Ambulance Review

Ambulance is a film with a plot that can be summed up in one sentence: a couple of bank robbers hijack an ambulance after a robbery goes wrong. Michael Bay uses this concept for a smaller-scale film by his standards.

Will Sharp (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) is a veteran who’s desperate for money to pay for his wife’s experimental surgery. He turns to his criminal adopted brother, Danny (Jake Gyllenhaal) for help, leading to Will taking part in a robbery to steal $32 million. When the robbery goes wrong the brothers hijack an ambulance and hold EMT Cam Thompson (Eiza González) and a wounded cop (Jackson White) hostage.

High-concept action films were popular in ‘90s and Ambulance was harking back to this. Considering this was an era that produced many great action films like Con Air, True Lies, Face/Off, Point Break, and Air Force One, I perfectly welcome this. Bay was even a part of the action scene of the ‘90s, his best film, The Rock was made back then. Ambulance was unashamedly violent and filled with foul language and felt refreshing in the current landscape of safe PG-13 films.

The film Ambulance most resembled was Speed. Speed was pitched as Die Hard on a bus, or as Homer Simpson described it, ‘the bus that couldn’t slow down.’ That ‘90s classic saw a bus needing to speed around Los Angeles or else it explodes. Ambulance was mostly one long chase around LA which resulted in the Sharps and the police having to outsmart each other and the various challenges they would face. One of the variables the ambulance crew had to face was trying to keep the police officer alive. This led to an intense sequence where the crew had to perform surgery on the officer.

A way to describe Ambulance is it’s a Grand Theft Auto mission turned into a film. Grand Theft Auto sees players go on missions and heists and often these missions go wrong and shit hits the fan. This happened in Ambulance because the bank robbery turned into a bloody shoot-out and long car chase. When the bank robbery does commence the pacing, action, and tension rarely let up. There was barely any let-up, a bit like Mad Max: Fury Road which was one long chase film.

Bay is a divisive director, he has as many detractors as well as fans. He’s known for having a juvenile scene of humour and leching over women. His worst aspects as a director were toned down for Ambulance. González’s Cam was shown to be a tough, confident professional who was forced into an extraordinary situation. She wasn’t sexualised like many women in Bay films. The humour in the film was hit-and-miss, but it didn’t rely on sex or stereotypes so it’s a step in the right direction.

Where Bay excels is visuals. The budget, according to Wikipedia, was $40 million but it looked like it cost $100 million. Bay has a kinetic style, there were constant camera movements and his usual tricks were on display: camera swirls, slo-mo, aerial shots, and lens flare. In this film Bay had a particular fondness for aerial establishing shots and frantically zoomed down to ground level. Considering the premise Bay ensured there were some fun shootouts and vehicular carnage and his trademark explosions. Say what you will about Bay, his films do have a flair to them.

Bay has been considered a jingoistic director because he has a love for the American military. His films feature military personnel in some form. Will was a marine who served in Afghanistan, but his experience was different from other Bay characters. He served his nation but his family didn’t get the support they needed. The film does have a progressive tint to it because it acted as a criticism of the American Healthcare system because people are dependent on their insurance and their approval.

The film also had a prominent gay character played by Keir O’Donnell. O’Donnell was playing an FBI agent who specialised in bank robberies and he was shown to be the most competent member of law enforcement. He was like John Cusack’s character in Con Air. O’Donnell’s introduction was a joke because he was having couples counselling and his husband was needy and neurotic. But Ambulance did show the pair having a kiss and O’Donnell did reference that his character had a husband which is more than many films that claim to have gay characters.

The biggest issue with Ambulance was its length. It was a film that had a small main cast and simple premise, great for a taut film that was no more than 105 minutes. Ambulance was two hours, 16 minutes which was way too long. wasn’t character-driven or deep enough to justify this length. This was a problem with many of Bay’s films. He needs a good script editor and an editor to tighten the story and expunge surplus items.

Ambulance was a fun, simple action-thriller that even Bay’s detectors can enjoy. It was a fun ‘90s throwback. But it’s suffered from being too long.