"[The film was] directed by Werner Herzog, a filmmaker and documentarian with a gleeful affinity for the aberrant....Rather than a conventional remake, it's a whole new take on the 1992 cult classic BAD LIEUTENANT..."
Wall Street Journal

"As Cage's Lieutenant Terence McDonagh roams the Katrina-ravaged Big Easy, Herzog doesn't so much direct him as hit his detonator."
Rolling Stone

"[T]his BAD LIEUTENANT is its own special fever-swamp of a movie, an anarchist film noir that seems, at times, almost as unhinged as its protagonist."
New York Times

4 stars out of 4 -- "No one is better at this kind of performance than Nicolas Cage....He and Herzog were born to work together."
Chicago Sun-Times

"Herzog has done well by noir too, giving us exactly what he should -- crime, corruption, sarcasm, sex, sleaze and shadows all through the glass darkly."
Los Angeles Times

"BAD LIEUTENANT doesn't go where you expect, but it has a stubborn, trippy logic. Herzog stages the film as a modern noir..." -- Grade: A-
Entertainment Weekly

4 stars out of 5 -- "It's an intuitive, fearless performance that reminds you what a phenomenal actor Cage can be....Herzog delights in piercing holes through the conventional rotes of police procedurals..."
Total Film

"The most interesting aspect of the film is the way in which it shows family ties linking different levels of society, with virtually every character citing, rejecting or accepting familial obligations..."
Sight and Sound