Ambulance

Whenever I watch a Michael Bay film I often think of Nigel Tufnel’s amps that go to eleven in This is Spinal Tap. That is Michael Bay’s directing, taking the standard bombastic action-movie ten and always adding an eleven. For his latest movie Ambulance he unleashes “Bayham!”. Loosely based on a 2005 Danish film by the same name,  Michael Bay just decided to make the most Michael Bay film ever and may have found a new volume for his amp.

Will Sharp (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) is a former Marine, but after serving his country he is having trouble getting his insurance to pay for a surgery his wife needs. Having exhausted all his options, Will meets up with his brother Danny (Jake Gyllenhaal) to borrow the money. Danny though has a proposition for Will, help him with this job he has planned and he and his family will never have to worry about money again. The job is a bank robbery and while Will is not about that life, desperate times call for desperate measures and Will agrees to help. Things go wrong and soon Danny and Will find themselves trying to escape an army of cops, in the process they hijack an ambulance. Inside is Cam Thompson (Elza González ), who as an EMT is about to face her biggest challenge while trying to save a patient. What follows is a high speed chase through the streets of L.A. told through spectacular drone shots and camera movements that make you feel the rollercoaster of  Bay film. All of this of course is a formula to get your pulse racing and with the help of some crisp editing and sound you feel in your bones, Ambulance will hold your attention and senses as long as the chase continues.

Written by Chris Fedak, Laurites Munch-Petersen and Lars Andreas Pedersen, (the latter responsible for the Danish film) don’t really make a case that words matter much in a Michael Bay film as the action speaks loud enough to cover the character’s intentions. Gyllenhall, Abdul-Mateen II, and González are all a perfect fit for their roles and keep you invested throughout the film. Bay does keep his hero worshiping going but this time rather than it be a cop or the military, it is the EMT played by González that is given the time to shine.

Ambulance is an impressive feat in many ways. Bay skips his usual CGI overkill and instead stages good old fashioned practical stunts that make you long for those days of genuine burned rubber and chaotic collisions. There are lots of car crashes here and ‘splosions aplenty, plus being this is a Michael Bay film, all of them look great. While I did enjoy what I was seeing, it does drag a bit in parts as you can see a really strong 100 minute movie in there. Ambulance feels like the best of Michal Bay all in one movie with a little Unstoppable thrown in for good measure and I am completely there for that combination. He also proves you don’t need popular IP or a bunch of over-done visual effects to pull a crowd in to have a good time. I didn’t know how I would feel about this movie, but as soon as it was over I remembered what I loved about 90’s Bay films, before he was sucked into a mess of Mark Wahlberg battling CGI bots.