Of its genre, Michael Bay’s AMBULANCE is a tour de force. But you have to take it as you find it: it is certainly not a cerebral experience.
The premise is simple: Danny (Jake Gyllenhaal) and his adopted brother Will (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) carry out a botched heist on a bank. In their hasty getaway with $16 million they hijack an ambulance carrying a disillusioned female paramedic (Eiza Gonzalez) and a dying police officer that Will shot in the heist. A prolonged car chase throughout Los Angeles ensues.
If the heist and the characterisations in Act I are somewhat contrived, the chase throughout Act II and much of Act III is particularly refreshing. The pacing here is expert, with pauses for breath between anxious pursuits, and no explosions or intense shoot-em-up moments until close to the climax. Having said that, the action is relatively constant and never lets the intensity sag.
Gyllenhaal does an excellent job as the crazed criminal whose becomes increasingly psychopathic as the chase unfolds; and the character arc of the disillusioned paramedic is particularly gratifying. But the star of the movie is Michael Bay’s directing, particularly his choice of music (as intense as Christopher Nolan’s DUNKIRK), the seamless rapid editing, the intense angled camerawork and the breathless chase choreography.
All these combine to give the film an edgy, jagged, seat-of-the-pants feel which at the same time is wonderfully disconcerting and tremendously reassuring: you know you are in the hands of a master of his craft. Given the intensity of the chase as a whole, and particularly the ongoing chopper scenes, I did wonder how the climax was going to unfold. There was, however, commendable unnoticed restraint in the earlier scenes, and as I say the explosions and gunfights were wisely reserved to the end.
Bay dared to make the ending deliciously ironic: the bad criminal dies and escapes justice, while the good, heroic criminal, who against himself was ensnared into the heist by his brother's wiles, is left to carry the can and faces a charge of attempted murder and hijacking with a likely wrap of thirty years at least. Meanwhile, the disillusioned paramedic finds the opportunity to re-engage her heart, and rediscovers why she became a paramedic in the first place.
The best thing about AMBULANCE is that it doesn’t take itself too seriously. Indeed, it is in places absurdly self-referential of Michael Bay’s other films and of his art in general (there is, for instance a wonderful line about expensive car chases) and is on a level hilariously funny. I found myself laughing out loud on several occasions.
Four stars from me, and well worth a watch for what it is. Just don’t expect anything too thoughtful.
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