If you’re in hurry to see “Bringing Out The Dead,” slow the truck down.

Martin Scorsese, whose resume boasts the critically acclaimed “GoodFellas,” “Cape Fear” and “Casino,” fails to live up to his reputation on his latest project, “Bringing Out The Dead.”

One thing that all Scorsese films have in common, including this one, is good acting. Nicolas Cage and Patricia Arquette, along with a handful of other supporting characters, put on interesting performances.

Cage is Frank Pierce, an alcohol-loving ambulance driver who lives in the heart of New York City in the early ’90s, before the city began to undergo its face lift.

Everyday Frank works, he becomes more and more depressed because he hasn’t saved a life in a long time — a feeling of incompetence that won’t go away.

“Bringing Out The Dead” follows Frank’s life for 56 hours (two days and three nights).

One night on the job, he meets and takes a liking to a woman named Mary (Arquette) while trying to save her father’s life.

During Frank’s talks with Mary, she hints about a messed up past but never elaborates, leaving the audience wondering what her deal is.

Over the course of the film, Frank and Mary have a number of different encounters, usually weird and leading nowhere.

Ving Rhames, John Goodman and Tom Sizemore do a great job of adding humor to the flick with their outrageous personalities, sometimes causing the mellow Frank to sit and stare at them, wondering what is going through their heads.

One thing Frank describes as part of the job is seeing ghosts. He sometimes sees the faces of people who have died in his arms on the faces of other people. The person Frank has been seeing lately is a woman named Rose. But the story behind her is unknown until late in the movie.

Frank is constantly on the brink of insanity. His job, loss of sleep and his life in general leave him looking for more and latching on to Mary.

There are times in “Bringing Out The Dead” that are very confusing, like when Frank suddenly hears the thoughts of Mary’s father asking Frank to kill him or when he walks down the street messed up on some sort of drug. The whole ending in general will confuse you as well.

Probably the biggest problem in the movie is the lack of plot. Sure, it’s all about Frank’s life and how he needs to save himself along with saving others, but there just isn’t enough substance to call it a movie.

This causes the film to wander from time to time, failing to keep the audience interested.

Cage does almost too good of a job playing a character who is so confused, depressed and strung out that you never know what he will do next.

Arquette is good but not wonderful. Her character was dark enough to have been acted better and made more believable.

While “Bringing Out The Dead” has a dark feel and a bit of a correlation to Scorsese’s “Taxi Driver,” it is not the type of movie to attend in hopes of major entertainment.

Those who like Cage can check this out, but be prepared for a whole different side of him (the makeup artist is amazing).

This film is not the best from Scorsese or Cage, it is only worthy of a video rental. But with such big names involved, you’ll probably ignore this review and see it anyway.

HH 1/2

Ratings based on a HHHHH scale.

Kyle Moss is a sophomore in journalism and mass communication from Urbandale.