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 Director
: Martin Scorsese
Starring
: Nicolas Cage, John Goodman, Tom Sizemore, Patricia Arquette,
Ving Rhames, Marc Anthony,
Picture
16:9 Anamorphic, DD 2.0, Single-Side, Single Layer, Keep
Case
Running
Time : 120 mins
The
story:
Any
call can be murder, any stop can be suicide, any night can
be the last. And you thought your job was hell?
Frank
Pierce (Nicolas Cage) is a Manhattan Paramedic, working
graveyard shift in a two-man ambulance team. He's burned
out, exhausted& seeing ghosts, especially a young woman
he failed to save six months' before, and no longer able
to save people: he brings in the dead. We follow him for
three nights, each with a different partner: Larry (John
Goodman), who thinks about dinner, Marcus (Ving Rhames),
who looks to Jesus, and Tom (Tom Sizemore), who wallops
people when work is slow. Frank befriends the daughter of
a heart victim he brings in; she's Mary (Patricia Arquette),
an ex-junkie, angry at her father but now hoping he'll live.
Frank tries to get fired, tries to quit, and keeps coming
back, to work and to Mary, in need of his own rebirth and
to silence the ghosts.
The
summary:
A film that follows 48 hours in the life of a New York paramedic
! I must say I wasn't really looking forward to seeing this
movie. It didn't strike me as a film that really had much
to say. Sadly after watching it I can confirm that it doesn't.
In fact it really is a big screen version of a dark and
dreary docu-soap.
Scorsese
does his best to give us a film about re-birth, A film that
shows however bad things are you can always make amends
and feel good about life again. Sadly I think one of the
major problems is having career Mr Mid Life Crisis, Nicolas
Cage in the title role. It seems to be a very similar role
as his Leaving Las Vegas character, although without the
wit and the sincerity. More than a few times you actually
want to laugh and not because you are meant too. The supporting
cast are very good, with the highlight for me definitely
being Ving Rhames as a mustachioed God Loving medic who
calls every one son and praises Jesus. The story tracks
48 hours in Mr Cages dull existence and another major problem
is that the scenes are just dull. Ok it does set the depressing
mood of the film but it seems that any plausible character
would just leave his job and be done with it, instead of
moaning and trying to get fired all the time. Scorsese steers
us slowly towards a rather tired and drawn out ending and
leaves you wondering what you have just been doing for two
hours. Certainly not one of his better films and not something
that would be a great part of your DVD stock.
The
region 2 edition is about average for sound and picture
and well below average for the abysmal lack of extra's.
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