's really no point to this film and that's exactly what makes it surprisingly profound. Cage pulls off his best since Leaving Las Vegas and Herzog really switches gears from his usual sombre, dry style to something really compelling.

What I learned from this movie: reptiles are always watching. Always.

Defeats all odds by being actually quite good. Cage is brilliant and Herzog's directing is suitably weird.

Nicolas Cage's best role in years

Probably the only movie that Cage played seriously and the only movie in which I like him (believe me I saw a lot of them). Dirty and real plot, dirty and rude role play, messy environment and relations between characters. Even if in my opinion Nicolas plays plastic and perfect-shiny roles he did it well here, and I must admit it - I think he did a lot better than in "The Rock" which was my favourite of him so far. More of these kind may let him revive a bit and be treated more serious...

Herzog and Cage, in an improbable sequel with no relation to its 1990's predecessor, capture insanity lighting in a bottle.

Strange idea for a sequel is actually decent.

Cage has finally shown some acting ! Liked the "dancing soul" thing ;)

When I first heard of this project, there were some disbelief but at the same time I felt that Werner Herzog was not the sort of person to make a generic remake. Good enough, this clearly is a film of his, continuing his themes of the absurdity of the world alongside the moral ambiguity of Nicolas Cage's character. Even the iguanas etc. are a continuing part of many of his films, in this case representative of the human characters themselves. Its a film that gets better on multiple watches.

i love the original, but i love werner herzog more

Plotwise, there's not a lot to this movie. But the combined effort of Herzog and Cage results in some genuinely absurd moments of comedic brilliance. Shea Whigham gets kudos for beating Cage at his own game in the brief time he is on screen.

Bardzo dobry film. Swietna rola N. Cage'a

An uneven, but massively entertaining romp from Herzog.

Cage has finally made another good film.

A spoof take on the excellent original, Herzog offers little storywise, save one of the best endings in modern film history, and randomly scattered lizard weirdness. Turns out that's enough!

Cage is brilliant as a drug addicted cop who on the bottom, even though it wouldnt seem so still is a good guy. Sometimes the movie is a bit to Herzog weird, but it doesn´t matter cause it serves the purpose... Anyway.. The story has been told before, but this time its done in a completely different style, and I dig it! "Shot him again!"

Watch the original, this is a stupid cop flick with some of the original "Bad Lieutenant" thrown in. Clumsy, retarded ending(s) - we thought that it must be a dream sequence as the conclusions were all so silly, but no. I guess Werner Hertzog got paid, and did what he could with someone else's screenplay. The only good parts are those lifted from the original "Bad Lieutenant"

You can feel Nic Cage falling apart, he nails it completely. EVA MENDES mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm yes.

Prefer the original. It was fun to watch cage barge into every scene with reckless abandon. You never knew what he was going to do next. Somebody asked me, "Why? What was he doing?" What was he not doing?! Casting could have done a better job, some pretty embarrassing acting at times. Things like this ruin a film.