Werner Herzog directed and although suspiciously similarly named, not exactly the same film as the Harvey Kietel outing in the 90s and unmistakenly touched by Herzog's wry imagination and humor. Not exactly a comedy. A police, drug story, cop gone bad, maybe, cop redeemed, sort of. Was a bit of a surprise actually. Very fast paced and oddly filmed. Almost everything done in closeups. The New Orleans back drop looked sickly and moody, just right. Cage plays the cop close to over the top from the git go and then, as he spirals down into oblivion, he really goes over the top and yet somehow, here, it feels just about right. Val Kilmer in a suit, looking not quite as out of shape as he has lately, but with not much to do. Mendes plays a hooker, of course she does, with a drug habit, naturally. The end, after all this spiraling is oddly upbeat, almost fairy tale like and by the last scene you wonder if you haven't really just been viewing, not a gritty police saga, but a tall tale with famous faces and twisty quirks and burps of plot. Good to see a film that works, holds my attention and isn't embarassing for the participants. Still, odd project for Herzog.
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