Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans

Werner Herzog harnesses the craziness of Nicolas Cage for this crime thriller set in post-Katrina New Orleans. In Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans, Cage plays a cop who's hooked on prescription drugs after an injury, and he soon goes off the rails, smoking crack, fornicating in public and doing all sorts of other insane things and reeling off lines like "you don't have a lucky crack pipe?" and "Shoot him again. His soul's still dancing." Eva Mendez co-stars as a prostitute and Cage's love interest.

With rave reviews from festival appearances in Venice and Toronto, it's a movie that is destined to be a cult classic, much like an earlier Bad Lieutenant -- the 1992 version directed by Abel Ferrara and starring Harvey Keitel. Though Herzog denies that his Bad Lieutenant is a remake or has anything to do with the earlier film, Ferrara is not convinced. "As far as remakes go, I wish these people die in Hell," Ferrara has been quoted as saying. "I hope they're all in the same streetcar, and it blows up."

Both directors were at July's Venice film festival, and Herzog hoped they could have a drink together, but I doubt that fateful meeting of two huge egos ever happened. After all, planet Earth is still here.

After being the opening film of the recent Bangkok International Film Fetival, Bad Lieutenant is playing at SF cinemas. It's rated 20+ -- the first 20+ to get a commercial release under Thailand's new ratings system. ID checks are supposed to mandatory.

Sam Phan Boke (The Sanctuary)

Pairote "Mike B" Boongerd stars in Sam Phan Boke as the descendant of an ancient race of guards sworn to protect a lost ancient royal treasure. Hong Kong actor Russell Wong is a mercenary, hired by an American mobster to steal the artefacts. Intira Charoenpura is an archaelogist who helps Mike B's character while May Pathawarin Timkul is a deadly assassin who can kill with just her beautiful scowl.

There's some pretty cool action happening. Check the trailer.

Sam Phan Boke (referring to 3,000 royal umbrellas), aka The Sanctuary, has been kicking around in development since 2006, when it was initiall called Dead End. Funding fell through and Mike B. -- who was a stuntman in Tony Jaa's Ong-Bak in 2003 -- took a break to make Brave, a Malaysian co-production. Director Thanapon Maliwan (who's dad used to produce low-budget action movies for Tony Jaa's mentor Panna Rittikrai) meanwhile rescued Dead End, and renamed it The Sanctuary, bringing in Hong Kong heavyweight Wong plus action actors Gary Daniels and Dean Alexandrou. It's Rated 13+.

Also opening

The Ugly Truth -- Katherine Heigl is a control-freak TV producer who can't hold down a relationship. She is mismatched with Gerard Butler, a chauvinistic TV personality who is always spoiling for war in the battle of the sexes. This sometimes raunchy and baudy romantic comedy is rated 18+.

Fame -- Young director and dance enthusiast Kevin Tancharoen helms this slicked-up, watered-down remake of the gritty 1980 Alan Parker classic about students at a New York performing-arts school.

Acid Factory -- In this new-release Bollywood thriller, five men wake up to find themselves locked in a claustrophobic nowhere land of a factory. What they are all doing there is revealed little by little. At 8 on Friday and Saturday and 4 on Sunday at Grand EGV Siam Discovery. Visit www.BollywoodThai.com or call (02) 225 7500 or (089) 488 2620.

Also showing

Bollywood Film Festival -- Bollywood Thai Entertainment and Major Cineplex join for the first Bollywood Film Festival in Bangkok, bringing in seven recent hits of Hindi-language cinema. Highlights include the song-and-dance filled box-office record breaker Om Shanti Om as well as the lavish historical epic Jodha Akbar with Aishwarya Rai Bachchan. The others are Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi (romantic comedy), Kaminey (crime thriller), Rock On (rock 'n' roll drama), New York (drama set in fateful 2001) and Luck By Chance (romantic comedy). Showtimes are at 7 on weeknights and 1.20, 4.20 and 7.20 on Saturdays and Sundays. Check my earlier post or the schedule at Bollywood Thai.

Wake Up Sid -- This comedy about a young-man slacker who gets a wake-up call is back for one more screening at 4 on Sunday at Grand EGV Siam Discovery. Visit www.BollywoodThai.com or call (02) 225 7500 or (089) 488 2620.

Take note

It was 39 years ago this week -- today actually -- that movie star Mitr Chaibuncha died in a fall from a helicopter while filming a stunt for for his last movie, Insee Tong (Golden Eagle). He was 36 years old and had appeared in around 266 films. On Saturday, the Film Archive in Salaya, Nakhon Pathom, remembers Mitr with a day of activities running from 9.30 to 12.30 and 2 to around 4.30. It's a special commemoration this year because director Wisit Sasanatieng has started filming a reboot of Mitr’s famous Insee Dang (Red Eagle) series, with Ananda Everingham stepping into Mitr’s shoes, portraying the masked vigilante hero. They expected to on hand for the afternoon session, which will include a 39-minute show reel of clips from Mitr's popular movies.

Next month, the 7th World Film Festival of Bangkok will unspool about 100 features and shorts over 10 days at Paragon Cineplex. Festival director Victor Silakong has put together a killer line-up. It opens with a stunning-looking new Thai indie drama, Mundane History, by Anocha Suwichakornpong. The highlights include a Retrospective on Swiss director Alain Tanner, with six of his classic films from the '60s to the '80s. The closing film will be a fun time -- Rocksteady: The Roots of Reggae in a free open-air screening at Siam Discovery. The World Film Festival of Bangkok runs from November 6 to 15.

Lots of great movies playing in Bangkok cinemas right now, even without film festivals. The sci-fi aliens apartheid thriller District 9 is still hovering and Hayao Miyazaki's imaginative Ponyo on the Cliff By the Sea has not yet set sail. Both have lots of showtimes at the Lido in Siam Square. Quentin Tarantino's WWII romp Inglourious Basterds is still at the Lido and adds showtimes this week at House on RCA. And there's Pedro Almodovar's and Penelope Cruz' Broken Embraces at Paragon Cineplex until Wednesday. After that, it's supposed to move over to the Apex circuit.