BRINGING OUT THE DEAD
1999

August 19, 2001
The Movie Channel

In New York City, an overworked ambulance driver heads towards a breakdown over the unremitting horrors of his night shift.

-->Directed…..Martin Scorsese
-->Nicolas Cage
-->Patricia Arquette
-->John Goodman
-->Ving Rhames
-->Tom Sizemore

Nightmarish tale of a weekend in the life of an alcoholic paramedic. Good cast and dreamy direction can’t make it move along any more quickly. Cage is good, Rhames is funny, Sizemore psychotic. As with all Scorsese films, the music is fantastic and loud in almost every scene. New York City has never looked meaner, although Cage seems to have no fear when junkies spray their blood on him or he gives mouth to mouth to street people. I didn’t see him with gloves on at any point. A vocation about which films aren’t usually made. We’re supposed to see how Cage’s past failures on the job reappear as ghosts as he tries to complete his duties. He just seemed a bit wacky to me. Not one of Scorsese’s best films.


10 Ebert
*** Halliwells