Ambulance (2022)

[Eric Duncan]

 

[baumer]

Everything you could want from a Michael Bay movie.  Sweet in parts, blood soaked in others and lots of mayhem and action.  Not up there with Armageddon and some of the better Transformers films, but really satisfying.

 

8/10

[filmlover]

Completely nonsensical, wholly unoriginal (if you've ever wondered what Speed would've looked like if Michael Bay directed it, this is the answer), and about 30 minutes too long, but the director's trademarked hyperkinetic style allows for plenty of tension, while fine performances from Jake Gyllenhaal (somehow going even more over the top than when he played a Spider-Man villain), Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, and Eiza Gonzalez allow the chaos to play out smoothly. B-

[Webslinger]

Ambulance is exactly what one would expect based on its “bank robbers hijack an ambulance” premise and Michael Bay’s position as director: a big, dumb action movie with bombast and visual and aural panache to spare. Whether that description is a compliment or a condemnation comes down to the viewer’s tolerance for Bayhem: for those who dismiss it out of hand, this film will not convert them; but for those who can at least sometimes get on board with Bay’s brand of madness, it’s pretty fun. It runs too long and sidelines some potentially interesting character development in favor of more generic story beats, but the kinetic action sequences are deeply engaging and consistently fun to watch. Bay captures the action so effectively that the narrative remains fairly gripping even though it’s ultimate trajectory isn’t that hard to guess well ahead of time. The talented cast provides a big assist in grounding the narrative to some extent (as grounded as an action-driven film with this kind of premise can be, anyway). Jake Gyllenhaal is clearly having a great time playing up the unhinged nature of his character, though he finds time to squeeze some little moments of humanity into his big performance. Yahya Abdul-Mateen II does stellar work as the adopted brother who had tried to go on the straight-and-narrow, bringing greater depth to what could have just been a stock role. Eiza González gives the best performance in the film as the dedicated paramedic forced into this mess, though there is a sense that she doesn’t get as much screen time as she should for her character’s importance in the narrative. Behind solidly entertaining action sequences and enough grounding to balance out the ridiculousness with some effective pathos, Ambulance is a fun time and by far the most satisfying film Michael Bay has made since Pain & Gain almost a decade ago.
 

B

[MOVIEGUY]

Pretty good, dumb fun. Should've been about 90 minutes though cause that's when I was ready for it to be over.

 

Also some of the drone shots in this were legit making me laugh. Like why are we flying around  some random skyscraper only to fly across the street to the building where the characters are at? It's like having an establishing shot of a building, then the camera suddenly whips over to a building across the street, like "jk story's actually over here, GOT YOU"

Edited October 25, 2022 by MOVIEGUY