Ambulance

"I'm going to get you back home, little brother. I'm going to get everybody home."

Ambulance is unquestionably Michael Bay's best film in a long, long time. 

The premise is that adopted brothers Danny (Jake Gyllenhaal) and Will (YYahya Abdul-Mateen II) rob a bank and their exit goes wrong. Left with no choice, they hi-jack an ambulance only to find it contains a paramedic (Eiza González) trying to save the life of a cop they shot. They are desperate to escape custody and the injured cop is useful leverage but they are also keen to keep him alive. 

This is a really tense film in so many ways. For one thing, it's mostly one large car chase as the police chase the ambulance. But it's far more complicated than that due to the injured cop- they can't just ram the ambulance. There's also some complications in the characters. Will is actually a nice guy who only takes the job because he desperately needs money for his wife's cancer treatment. Danny's real father was a ruthless bank robber himself but it's never quite clear whether Danny is as deadly. The pair certainly have conflicting world-views which really works well. 

I found the tone of the film a little odd. It's largely tense and dramatic but there's a lot of comedy in the film too from one supporting character who is just useless to the absurdity of the scenario often being played for laughs. It's a bit jarring at times and I sometimes wondered if it would have been better either reducing the comedic elements or making this more funny, a full-on comedy-drama. Where it ended up sitting is an awkward middle ground. 

Many have lauded or complained about the Bayhem of the film. I would actually say it didn't go as far as I might have expected from the director- there are certainly not that many explosions. Admittedly he does make it so that the police seem to just keep driving even if there's a hugely obvious obstacle in their way. Bay's spinning camera is taken up a notch here with the addition of some spinning drone cameras, piloted by professional drone racers. I kind of looked impressive but at the same time I didn't think it really added a great deal to the film. 

The MVP here is Jake Gyllenhaal. His Danny is by far the most complicated character. He's desperate to succeed and even he doesn't know how far he will go. It seems like there's an inner turmoil over his father and he can't quite decide whether he should be a ruthless killer like his Dad or be a much better man. He's also ridiculous, complaining about his clothes being ruined and having phone calls about flamingos but manages to balance this with being pretty scary too- it feels like he could kill anyone on board that ambulance at any moment. 

The biggest issue with the film is that it frequently takes things too far. The premise is superb and it doesn't need the utterly absurd plot elements that keep being thrown into it. Bay took this film on as a smaller project during lockdown but he would have been better off keeping it even smaller than the film he made.

Tense and bonkers in the most enjoyable of ways, Ambulance is a very watchable film which reminds us that Bay has some talent when he isn't just making explosive-filled blockbusters.