After what seems like several years of hiatus from his original, high-concept, stylistic action films (6 Underground was his last in 2019), Michael Bay gives audiences a ride to remember with the high-speed chase thriller Ambulance.
The director, who is known for gratuitous explosions, innovative camera angles, and transformers, seems to infuse all his favorite filmmaking techniques into one hell of a ride.
The film follows Danny (Jake Gyllenhaal) and Will Sharp (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) as the two estranged brothers hijack an ambulance as their getaway car from a bank heist that’s gone awry. While hijacking the ambulance, they also take two hostages: EMT, Cam Thompson (Eiza Gonzalez) and wounded police officer Zack (Jackson White) –who Cam is trying to keep alive all while Danny is dodging the police in an epic high-speed chase through the streets of Los Angeles.
Will is a veteran who desperately needs money for his wife’s surgery. When the VA denies his claim, he turns to Danny, his career criminal, and bank-robbing brother, to help him pull off a $32 million bank robbery.
Chasing them is rugged LAPD cop Captain Monroe (Garret Dillahunt) and posh FBI Agent Anson Clark (Kevin O’Donnell), and what seems to be the rest of law enforcement in the greater Los Angeles area.
<iframe width="753" height="480" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/tFWOyZNHjX8" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>There’s also an emotional layer that adds entertainment value. Not only is a former soldier trying to get money for his wife’s surgery so they can continue to care for their newborn baby, but there’s also the element of brotherhood between Will and Danny. The fact that they know if they stop, they will likely die adds both suspense and intensity to the plot.
Screenwriter Chris Fedak does a tremendous job adapting Laurits Munch-Petersen’s 2005 Dutch thriller, both Gyllenhaal and Abdul-Mateen deliver stellar performances as they carry the entire film on their shoulders. Gyllenhaal brings a certain charisma as a dashing career criminal. While Mateen and Gonzalez perform invasive and graphic surgery to help save the police officer in the back of the ambulance during the epic chase.
Bay also goes all-in with some pretty epic drone shots which follow the ambulance chase through the city. Flying up and down buildings and all over the city, it’s a full-on visual spectacle. And we are here for it! Every shot is executed in the most intense way possible, so we must give kudos for that. The chase itself triggers memories of Jan de Bont’s Speed but stylized in a Bay way. Audacious as it is unrealistic, Ambulance is a heist film with a heart infused with creativity that will keep audiences entertained until the final scene.
Oftentimes, Bay’s work can be described as over-the-top or gratuitous, and his fifteenth film is just that. It’s the most Michael Bay film since Armageddon. It’s almost as if he took his own “Bayhem” and permeated it into the film with shots and sequences that are equal parts fantastic and spectacular.
It’s an unapologetic, balls-to-the-wall, and arguably Bay’s best film in years.
Grade: B