Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans (2009)

Nicolas Cage – the actor of “Wild at Heart” – has been missing for some time, replaced by a flaky, tired and boring stand-in in such garbage fare as “Bangkok Dangerous.” In the police thriller “Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans,” Cage is once again thrillingly alive, electric, giving a high-wire act, and knocking every other player off to the sidelines. He drops out-there dialogue like “To the break of dawn!” with absolute relish, hitting every syllable in the strangest and darkest of ways.

This Werner Herzog-directed flick has nothing to do with Harvey Kietel’s 1992 flick “Bad Lieutenant,” except name and its general outline: A depraved, drug-addled police detective is on a fast train to hell as he investigates a disturbing crime. Here it’s the murder of a New Orleans family of illegal immigrants, apparently over drugs the caretaker was selling.

Cage’s Terence McDonagh is off the bat corrupt, but in a flash of kindness he saves an inmate from drowning in the 2005 Katrina floods. No good deed goes unpunished: Terence injures his back in the rescue. A doctor’s prescription of painkillers leads to hard drugs and so many crimes – blackmail, sexual assault, shakedowns and pointing guns at grannies. Let’s put it this way: Our hero has a “lucky crack pipe.” It’s telling of Terence’s flamed soul that his lowest point in the film is when his call girl lover (Eva Mendes) announces she’s going into rehab.

His back and shoulders hunched like a walking “7” and a gun shoved in his front belt like a calling card of a psychotic Western lawman of about 16, Cage hasn’t been this good in years: All big-eyes tender one minute with a baby and raging crazy the next, even scaring hardened gangsters. Cage’s eyes are glaring mad, and I’m not sure how he does it. I’m not sure I want to know. But the actor last seen in, I swear, 1997’s “Face/Off” is back. (For now. He is doing a “Ghost Rider 2” after all, a bunch of other garbage, too, God help us.)

This Herzog tale is dark as hell, grisly violent, and strange – David Lynch strange – but it’s also wickedly funny. Terence hallucinates creeping spying lizards, and as the film reaches its climax – well, let’s say, I’m not quite certain reality is all there. The ending, actually, is quite hysterical, if you can get past the horrible acts Terence commits. This might be a difficult film for some to stomach. I dug it. A brimstone comedy from hell. And the most exciting big-screen police thriller I’ve seen in ages, good news for a genre that has played it as safe as an episode of “Law & Order” for too long. New Orleans has never, to my knowledge, been this gritty onscreen before. This ain’t Bourbon Street fun and partying. It’s a third world country, where signs of mass death from a deadly storm are marked – literally – on nearly every home. A-

The Pawnbroker (1965)

Sidney Lumet’s “The Pawnbroker” – photographed in a stark black and white – is merciless, poignant, unsettling, and packs a devastating finale. It was the first American film to deal with the Holocaust from the perspective of a survivor. Rod Steiger – in arguably his greatest role – is that survivor, Sol Nazerman. Once a professor with a wife and children, Sol now runs an East Harlem pawnshop that plays front to a local mobster (Brock Peters). The shop offers dry cleaning, but only launders money. Sol loathes his customers, and everyone around him. They are “scum” and “creatures,” hate has bred more hate. As a devastating anniversary looms, the brick wall that Sol has built up and over his human shell cracks. Sol either will be reborn, or will get the death he longs for. Lumet inter-cuts long memories and quick violent images from Sol’s past: Subway cars become death trains, while a half-naked woman recalls his ravaged wife. The images are startling. “Pawnbroker” is dated in portions, some portrayals of African-Americans and Hispanics skate close to stereotype, but this is one hell of a film. Lumet’s genius is on display throughout. Steiger beautifully plays several ages and bursts with grief and God-hating rage. A

Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever (2002)

“Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever” contains massive explosions, each bigger than the last, and insane car crashes where the hero is thrown 50 feet across and is only bruised upon hitting pavement. It’s over-the-top to the point of hilarious irony. And, it’s all utterly boring and cheap looking, with an ugly script, too. The entire thing is an absolute misfire. Even the title isn’t even accurate. Yes, Ecks (a disillusioned FBI agent played by an equally sour Antonio Banderas) battles Sever (a super Chinese assassin played by Lucy Liu) for 20 minutes, but then they join forces against a rogue U.S. agent (Gregg Henry) who meets with his minions at deserted city parks at night. Not for sex, but to kill them. The setting is Vancouver, but American law enforcement endlessly run amok. Was Canada annexed? Liu – so wicked in “Kill Bill” - can’t carry her inept role, which inexplicably turns sympathetic after she kills 30-plus police men. The director’s is named “Kaos.” The movie is dull. D-

