| 100 |
Chicago Tribune
Blazes up constantly with a stunning, off-kilter brilliance, an incandescent force that sometimes explodes the space between us and the screen.
|
| 100 |
Chicago Sun-Times
To look at Bringing Out the Dead --to look, indeed, at almost any Scorsese film--is to be reminded that film can touch us urgently and deeply.
|
| 100 |
San Francisco Chronicle
Potentially oppressive subject matter is redeemed by impeccable moral integrity and stunning artistry.
|
| 90 |
Newsweek
Full of bravura moments and high-wire performances.
|
| 90 |
Film.com
Certainly one of his (Scorsese's) most profound works.
|
| 90 |
Rolling Stone
Cage, who gives a blazing, imposive performance, uses his haunted eyes to reveal the emotional scars that Frank can't heal.
|
| 88 |
New York Daily News
It's a slice of life, with all the trimmings, and one of the strongest films of the year.
|
| 88 |
USA Today
In a role as tailor-made for him as the story is for its writer and director, Nicolas Cage anchors the movie with one of his best performances.
|
| 80 |
Chicago Reader
A text that provokes thought more than directs it, which should fascinate new and repeat viewers for a long time.
|
| 80 |
Variety
Achieves a poetic, quasi-religious tone.
|
| 80 |
Time
Like its title -- blunt, thruthful, uncompromising. It is hard on an audience, even harrowing. But that's exactly what Martin Scorsese was put on earth to do.
|
| 80 |
The New York Times
An intense, volatile film full of sorrow and wild, mordant humor.
|
| 78 |
Austin Chronicle
This is Martin Scorsese, and in the end, it's his town, and his show.
|
| 75 |
San Francisco Examiner
An ecstatic sensory experience so overloaded it hardly matters that the narrative has been placed on a back burner.
|
| 75 |
Christian Science Monitor
Equally fascinated by the afflictions of life and the usually squandered opportunities these afford for courage and self-sacrifice.
|
| 75 |
Philadelphia Inquirer
Develops microclimates of mood without fully developing the same shadings of character.
|
| 75 |
New York Post
Downbeat and at times strangely slow-moving despite all its beautifully shot high-speed ambulance rides.
|
| 75 |
Baltimore Sun
Filled with so much heartbreaking beauty, Bringing Out the Dead might be best described as an artist's sketchbook, a series of tableaux and ideas that provide a telling glimpse of a director whose work is always evolving.
|
| 74 |
Mr. Showbiz
Richard T. Jameson
There's talent to burn in this movie. But the flame is cold.
|
| 70 |
Village Voice
The mood is less angst-ridden than hypercaffeinated, as Scorsese keeps cranking the velocity-bloodbath in the reggae inferno, exploding skyline pietà, climactic white light of redemption.
|
| 70 |
TNT RoughCut
Fans of the greatest working film director will be pleased.
|
| 67 |
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Has a certain morbid fascination, but it has no real bite, and finally seems so contrived and pointless it borders on being out-and-out exploitation.
|
| 67 |
Portland Oregonian
Although it tries continually to focus on the heart, it ultimately fails to ignite it.
|
| 67 |
Entertainment Weekly
Works more in your head than on the screen.
|
| 63 |
Boston Globe
While heartfelt and beautifully crafted, Bringing Out the Dead is too freighted with its protagonist's failed savior complex and is surprisingly lacking in primal impact.
|
| 60 |
Dallas Observer
Despite moments of gritty greatness that rival Scorsese's best, the movie is severely hampered by please-everyone syndrome, especially in the editing and choice of music.
|
| 60 |
LA Weekly
(Cage's) performance feels embalmed in the accumulated shtick of an actor trapped in excess.
|
| 50 |
Miami Herald
A relentless descent into a psychedelic hell, a rambunctious feel-bad epic.
|
| 50 |
Los Angeles Times
Dances on the edge of flat-lining just like the DOAs that are Frank's stock-in-trade.
|
| 50 |
Washington Post
Doesn't pack the punch of Schrader and Scorsese's career-best collaborations ("Raging Bull," "Taxi Driver").
|
| 50 |
Film.com
We don't really care about this everyman's moral dilemna and spiritual crisis because -- for all the poetic insights he offers in his philosophical voice-over -- he never transcends the details to become an engrossing character.
|
| 50 |
Film.com
Doesn't seem to have anything to say.
|
| 50 |
Salon.com
Curiously and disappointingly lethargic.
|
| 40 |
TV Guide
Falls far short of its grim potential.
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