Mayor Giuliani would like us to believe that New York has been magically transformed into Oz, but we know better, don't we folks? Although there have been some magnificent improvements(it's cleaner and safer than it was at the time of this film...the early '90s,) New York is still closer to Dante's "seven circles of hell, " than it is to Disneyworld! Martin Scorsese takes us on a tour of one of these "circles"...the world of night-shift paramedics. Nicolas(totally burned out)Cage, and his notoriously untalented wife, Patricia Arquette, are two of the denizens of this world. Beautifully photographed;cleverly-directed;and well-acted by most of the actors(especially Cage, Ving Rhames, Tom Sizemore and Marc Anthony), this is still one of the most thoroughly depressing films that I've ever seen. If I enjoyed anything about this film, it was the enjoyment of watching HOW it was crafted. Then I went home and took a shower!

In the latest film from Martin Scorsese, Nicholas Cage plays a burned out paramedic working the graveyard shift in New York City. Cage is repeatedly haunted by visions of a young girl whom he couldn't save months earlier and all the while the movie is stolen away from him by terrific performaces by the three men who seem to take turns as his partner: John Goodman, Ving Rhames and Tom Sizemore. All three more than make up for the personality that Cage's character lacks (prediction: Rhames to get a best supporting nomination). The movie does have some entertaining moments and some really interesting visual techniques were used but the story is really just boring, depressing and repetitive. Oh, and this film would like to have you believe that every paramedic is a psyhcopath just on the brink of total madness... very comforting.