Bad Lieutenant,Port Of Call,New Orleans.

Set in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, the films opens with Police Officers Terence McDonagh(Nic Cage) and Stevie Pruitt(Val Kilmer) cruelly discussing whether they should release a prisoner trapped in a cell rapdly filling with flood water.McDonagh does so but injures his back very badly in the process.He is prescribed pain management pills by his doctor , thus bgins his downward spiral into addiction.

The story jumps forward six months showing McDonagh leading a murder investigation into the brutal slaying of five people by Big Fate(Alvin Joiner),drug lord of the area, witnessed it is found out later by a grocery delivery boy.McDonagh's determination to get the job done is plainly seen through his ever more outrageous methods fuelled by his apparently insatiable appetite for drugs.This will be his downfall as his somewhat addled perception of the world around him(Iguanas anyone?) begins to affect his judgement and he is suspended from duty.This proves to be no more than a minor detail as he is soon on the loose again.

Just to complcate things there is also the small matter of his gambling addiction(witness his cruel manipulation of a key gridiron player to ensure that the game he is playing in is lost to clear his mounting debts), throw in collusion with a drug dealer, a drug dependant prostitute girlfriend and some very unsavoury mafia henchmen chasing him for a debt and you have an EXTREMELY Bad Lieutenant indeed!

Director Werner Herzog has in effect made an entirely new film bearing little or no resemblance to the Abel Ferrara version and has somehow managed to work in a redemption for McDonagh at the end, having watched the film it should not work but does.Sterling performances all round(welcome back Nic!),coupled with Herzog's directorial flair make this an excellent film,five stars I think!