CAN'T QUITE RESUSCITATE
2022's Ambulance represents a rare low budget for the bombastic Michael Bay ($40 million give or take). Don't you worry my young Padawan, Bay still knows how to blows stuff up, still uses enough stunt cars for the Daytona, and still supplies enough ammunition to put Texas to shame. $40 mil my stinking butt.
So yeah, Ambulance is a film about two brother, bank robbers who use an ambulance (with hostages and an unlimited supply of gas) as a getaway vehicle. It stars Jake Gyllenhaal as bank thief and ADHD stalwart Danny Sharp. Jake has always been an intense actor even if you don't know to root for his character or not. In the case of the bloated, slipshod, and exhausting Ambulance, it's a proposed coin flip.
Ambulance is obviously an action movie and by Michael Bay standards, one that's reaches a good 15-25 minutes past the two-hour mark (that's baseline for the Bay-meister). Is it boring? Only if you don't have a pulse. Um it's Michael Bay so how could it be. Just the same, Ambulance could've benefited from having a more capable editor (or editors) and armed conflict clips that were a little more joined-up. I mean not everybody can be Michael Mann or William Friedkin (Bay clearly attempted to ape off these guys here).
With Ambulance, Bay is in his element and you always wonder if that's a good thing. He seems to shoot whatever pops into his brain without pandering to the storyboards and/or thinking it over. Look for his usual trademarks via the sweeping shots, the unusual fast cutting, the salient slow-mo stuff and of course, the unavoidable explosions. Michael Bay is definitely not a lazy filmmaker but he is a sloppy one. His Ambulance has some tense moments but it's the cinematic equivalent of throwing paint at a wall. Better call 911.
Written by Jesse Burleson
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