Ambulance
After a bank heist, Los Angeles is turned upside down as the FBI and LAPD target a runaway ambulance with a cop inside receiving emergency treatment.
Cam Thompson (Eiza González) is the best paramedic in Los Angeles. She is passionate and dedicated, but above all she knows that speed is of the essence. However, her no-nonsense attitude has won her few admirers in her department and nobody is keen to share her shift. Nonetheless, Danny Sharp (Jake Gyllenhaal) and his brother Will (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) have little choice but to tolerate her help when they hijack her ambulance following a bank heist. Furthermore, they are determined that her patient stays alive as they are none too keen to have the blood of a cop on their hands. The LAPD and the FBI, however, are far less careful with the human cargo of the speeding target in their sights…
If you’re going to see Ambulance, you should really see it on the big screen. It is, after all, a Michael Bay movie. And Michael Bay makes movies, not films. That is, his yarns really do move, propelled by fast cutting, soaring drone shots, intense close-ups and twisting camera moves. This is the director of Bad Boys, Armageddon, Pearl Harbor and The Transformers quintet, after all. From the outset, we know we are in Michael Bay territory. Nobody frames a Los Angeles cityscape like the man, with its steel and glass canyons and reflecting surfaces, and that big orange sun hovering over it all. And the director slips in his visual signature pretty early on: a line-up of figures emerging over a horizon and strolling knowingly towards the camera. Hell, he even name-checks one of his own movies, with a cop paraphrasing Sean Connery in The Rock. You can accuse Michael Bay of many things, but a wilting flower he is not.
This is essentially Speed in an ambulance (not a bus) and it is a testament to the director’s technical acumen that he can keep up the tempo, and this critic gripped, for all of 136 minutes. Bay knows his audience – his films have grossed $7.8 billion worldwide – and here he ratchets up the tension along with a sprinkling of snappy one-liners and flecks of character colour. Of course, the calibre of stuntwork is a given, as is the rich tapestry of visuals, from the fleeting details to the panoramic views of LA. And with the noble presence of Yahya Abdul-Mateen II in the driving seat – literally – and solid turns from Eiza González and Jake Gyllenhaal, he has salted the popcorn with a gratifying human dynamic. In fact, this is probably Michael Bay’s most affecting film, in which big emotions are splayed across the screen between the equally big bangs. Some would say you really get your money’s worth.
JAMES CAMERON-WILSON
Cast: Jake Gyllenhaal, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Eiza González, Garret Dillahunt, Keir O'Donnell, Jackson White, Olivia Stambouliah, Moses Ingram, Colin Woodell, Cedrix Sanders, A. Martinez, Jesse Garcia, Wale Folarin, Devan Chandler Long, Victor Gojcaj, Remi Adeleke, Jessica Capshaw, Brendan Miller, Briella Guiza, Jenn Proske, Kayli Tran, Annabelle Gurwitch.
Dir Michael Bay, Pro Michael Bay, Bradley J. Fischer, James Vanderbilt, William Sherak and Ian Bryce, Screenplay Chris Fedak, Ph Roberto De Angelis, Pro Des Karen Frick, Ed Pietro Scalia, Music Lorne Balfe, Costumes Lisa Lovaas, Sound Erik Aadahl and Ethan Van der Ryn.
New Republic Pictures/Bay Films/Endeavor Content/Project X Entertainment-Universal Pictures.
136 mins. USA. 2022. UK Rel: 25 March 2022. US Rel: 8 April 2022. Cert. 15.
