Review of Asphalt City

Well, it took me THREE attempts to get all the way through watching this without triggering my PTSD. Thinking this was just an updated version of Bringing Out The Dead, and was I wrong. Sean Penn and Tye Sheridan are essentially playing two versions of the same character: a neophyte paramedic (Sheridan) out to save the harsh New York City world from its ills and the seasoned, burned out veteran (Penn) he is destined to become. Unlike BOTD, there is no dark humor to balance Frank Pierce's (Nicholas Cage) self-destruction, no outlandish urban legends brought to life on the silver screen. A few years ago, then-mayor Bill DeBlasio was quoted justifying why NYC pays its paramedics so poorly compared to their firefighting brethren by stating "their work is different!" Different, indeed, and the cost it takes on our souls has no dollar value.