Bad Lieutenant (1992)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:36
Fresh:27
Rotten:9
Average Rating:6.8/10
Runtime: 1 hr 36 mins
Genre: Dramas
Synopsis: Harvey Keitel stars as a nameless New York cop, hopelessy addicted to drugs, gambling, and sex, in this intense, hallucinatory portrait of sin and redemption by Abel Ferrara. The film follows the... [More]
Starring: Harvey Keitel, Frankie Acciario, Brian McElroy, Peggy Formley
Director: Abel Ferrara
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Reviews for Bad Lieutenant
| Tomatometer | Critic | Review | Category |
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 4/4 |
Ferrara was in the right place at the right time to make Bad Lieutenant. Full Review |
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4/5 |
Keitel's performance is perhaps the needed counterpoint to Christopher Walken's ice-cold overlord in Ferrara's visionary crime opus King of New York Full Review |
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Members of the gutter-al elite will be the sole survivors. Full Review |
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The work of a warped wizard. Full Review |
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3/5 |
Keitel is onscreen for pretty much the entire movie and clearly relishes the opportunity of playing someone not so much teetering on the abyss as leaping off with a grand piano manacled to each ankle. Full Review |
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4/5 |
Quite possibly Ferrara's finest hour, with an almost unbearably sincere performance from Keitel. Full Review |
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A- |
Bad Lieutenant is finally a pulp parable of sin, addiction, and redemption, a movie that, like its subversive hero, revels in the pleasure -- and danger -- of going too far. Full Review |
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Abel Ferrara's uncompromising Bad Lieutenant is a harrowing journey with a corrupt N.Y. cop sinking into the lower depths. Full Review |
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3.5/4 |
Though hardly a film for all sensibilities, Bad Lieutenant has the courage of its own convictions, and follows them to the bitter end. Full Review |
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There's an undeniable formal elegance in the way Ferrara, who coauthored the script with Zoe Lund, frames and holds certain shots, and Keitel certainly gives his all. Full Review |
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5/5 |
The highlight of Ferrara's career--sublime.
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2/5 |
No review available.
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A |
[Ferrara's] crowning achievement. Full Review |
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Ferrara allows his star to dictate the pace, and is rewarded with a performance of extraordinary, terrifying honesty. Full Review |
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0/5 |
No review available.
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3/4 |
Scabrously powerful, the film dives into the addictive psyche, mixing Ferrara's fave elements: sex, drugs, and mayhem. Yet like his other films, it's a morality play about reclaimed sinners desperate for salvation in a world devoid of love and decency. Full Review |
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2/5 |
Slightly disturbing, slightly more boring.
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3/5 |
No review available.
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3/5 |
No review available.
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3.5/5 |
When Abel Ferrara calls something bad, better believe it: he means business. Full Review |
CommentLatest News for Bad Lieutenant
May 27, 2009:
Cage Unleashes Crazy In Bad Lieutenant Trailer
Okay, for everyone lamenting Nicolas Cage's decade-long slide into talent-wasting, hairpiece-abusing blockbuster mediocrity -- this one's for you. Below is the production... More...
October 03, 2008:
Further Reading: Marion Cotillard and Forest Whittaker in Abel Ferrara's Mary
As the NFT in London prepares a Juliette Binoche season, Kim looks at Abel Ferrara's Mary which also stars Marion Cotillard and Forest Whittaker. More...
July 08, 2008:
Herzog's Bad Lieutenant Grows 
Val Kilmer, Fairuza Balk, Jennifer Coolidge, Vondie Curtis Hall, Shawn Hatosy, Denzel Whitaker and Xzibit have joined Nicolas Cage in the cast of Werner Herzog's "update" of Bad... More...
June 16, 2008:
Eva Mendes in Negotiations for Bad Lieutenant
Eva Mendes is in talks to star opposite Nicolas Cage in Werner Herzog's remake/not-a-remake of Bad Lieutenant. More...
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