bowmanblue Sometimes you can watch a film and see that all the pieces are there and yet there's still something not quite right about it. 'Bringing Out the Dead' stars Nicholas Cage (while he was still highly-bankable at the Box Office) as a New York ambulance driver who's on the brink of burning out completely. He's seemingly lost the ability to sleep (properly) and turned to various substances to get himself through his - increasingly dangerous - nightshifts.Now, back in 1999 when this film was released, Cage was pretty much at the top of his game and you could guarantee that he'd put in a good performance, especially under an equally great director. Here we have none other than Martin Scorsese at the helm who is more than capable at keeping hold of Cage's reigns and making sure he doesn't do that 'over the topness' he sometimes slips into. The premise is great and there's plenty of scope for the story and characters to evolve. The films sports an equally impressive supporting cast including Patricia Arquette, Ving Rhames and John Goodman. So, baring all that in mind, it's hard to see that anything could go wrong with it.I certainly don't hate 'Bringing Out the Dead.' I just feel that with that much talent at its disposal it should be a lot better than it is. The actors and direction are amazing, but where it falls down is a general lack of focus as to where the story is going and what genre the film wants to be. It flips from everything from romantic comedy to gritty drama almost every other scene and even flirts with the possibility of a supernatural element (loosely). There's not an awful lot of motivation for the supporting cast and they just seem to do things to provide Cage with something bad/dramatic to react to. The films plays out like a string of sketches/mini episodes that are loosely strung together by the flimsy of narratives.If you're a fan of Cage and/or Scorsese, this is a 'must watch.' However, some may get a little tired with waiting for something to happen.

FlickFlip This is a film based off atmosphere. You legitimately feel Frank's stress and how tiring being a NY medic can be. The film slowly tires you in a way not different from having the job. The comedy from the film comes from the other medics played by John Goodman, Ving Rhames, and Tom Sizemore and their interactions with Cage. A few other comedic scenes include I.B. Banging, worst suicide attempt ever, and "Hold this or I won't kill you!". It really feels more like a David Fincher film than Martin Scorsese. Perhaps it's just the look, but I am serious. Some scenes do well portray the hardship of death to a medic. There is some supernatural element which is strangely enticing. Check it out.

Dailey Okay, that may be too harsh, as I've seen a lot of truly terrible films at film festivals, but this has spoiled me on Scorcese -- making me wonder if he's actually got talent, or just makes films with violence and top-notch crew and scripts, so that it comes together. Is he just a guy who made two films that established him as a "visionary" in people's minds, so that he gets tons of top talent joining with him, the best scripts, etc. This film made this questions come to the forefront, because this seems truly to be his "vision" also -- and it's not a good picture. Shots are not artistic; editing is clunky; direction of actors is clumsy; story has no direction or emotional investment. I really don't think this is worth the couple hours out of your life.

chaos-rampant This could have been something special, one of the great metaphors in cinema. A vehicle for us to hurl through the night of suffering, where life is transient and we learn to let go of our clinging.The movie is halfway this anyway. We ride the ambulance through the electric night of New York, ferrying back and forth from the outskirts of life broken humans who plead to us with their miseries. There are some inspired visions of this itinerant life, of the homeless sleeping where they may and haggard-looking individuals walking the pavements automaton-like, but they are too glossy for me to really register. Mere studio recreations that fail to give the impression of a life caught unawares.It's a great touch that the depressed paramedic who is our guide through this must learn to be detached from the suffering he remedies, ready to offer his helping hand but not be dismayed when that hand is refused by death. How instead of jumping in the quicksand of suffering to save others, we must learn to draw them to our safe ground.But the film is unawares of what transpires in it, and halfway through becomes a deranged comedy, played to the pounding grooves of Motown. Having missed the opportunity to create a spiritual work that matters, after this initial disappointment, it's to the movie's credit then that it does not become a mere banal lesson in humanity. As our protagonist loses it, the movie revels in the opportunity for insanity.That we get all this by the hand of Scorsese, a filmmaker with a vested interest in cinematography, only makes me think of how this could be done better, longer and more cinematic. For ostensibly bleak material, this is strangely watchable however.