Ambulance

Director: Michael Bay

Writer: Chris Fedak, Laurits Munch-Petersen, Lars Andreas Pedersen

Starring: Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Jake Gyllenhaal, Eliza Gonzalez, Garret Dillahunt, Keir O’Donnell, Jackson White

Reason for watching: New Michael Bay movie that looks kind of competent makes me curious

Number of times I’ve watched it: First-time viewing

***

For nearly thirty years Michael Bay has been known for his particular style of film-making. It involves an unhealthy amount of American patriotism, big explosions, the male gaze, and usually transformers. Usually, his movies are box office smashes and contain the smallest amount of plot necessary to constitute a story. In recent years he’s started to have more success as a producer rather than as a director, in particular, backing John Krasinksi’s A Quiet Place and A Quiet Place: Part II. Those movies are great storytelling with some solid production. I mention all of this because it seems like some of that storytelling has rubbed off on Bay in his new movie Ambulance. Citizen Kane, it is not. But it is Bay’s best recent work in my opinion.

Brothers Will and Danny Sharp (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II and Jake Gyllenhaal, respectively) team up to rob a large bank in downtown LA. Will needs the money to take care of his sick wife; Danny is a career criminal looking for his big score. Everything is going according to plan at first until some on-duty and undercover police officers catch wind of their plan and shots start firing. Most of Will and Danny’s men are killed, but they manage to elude the heat when Will shoots rookie cop Zach (Jackson White who happened to be in the bank when the robbery went down. After their planned escape route gets blocked off, they head back into the banks’ parking garage and hijack an ambulance leaving the building. Inside the ambulance is EMT Cam (Eliza Gonzalez) working on the wounded cop Will shot earlier. With their victim in the back of their getaway car, Danny and Will go on a wild ride trying to outrun the LAPD and the FBI. It will take them all over the city and get them involved with some very dangerous people. Hopefully, they will escape but there is no telling if they will.

Again, this is not the greatest story written. But I do admire the dynamic between the Sharp brothers in this movie. It is clear that they care about each other and value each other above everything else in this mission, even the money. Bay usually struggles at creating genuine human connections in his movies, but he succeeds here. The contrast between Yahya’s caring and helpful demeanor pairs well with Gyllenhaal as the crazy man. Gyllenhall is great when he gets to be unhinged and go all out. There are lots of meme-able moments with him. On the supporting size, Gonzalez gets to show off some emotional range as well as her character is trying to keep the situation from becoming too volatile. Those three work very well together.

As per usual for Bay, there is quite a bit of action and explosions throughout. Now the number of explosions is down quite a bit from where it usually is for a Michael Bay affair. But he makes up for it by having basically the whole movie be one large chase sequence. He makes them fairly interesting though by exploring some new cinematography techniques. The drone shot done during some of the ambulance chases explores new angles of the action. It is nice to see Bay trying new things at this stage of his career.

One other thing that I have to commend is how toned down Bay seems here. As mentioned earlier, one of the unfortunate marks of Bay’s earlier works like Bad Boys and Transformers is the over-sexualization of female characters. Instead of creating fleshed-out roles for stars like Megan Fox, Nicola Peltz, and Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, he often opted to fit them in tight and revealing outfits and leer at their bodies. Despite being criticized for this on all sides, he never seemed to heed the responses to his work. But here he seems to have done a full 180 in terms of his portrayal of women. Gonzalez’s character is presented as a complicated and very intelligent EMT with years of experience. While Gonzalez is quite beautiful, I am hard-pressed to think of a single shot where she was framed an uncomfortable matter. I have to give Bay props for improving himself in this respect.

I still think that the plot is easily predictable. Our heroes can only run for so long and eventually have to face the consequences of their actions. One could see their fate coming from a mile away. In addition, some of the health care administered in the ambulance seems far too complex for an EMT to realistically perform. It does amp up the tension of the movie and keeps us excited, but it does take me out of the movie to see a paramedic performing a complex surgery during a high-speed chase. But if you turn your mind off at those moments, you will appreciate the movie a lot more.

6/10

Until I see another one.