The Bad Lieutenant: N.O. - why do you think it was a huge flop?

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And I don't believe Nic Cage is a big box office draw

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I completely understand people not liking this movie but Herzog and unhinged Cage was a win for me

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Because it sucked

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a lot of people will not like this movie. But I believe I can provide a handy guide to the type of person who will or won’t.

I illustrate by way of a story: Last week for Halloween, I dressed in a giant penguin suit with a fake mustache, an outfit I thought was pretty self-explanatory. And yet, a significant number of people came up to me throughout the night to ask, “What are you supposed to be?”

I mentioned this to a friend (known to FilmDrunk as Punchface Thunderdog), and he said, “People treat costumes the same way they treat tattoos and Pulp Fiction. ‘OMG the suitcase contained his soul, I totally figured it out LOL!’”

Which is to say, the kind of people who see a tattoo of a dragon farting a rose and immediately ask, “What does this mean?” are probably the same kind of people who expect/demand reductive clarification. They require a simple answer like, “Rosebud is a sled!” or “the dragon queef is a metaphor for my dead father!” That way, they can set the thing aside, and keep their lives simple and orderly. Suffice to say, I suspect that this is the type of person who will not enjoy Bad Lieutenant. But if you’re the type who recognizes a certain brand of absurdity and appreciates it for its own merit (or even sees in it a more intuitive, less academic logic, i.e., because it’s fun)… Well. You, sir or madame, are in luck.

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why do you think it flopped the way it did?

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