Herzog wades deep into the swampy funk of New Orleans, which in this post-Katrina setting might as well be an end-of-the-world movie. He's clearly turned on by [its] weirdness, the casual corruption, the gangsterism and the Southern Gothic outrageousnes.
In fusing European experimentalism and Hollywood boldness, Herzog has created a genuine oddity, a furious and unforgettable hybrid which may well prove to be 2010's most purely enjoyable moviegoing experience.
[Cage is] hilarious, scary, contorted, mournful, mean and weirdly, monstrously lovable -- the perfect actor to work with one of the world's most stubborn, bold, idiosyncratic filmmakers.
Like the late Klaus Kinski, who so often played crazies in Herzog's earlier movies, Cage is in your face all the way. Laughing maniacally, lying with no sign of a conscience, he pushes the character's frequent tantrums beyond over-the-top.
Laramie Movie Scope
July 26, 2011
If Herzog had chosen realism over surrealism, this film would have been predictable and unentertaining. As it is, I found it oddly captivating. This is one weird movie.
Nicolas Cage is so gleefully over-the-top as the troubled cop of the title that you will either be repulsed or fascinated by his performance and, since it lives or dies by it, the movie itself.
Sometimes a scene is a set up for a future plot twist, and sometimes Werner Herzog just wants to film some alligators. Who knows what'll happen? It's like filling your underpants with salamanders.
Is redemption possible for this bad lieutenant? At one point, he orders that a dead man be shot again because "his soul is still dancing." If you find God in that line, then welcome to your movie heaven.
