When I first heard director Werner Herzog and Nicolas Cage were going to make a remake/re-imagining /reboot of Abel Ferrara’s insane 1992 film Bad Lieutenant, I’ll admit I wasn’t excited.  For some reason I thought they’d fuck it up or the movie would be another Nicolas Cage performance where he was just going through the motions

I couldn’t have been more wrong.   The fact is, Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans is a great movie featuring one of Nicolas Cage’s best performances.  He’s absolutely fearless; it’s like he stepped back in time to when he was an up-and-coming actor with nothing to lose.  If you want to see a great performance, you need not go any further Nicolas Cage’s latest role.

So when I sat down to talk with director Werner Herzog, we discussed how he got involved, working with Cage, how he shot a lot of the movie using just a few takes, what he has coming up, and with this being Werner Herzog, he said some quotes that must be heard.  It’s a great interview with a filmmaker I truly admire.  Watch it after the jump:

While brothers Gabe and Alan Polsky launched Polsky Films three years ago, they’ve been very busy.  In a very short amount of time they got their first movie made, Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans, and they’re developing biopics of Albert Einstein and Sigmund Freud, as well as an adaptation of Flowers For Algernon.  They’ve also got Sam Mendes attached to direct an adaptation of Butcher’s Crossing for Focus Features.  So while they might be new to the industry, they’re clearly aiming to be around for awhile.

With Bad Lieutenant getting ready for release this weekend, I recently got to sit down with the brothers for an extended conversation on where they came from, how they got into the business, how Bad Lieutenant came together and what was it like on set, what other projects they’re working on, and could there be more Bad Lieutenant’s in other cities.  It’s a great conversation with these two rising producers.  Watch it after the jump:

Film as character study is always an interesting proposition.  Cinema, as a whole, is such a plot-centric art form that to succeed when otherwise requires especially fine crafting.  Not that brainless big-budget studio fare consisting solely of story and nothing else is ever very good-those other elements are definitely necessary to create a great film-but even most quality character-driven movies still have some degree of story, even if it plays second fiddle to the character relationships.  But a true, well-executed character study in which story means next to nothing is rare. Bad Lieutenant is just such a film. Read my review after the jump:

Okay, well clearly this trailer for Werner Herzog’s remake/sequel of Abel Ferrara’s “Bad Lieutenant” wasn’t supposed to go online.

While I’m still not sure if it will be able to match the insanity of Ferrara’s original, it’s sure as shit going to try.  This time the “plot” (as much plot as their appears to be in this complete breakdown of a character’s psyche) doesn’t revolve around the rape of a nun but in trying to track down a homicide witness played by…Xzibit.  If this movie makes a “Yo Dawg, I herd you like…” reference, I will love it forever.

But it doesn’t look like it will need that kind of insanity because Nic Cage definitely has it covered.  It’s also a much better “Ghost Rider” reunion between Cage and Eva Mendes than the wholly unnecessary “Ghost Rider 2″ could ever provide.

Check out this unofficial trailer after the jump.