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"Bad" doesn't even begin to describe the behavior of New Orleans Police Lt. Terence McDonaugh (Nicholas Cage), protagonist of Werner Herzog's "Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans." Snorting coke is just the beginning; stealing drugs from suspects, from the police department's property room, and from wherever else he can score it, comes next. How about soliciting bribes (money, dope, sex) from suspects? Terrorizing an old lady by pulling the oxygen leads out of her nose?

The film's title, but not much else, is similar to that of a 1992 cult classic by Abel Ferrara; the rest is pure Herzog -- dark (both literally and figuratively), and a bit surreal. Alligators and iguanas, either real or imaged, figure in the action.†The title's post-Katrina New Orleans is a city where the sun never shines. Its blue-black tones (shot by Peter Zeitlinger, who also filmed Herzog's "Grizzly Man" and "Encounters at the End of the World") don't jibe with our stereotype of a jazzy, joyous Big Easy.

McDonaugh is in charge of investigating the murder of five members of a family of illegal African immigrants connected to the drug trade. He has recently rescued a prisoner from drowning in the Katrina floodwaters, getting, for his efforts, a back injury that causes him to take Vicodin and walk with a lopsided, stoop-shouldered gait. I think we're to assume that it's his pain that also leads him to consume the quantities of drugs less legal than Vicodin; maybe so.

McDonaugh's girlfriend, Frankie (Eva Mendes), is a beautiful coke-head prostitute whom he occasionally has to bail out of trouble when customers beat her up or otherwise harass her. Another source of worry is from the bookie (Brad Dourif) who tries to collect on the lieutenant's huge gambling debts.

"Bad Lieutenant" may sound like a total downer, but it's not. Elements of black humor lighten the generally depraved tone, and the ending ... well, I won't give anything away. However, Herzog and scriptwriter William Finkelstein can't resist piling nastiness on top of nastiness. When, to begin with, the protagonist isn't someone you'd want to spend a Saturday night with, that can be a problem.

Rated R for language, some violence, sexuality and drug use. 2 hours, 1 minute.

— Renata Polt