Bouncing Cats (2010)

The documentary “Bouncing Cats” is not making it into every cinema in the nation, but it should. The film follows Breakdance Project Uganda, brainchild of Abraham “Abramz” Tekya, a man who grew up in the African nation that long has been drowning in a bloodbath of British rule, war and godless rulers such as Amin and Kony. The concept seems almost trite: How will hip hop dance moves help thousands of children who know nothing but poverty, violence and illiteracy. Director/writer Nabil Elderkin tells his tale well, and admits that, no, just dancing won’t help lift these youth to happiness. They need more. Many celebrities appear: Richard “Crazy Legs” Colon is the Bronx kid-made-man who – in a scene desperately needed -- openly sobs at the immense suffering around him. Encompassing shocking violence and utter joy, this doc will stick with you despite the not subliminal Red Bull (funder of the film) ads. B+

Serpico (1973)

The ultimate police corruption drama, “Serpico” is another winner from the late Sidney Lumet, a director who never let flashy camera angles and high-jinks get in the way of an amazing story. And this tale, based of fact, is amazing. Newly minted NYC patrolman Frank Serpico quickly learns that Blue Blood is thicker than the red kind, and that an honest cop is the least trust worthy man on the job. Serpico is that honest cop. The film opens with Serpico being rushed to a hospital after being shot in the face at point-blank range. Fellow policeman relish the chance to see this guy six feet under. The rest of the film is a flashback as Serpico goes from joyful cop to a man hunted by his own brothers. The film’s pitch is not perfect: Early scenes with Frank’s family are scored to a painfully maudlin piece of music, but it’s a small sin in a deep and exciting flick. The once great Al Pacino plays Serpico, and his performance is among his greatest output – “The Godfather” films and “Dog Day Afternoon.” A

The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976)

If “The Outlaw Josey Wales” is on TV – unedited – I’m there. This tale of a supposed “outlaw” (a farmer) out for revenge against the Union troops who slaughtered his family stands tall among Clint Eastwood’s many classics. Eastwood plays the seeker of vengeance as he alternately is hunted by Union forces, and tracks them himself. Along the way, Josey befriends a young doomed gunslinger (Sam Bottoms) and – in a hilarious and touching moment -- a Cherokee Indian (Chief Dan George) who’s smarter than anyone on screen. The action, humor and blood throughout are killer, especially a scene where Josey rests as blood-lust Unions cross a nearby river. The scene’s set-up – and the all-knowing cackle of an ancient hick woman – is one of my all-time favorite movie scenes. The long ironic commentary here has America portrayed as a land of lawlessness and savagery, run by European-Christian descendents who killed untold numbers of Native Americans for … their alleged (and of course untrue) lawlessness and savagery. This film is un-PC as hell, and that’s part of its beauty. This is Eastwood as his highest powers, equal to “Unforgiven.” A+

Cold Souls (2009)

Paul Giamatti is known to us as an eccentric worry wart, an unkempt guy who can’t stay happy. Or so that’s the impression. He has a long list of misfits and oddballs on screen, for sure. The comedy-drama “Could Souls” plays on this apparent perception. Giamatti plays “himself,” as he struggles through a production of famous downer “Uncle Vanya.” Through a “New Yorker” article, Giamatti learns of a soul storage business. Naturally, he figures no soul equals more freedom to act. Despite misgivings, he gets de-souled, save 5 percent. In pure irony, his soul ends up smuggled to St. Petersburg, Russia. This is a quirky little movie in line with “Being John Malkovich.” Like any good Russian story, “Cold” spills much suffering. But writer/director Sophie Barthes has enough tricks up her sleeve to make the oddities go down smoothly. The best of the sharp jokes: Giamatti acting indignant when told his soul is less valuable than Al Pacino’s. Giamatti must be the coolest guy on the planet. For real. B+