It's no secret that Werner Herzog's films defy all conventions, even those established by art-house genres. Have you ever craved a movie with lizards, crocodiles, crime and breakdancing? "Bad Lieutenant" delivers all three and much, much more.

As in that other "Bad Lieutenant" film (Abel Ferrara's original, which Herzog claims he's never seen), the main character is a corrupt good-gone-bad cop. This time, the titular lieutenant is Terence McDonagh (Nicholas Cage), a New Orleans ace detective who spirals into a life of drug addiction, hysteria and hallucinations after injuring his back during a daring post-Katrina rescue. He spends his leisure time with prostitute girlfriend Frankie (Eva Mendes), but the film's main focus is his investigation of the drug-related murder of a Senegalese immigrant family. He eventually gets directly involved with local drug kingpin Big Fate (Xzibit), and things get more and more heated as the investigation goes on.

What sounds like a somewhat typical crime thriller is anything but. Herzog puts his own spin on the clichéd genre with strange, hilarious results. Cage's personality teeters precariously between slightly disturbed and batshit insane throughout the film. Calm one minute, torturing old people in a nursing home the next, Cage's performance as Terence is one of his best in recent memory. Mendes fairs well as Frankie, though she is somewhat unmemorable. The same can be said for Xzibit, who gives a surprisingly decent performance, but is ultimately lost in the shadows of Cage's insanity.

Cage's hallucinations tend to appear on the job and are usually lizard-based; the most memorable ones involve rainbow iguanas and crocodiles featured in extended close-up and set to music. The surreal parts of the film reach their pinnacle during a final shootout where Cage declares, "Shoot him, his soul's still dancing." No one sees anything, but Cage sees the guy breaking it down on the floor, and shoots him once again to make him stop.

This volatile mix of genre filmmaking and surrealism makes "Bad Lieutenant" a bit difficult to follow at times, and it all becomes a little too much to deal with towards the end. It wraps up quite well though, in a way that's both cathartic and brilliantly subversive. "Bad Lieutenant" is its own breed of monster. No genre can classify it.

Thomas Sullivan is a staff writer.