The Bad Lieutenant (Werner Herzog, 2009)

Or to give it it's full name The Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call - New Orleans

What's it about? Nicolas Cage plays a detective investigating a multiple homicide in post-Katrina New Orleans. Things are somewhat complicated by his painkiller addiction, his coke habit, his spiralling gambling debts and his volatile prostitute girlfriend. Oh, and by the iguanas.

Is it any good? A quite enjoyable mix of black comedy and crime drama, if a bit strange at times. Nicolas Cage's hangdog/manic schtick is effective rather than irritating, the detective story is fine and it throws in a number of odd little moments, like a soul break-dancing, the alligator's POV shot and the iguanas, of course.

Anything else I should know? It's a sort of remake of Abel Ferrera's Bad Lieutenant, in which Harvey Keitel played a darker character battling with drink, drugs, gambling and good old Catholic guilt. So it's the same, but different. Ferrara said the makers of the new film should die in hell, although Herzog claims he never actually watched the original and, aptly enough, reckoned they could all be friends if they sat down for a chat with a bottle of whiskey.

What does the Fonz think? Iguanas. Oh yeah!

Buy it on Amazon