Bad Lieutenant

Whatever Spring weather you're experiencing, you can always count on Tuesday to bring you new DVDs. What's new this week? An intense movie and a TV series that'll take the edge off.

Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans

Nicolas Cage is currently having a mini comeback — just this weekend, he was promoting high-profile projects Kick-Ass and The Sorcerer's Apprentice at Wondercon, but this Winter, he starred in the more serious, more moody Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans.

Cage plays a good cop gone bad on his way down in this gritty, evocative tale, directed by Werner Herzog and set in post-Katrina New Orleans. Eva Mendes stars opposite him as his prostitute girlfriend, while Val Kilmer shows up as a fellow officer. I very much enjoyed this dark trip, which surprised me by being accessible and even funny at times.

The DVD extras include a couple of making-of featurettes and cast interviews.

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Party Down

Starz's original series Party Down was a raunchy, irreverent delight last year. Adam Scott, Ken Marino, Jane Lynch, and Lizzy Caplan star as a group of struggling actors moonlighting as a put-upon wait-staff, and the second season looks to get even funnier when Megan Mullally joins the cast.

The next season starts April 23, so here's your chance to get into the show if you missed it the first time around. The extras include a gag reel, behind-the-scenes footage, and commentaries with Scott and the executive producers.

Nicolas Cage has said, "There's a very fine line between Method actor and schizophrenic." In Werner Herzog's Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans, he teeters that line maniacally, with an ever-increasing slur and crooked swagger. Cage plays Terence McDonagh, a detective in post-Katrina New Orleans investigating a drug-related murder and his personal threshold for cocaine and heroin.

The first news of Bad Lieutenant was puzzling: famously extreme director Werner Herzog re-imagining a 1992 cult movie, also called Bad Lieutenant, but shifting the action to New Orleans and casting Nic Cage in the Harvey Keitel role opposite his Ghost Rider costar Eva Mendes. Weird.

But in fact, Bad Lieutenant is Herzog's second surprisingly accessible movie in as many years, following 2007's Rescue Dawn. And Cage is brilliant in a role seemingly made for him, so read more

Eva Mendes never disappoints with her sleek and sophisticated red carpet ensembles. At the Bad Lieutenant photo call in Venice, the actress radiated in a black-and-white polka-dot dress and fun heels. Her dress is cute enough to stand on its own, but I love how she accessorized with a white watch and skinny belt for extra spunk. Once again, on target and tantalizing.

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