Nicolas Cage has an annoyingly inconsistent acting history. We’ve seen the good (Raising Arizona, Con Air) and the bad (National Treasure, The Wicker Man). Sometimes prejudging his films is unavoidable. With a title like Bad Lieutenant you can’t help but think the worst. Thankfully director Werner Herzog has definitely brought out the good again in Cage.

Terrance McDonagh (Cage) is a New Orleans cop with roguish tendencies which spiral out of control after he injures his back on duty. McDonagh struggles to keep on top of things - his drug habit, the dysfunctional relationship with hooker Frankie (Eva Mendes) and his ever increasing gambling debts. As well as this McDonagh heads an investigation into the murder of a Senegalese family, which seems to only serve as an inconvenience to McDonagh, whose main concern is when or how he will get his next hit.

As McDonagh spends most of the film zonked on a cocktail of drugs the plot darkens and becomes surreal and somewhat comical. The random iguanas and a break dancing soul of a dead gangster are the highlights. Herzog definitely has room to play around as Cage stumbles from one place to another leaving a trail of chaos in his wake. Everything that follows in this film is unexpected and ridiculous but in such a way that you can’t help but laugh.

Using his badge as a key to the city McDonagh gets what he wants when he wants and at whatever cost. McDonagh is definitely a law unto himself and despite his risky deeds he still lands on his feet with quite humorous and disbelieving results.

Cage steals the show and is the perfect anti-hero. Val Kilmer’s character of cop partner Stevie is all but forgotten and Mendes is dragged along for the ride. Jennifer Coolidge stands out in the little screen time she has as Genevieve (McDonagh’s father’s drunken wife).

Werner Herzog’s first major American film stands alone as a surreal cop thriller and bears no comparison to Abel Ferrara’s 1992 film of the same name.

All puns surrounding the word bad have now been thrown in the bin…