Ambulance

This weekend, Michael Bay (director of Transformer, The Rock, and Armageddon) released his newest film Ambulance. Ambulance, a remake of the Dutch film of the same name, centers around two brothers, Will and Dany, (Jake Gyllenhaal and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) as their attempt to perform a heist at a bank goes wrong. When they can't reach their getaway vehicle, they highjack an ambulance that also contains a paramedic, Cam (Eiza Gonzalez), and a dying police officer (Jackson White). The two brothers must figure out how to outmaneuver the cops chasing them while also preventing the cop in the ambulance from dying.

This movie is probably one of Michael Bay's better films. It handles the premise very well, still managing to have a lot of action even though the majority of the movie is set inside an ambulance. The movie wastes no time getting going, giving about 10-15 minutes to establish the characters and why they are in their situation and then launching into nonstop action for the next two hours. The action consists of a 20-minute action sequence and then launches into a car chase for the next 90 minutes, never really dragging or allowing the audience to get bored. The chase portion is shot very well with some very unique camera angles and directions. The story itself is very straightforward, with not a lot of side plots or different events going on. The film stays focused on the ambulance and what is going on inside. The chemistry between Will, Danny, and Cam is also very good. All three can play off of each other very well. Finally, the movie sets up Will as a very sympathetic character. You can understand why he goes through with the robbery as well as his motivation to keep going during the chase. You can also see the conflict in him during the chase. He understands his mistakes and attempts to help the injured cop but also is conflicted and is driven by desperation by knowing that he needs to continue with the heist to support his family.

However, there are a few problems that keep this movie from being top tier. The main problem is with the drastically shifting tone and misplaced humor. There are jokes just shoehorned into the dialogue that just feel so out of place. It felt like the writers wanted to lighten the mood during the chase, so they just throw random jokes into the dialogue. It causes the movie to give off more of a ridiculous vibe at times than just breaking the tension. Some moments naturally work and do lighten up the mood, but a lot of the jokes just do not fit at all within the context of the tone. The other main issue is the development of Will's character. His actions sometimes just do not match up with his motivation, he will go from being conflicted and wanting to just go home to refusing to back down and stop the ambulance to going back to being conflicted and not wanting to hurt everyone. If he would have just stayed consistent the entire time it would have made his character stronger.

Overall, this is a good high-energy action thriller that gets to the action right away and doesn't let up until the credits roll. This is definitely towards the top of Michael Bay's films.

Score: 7/10 Grade: B

Recommendation: If you are a Michael Bay fan or an action fan, go see it.