If you see this movie alongside Scorsese's similarly themed "Taxi Driver," you have to conclude that the director is not at the height of his powers. In fairness, he is hampered by a terrible screenplay. The overlong movie, a series of events over 3 days in the life of a burnt-out night shift paramedic, plays like 3 episodes of "Cops." There is no dramatic tension, nothing builds. We don't even learn anything about the paramedic, played listlessly by Nicolas Cage, nor is there any development in the character. A would-be romantic interest, played by Patricia Arquette, doesn't pan out and isn't very interesting anyway. Throughout the movie, Cage is haunted by the "ghost" of a young girl whose life he couldn't save. This constant re-appearance (in Cage's imagination, characters sometimes morph into her) is so repetitious that it becomes comical before the long-awaited end of the movie. There is some good nighttime New York imagery by Scorsese and his director of photography, otherwise this movie is a big-time disappointment.
Review of Bringing Out the Dead
