Aside from having the clumsiest title since The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies!!? (and yes, it did get released with the !!?), Bad Lieutenant is a mad, rewarding ride.I can do without those reviews that claim it's a poor remake of one of their favorite movies of all time, for three (count 'em) reasons:
1. It smacks of professional complaining, wonderfully satirized by a sign outside a tent at the 2008 Glastonbury Festival saying "Form a Line Here If You Think It Was Better Last Year".
2. The first Bad Lieutenant movie, directed by Abel Ferrara in 1992, is what's known as a "cult classic", which means it sucked, big time, but is adored by a small group of weirdos.
3. This 2009 "version" isn't a remake at all, sharing only part of the title and the basic premise of a crooked cop.
Nicolas Cage's career seems like it's been teetering on the edge of the commode for years now, with a string of duller than ditchwater films in which the only thing that changes is his hairpiece. But in this movie, the gloriously unhinged twins of Cage and director Werner Herzog come together to make 120 minutes of pure mayhem. In fact, I'd say everyone in this film contributes to the WTF factor. Everyone that is, except Val Kilmer, who needs to fire his agent right away.
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