Generoso Fierro (bovineska)

A hooker, coke and heroin infused post Katrina New Orleans crime freak show with Nicolas Cage embodying the spirit of Abel Ferrera's classic tale of a corrupt cop trying to make it all better through the vices that own his life. Here Werner Herzog (?) has let it all go, structure, plot, decency and gave the run of the joint to Cage who is at his best as a man without sense or even a remote idea of normal behavior for a police officer. So very entertaining is Cage's performance I had to remind myself if there were any other actors in this film, there are kind of... Eva Mendes plays a very attractive prostitute who is an even match for Cage in the vice department and Val Kilmer kind of shows up in a couple of scenes to have no real motivation at all. Stereotype abound and this makes N.O. look as close to hell on earth as anyplace could. Does this sound like a mess? It is, but it reminds me of how uptight most crime dramas are these days and if you stop being upright for a minute, how one diseased overacting cop can change it all!

Why has it taken Wes Anderson this long to realize that he needed to make an animated film? With his attention to detail and need for childhood moments in almost every film he has made, it seems liked a natural progression that should've happened sooner. Avoiding all modern effects, the results of a what looks to be a painstakingly large amount of work are very impressive, the facial characterizations alone are a sight to see and one marvels at the time spent creating this work outside of CGI, he is to be commended for that. The vocal acting, specifically that of Clooney and Schwartzman is very good but a tad too much like characters each of them have performed in the past which pulled me out of the film too many times. That said, the rest of the cast does a good job overall. Where I feel that the fault truly lies in the overall feel of the film which veers too many times into Anderson's need for cuteness and away from the dark feelings of Roald Dahl's original book. If more of dire state is created midway through the film, the resulting triumph would feel more jubilant and less smarmy.

My favorite film of all time. Superb translation of the Burgess novel. McDowell is genius. Kubrick is at his best. Still shocking and it should be.

Mitchum, Dougles Greer in a noir directed by Jacques Tourneur (Cat People)..Too much talent for it not to be a complete masterpiece.