Kattiera Nana I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

ChikPapa Very disappointed :(

Asad Almond A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

Darin One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

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.

sharky_55 It's as if someone (and that person is Scorsese himself) threw Taxi Driver into an all-purpose blender, cranked it up to high speed and mushed it all up, splattering and eradicating its hard edge, and spitting out this film. It see the existential and emotional limbo of Nicholas Cage, who is the only actor who could even attempt to approach a line such as "I wash my face with three types of soap, each smelling like a different season" and not burst into giggles halfway through. He works the graveyard city shift in the dead of the night, patrolling the streaky neon-lit streets in a shoddy ambulance and partners who never understand his woes. He might as well be commandeering Charon's ferry through the River Styx; the Manhattan that Scorsese envisions is not glitzy or grand, and the chaos of the streets is extended to the emergency rooms, a nightmare straight out of the frenetic style of ER, less a place of healing and more a war-zone. Frank's uniquely special dilemma is that no one else seems to hoard all the pain and suffering around them like he does, and the ability to see dead people as an afterthought. Larry (an ever jovial John Goodman) treats the work like a temporary job to boost the finances before he starts his own business; it's dirty work that has to be done, never mind the lives ripped apart. Marcus is Ving Rhames straight out of a sitcom - an overzealous preacher type who flirts through the radio dispatch and comically attributes their work to religious miracle. And Tom Wolls seems to be a vampire in disguise, much too bloodthirsty to be in this particular line of work. These partners are more or less played for laughs against the mortal whispers of Frank. In fact, not even the various victims on the murky streets seem to be taking the whole ordeal seriously. In between his girlfriend's cries of agony one man tries unsuccessfully to assert that they are both virgins (even as three baby feet poke out from one end), a group of drugged-up stragglers attempts a prayer circle to will their friend I.B. Bangin back to the cruel life, and the wild-haired Noel has a recurring bit as a hallucinating patient smashing car windows (predictably, these visions are not nearly as heart-stopping as Frank's).All this seems at odds with Frank's worldview, who treats the act of saving lives as a some sort of hedonistic drug and floats along the streets like an angel that can't help but get involved. Cage played a similarly mopey, self-serious character in the abysmal City of Angels, and his voice-over is rife with the same mournful tone and clumsy symbolisms. The cinematography adds a hazy, bloom effect that lights his body up with an angelic glow and has the added effect of well and truly dating this movie as part of the late 90s. Thankfully, it hasn't descended into entire cheese, but there might as well be the dotted outline of a halo hovering above his head. As always, the angel falls to earth and is corrupted by all he sees. The haze lifts and every hallucinogenic and chaotic phenomena is hurtled at Frank and therefore us. Arquette, monotonous and stripped of all emotion in the mourning period, sheds her wool cardigan for...well whatever the drug den whores are all wearing. Frank himself indulges in shots of adrenaline and the devilish riffs of *gasp*, rock and roll. This is classic Scorsese, of course. He can't help but inject a bit of energy into it all, forgetting that he has Nicholas Cage, the king of externalising loneliness (see Leaving Las Vegas) and losing his sensitivity for irony in the midst of all the darkness and terror. We don't really know why the departed want to just be left alone to die and depart for the afterlife except because the plot demands it to strain Frank, and so we can't really empathise with the peace he finds at the end of it all. He seems to be fated to stroll the earth unable to entirely rid it of suffering (see Marcus holding a spotless, healthy baby as if he was in a fertility commercial, then pan to Frank's bloody fetus, which dies at hospital's door) until he isn't.

juneebuggy Remember back when you used to see Nicholas Cage's name attached to a movie and it meant that it would be worth watching. You know, before he started pumping them out just for the paycheck, well this is one of those movies.Pretty brilliant movie actually, that I had forgotten all about until I caught it on TV the other night. Directed by Martin Scorsese this is a definite classic, following Frank a burned out Manhattan paramedic haunted by the ones he didn't save. He is surrounded by the sick and dying in a (1990's) New York that has yet to go through its transformation, so its dark, violent and turbulent.Frank works the graveyard shift with several other barely sane individuals and most nights chaos ensues. Recently he has started seeing ghosts and an ex junkie (Patricia Arquette). This follows him over a 3 night period, each shift with a different partner (John Goodman, Tom Sizemore, Ving Rhames) Some of the scenes are iconic now and I laughed out loud a couple times but this is definitely a dark comedy. 05.13

patrickwigington Martin Scorsese's last film of the 20th century takes place "back in the early 90's" and it serves as an accurate and engrossing portrayal of what that decade was all about. Scorsese created an eclectic, hyperactive, and pulsating movie that is absolutely mesmerizing to watch.The film stars Nicolas Cage, who gives a phenomenal performance as the alcoholic paramedic Frank who's psychological stability long ago slipped away. He drives an ambulance through the streets of a desperate, gritty New York City practically from dusk till dawn. The entirety of the movie happens over the course of a few nights. Frank drives the ambulance like a maniac, but it seems to be the only way to keep the ghosts of the people that have died in his arms away. Frank's partner is Larry, a middle aged family an who serves as a sort of rock for Frank, keeping his psychosis in check. But Larry is only there the first night, and Frank's descent is fast. He meets a girl who's father has had a heart attack, and he falls for her. But it is not as if she can save him; in fact she is probably worse off than he is.Nicolas Cage is excellent as Frank. His performance is certainly over the top, but that is by no means a bad thing. Cage absorbs himself into the character, creating a man who is visibly on the brink of a nervous break down, and who we can easily identify with and understand. John Goodman plays Larry with a subdued and calming aspect that acts as a nice foil for Cage early on. Patricia Arquette gives a subdued and excellent performance as the wounded girl Frank tries to save.The script was written by Paul Schrader, who wrote several other films for Scorsese, including Taxi Driver and The Last Temptation of Christ. Schrader delves deep into the character of Frank, but never reveals too much. We are left with questions that cannot be answered about all of these characters, but we see many of them in their most revealing moments.Scorsese directs this movie with a eccentric fever that he has never replicated. The entire movie is from the point of view of Frank, and so we get a dazed, delirious look at the City and its inhabitants. Scorsese deals with themes of alienation, death, and the crack epidemic all together in one huge lump of insanity, all while maintaining the clearest of storytelling. While a simple description of the plot may make it seem like a subdued and lengthy character study, it is in essence quite different. Scorsese's directing turns the film into a drug induced meditation on life and death.Complete with a soundtrack that includes The Clash, The Who, and The Rolling Stones, Bringing Out the Dead is a forgotten masterpiece of Martin Scorsese. The movie is hypnotic to watch and hard to pull away from once it sucks you into its insane world.thatguythatlikesmovies.blogspot.com/ridingwithdeath