Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans

Nicholas Cage has the most divided fan base of any actor in Hollywood. There are those who love him for the quirkiness and borderline psychosis that he brings to his film roles; there are those who hate him for the series of flops that he's produced over the past ten years, and there are those who have engineered a cult following specifically due to his quirkiness and poor choice of film roles. There is even a website now which will add every single Nicholas Cage movie to your Netflix queue instantly, with the click of a button (http://wonder-tonic.com/cageyourqueue).

Say what you will about Nicholas Cage; under the direction of a smart and creative director, Cage becomes a powerhouse. And under the direction of veteran German director, Werner Herzog, a man whose movies almost always focus on people with irrational passions or borderline psychosis, Nicholas Cage becomes a burning meteor, something both destructive and beautiful that only lasts a moment, but you're not likely to forget anytime soon.

As Terrence McDonagh, Cage plays a police officer operating in a post-Katrina New Orleans. After injuring his back during the hurricane itself, while rescuing a left behind prisoner in a flooding cell, McDonagh is promoted to lieutenant and prescribed a life-long dose of vicodin. Six months later McDonagh is the walking, or should I say 'lumbering', embodiment of police corruption; Habitually popping pills and snorting coke on the job, McDonagh has taken to frisking bystanders on the street for petty change as well as marijuana and crack, all to fuel his addiction. All the while McDonagh investigates the gang land execution of an immigrant family at the hands of a local drug lord, causing the full extent of McDonagh's corruption to be tested.

Bad Lieutenant is a movie for people who love movies. Part satire, part character study, Herzog fills the movie with small, artistic flourishes - such as shooting some scenes from the fish-eye lens POV of a lizard - some which will make you laugh, while others may cause you to scratch your head in bewilderment. Afterwards you may want to take a long, hot shower to cleanse yourself of the experience, and while that may help in the short term, I promise you, you will never look at Nicholas Cage the same way ever again.