Watch Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans 2009

It's no top secret that Nicolas Cage has been going off the deep end of late. His performances in Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans have become more and more unhinged and harebrained; you never know when the character he's playing will suddenly become annoyed over something that seems -- no matter what it is, in evaluation to the reaction it draws -- relatively minor. This almost singlehandedly ruined this year's Knowing, at spirit a decent science-fiction flick rendered nearly unwatchable by Cage's fevered overacting. It's no coincidence that Cage hasn't done a "critical" dramatic performance in more than three years. I shudder to think what that would now look like.

It happened to release on the 11 sept 2009 along with The Brokern Hill.The movie itself is a hilarious genre pastiche that too commonly winks to let us know how aware it is of its own unseriousness. Herzog is having every bit as much fun as Cage here, toying with renegade cop movie cliches and running in a pulpy mode he hasn't touched for a while. In terms of individual scenes, The Bad Lieutenant has several of the year's highlights, counting a tour de force in which Lieutenant McDonagh stops a pair of youngsters on their way home from a club, confiscates their drugs, snorts them, and has sex with the girl while forcing the guy to wristwatch. (You have to imagine this performed in a full-on Nic Cage-ean fury for the full effect.) He's one bad Lieutenant indeed, though the picture makes clear that he has an truthful streak: he'll pocket all the dope he can, but -- unlike his partner, played by Val Kilmer -- he stops short at, say, murdering a drug dealer in "self-defense" to pocket his money.

The Bad Lieutenant works incredible as an over-the-top cop thriller with a bonkers lead performance. Certain scenes superbly straddle the line between weirdness and insanity, as when Cage emerges from behind a door to hassle a grandmother while brandishing an electric shaver. (Look for this scene -- it's incredibly bizarre, but it makes sense somehow.) Other times, however, Herzog loses vision of this delicate balancing act and does something to break the spell. When Shea Whigham shows up in a quirky small part as a local rich hotshot whose m.o. is to repeat "whoa" as much as possible, also throwing in an sporadic "oh yeah," it feels like not only is Whigham mugging absurdly for the camera, but Herzog is, too. And when Herzog busts out some of his characteristically surreal touches -- e.g. having the drug-addled character stare at an iguana for a high-quality minute and a half -- the movie starts to seem less like a fun genre experiment and more like arthouse wankery.

If you're a buff of this genre, this could be your destiny to watch a smart filmmaker take it in some strange and fascinating directions; if you're not, this is your ability to watch a smart filmmaker make fun of it. If you've been following Nic Cage's increasingly intense panorama-chewing over the last couple years, this is your chance to see it taken to its logical wrapping up and beyond. Herzog occasionally makes The Bad Lieutenant feel frivolous, but it's rarely less than attractive.