Renowned German director Werner Herzog’s latest film, Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans, is getting a lot of attention as a manic parody of the original. Some are even comparing it to the potentially glorious train wreck Snakes on a Plane. Given the odd circumstances of the production, that might not be too far off.

An independent and guerilla filmmaker, Herzog is widely celebrated for his influential films like Aguirre: The Wrath of God and Stroszek. He has built a career by telling the stories of characters with strong wills who often fall off the edge of madness. Lately he has been turning out documentaries on the subject, focusing more on the spiritual rather than literal truth of the matter. And now he has teamed up with Nicolas Cage, a big Hollywood star whose abilities some would call into question, to do a remake for a gritty violent opus he has never even seen. Understandably, some of his fans are fearing the worst while still others are hoping for it in a so-bad-it’s-good kind of way.

This mocking take on the 1992 Bad Lieutenant doesn’t begin to address what Herzog adds. He claims he was drawn to the dark story, but in usual fashion has no qualms about abandoning the script entirely. The film is littered with scenes that stand alone as powerful, hilarious and possibly even meaningful. One scene from the trailer is better in full form: Nicolas Cage as Terrence—the bad lieutenant—all coked up and cracked out, demands his lackeys “shoot him again, his soul is still dancing.”

The harmonica folk song “Old Lost John” by Sonny Terry plays over this exuberant, manic and mesmerizing scene just as it did for Herzog in the much-talked-about conclusion of Stroszek.

Despite the plethora of clichés, the story structure under Herzog remains unfettered by convention. It has what at times appear to be characteristic climbs and falls, but they are treated with little consideration. The major conflicts and plot lines are all familiar, but strange and unexpected things happen along the way to disrupt the continuity of effect on the audience.

On a smaller scale, Herzog still pays the price for derivative, uninspiring material. Terrence’s superhuman abilities—not the least of which is getting away with any and everything—do raise a few questions, but just as often, they provoke a simple smile.

Herzog is comfortable with the subjective and supernatural. He uses them as more than mere metaphors for the literal struggles of power and morality taking place within Terrence. He uses them to peer behind the veil and show us the truth we’d never imagined was there.  Behind the tired devices, plot holes and Cage’s dizzying performance, we find what Herzog must have seen when he signed on to the project. To define it might kill it, but it’s definitely something. It’s fun, for one, and if there isn’t some meaning present, there’s something that resembles it very closely.

Between the cheesy writing, the showy casting and Herzog’s uncanny ability to inject a level of authenticity, Bad Lieutenant becomes more than a parody. It is a masterful deconstruction of the genre.

At least as much fun as Snakes on a Plane, it is so much more in every other respect. It deserves the same consideration as the classic films that made Herzog famous.