The king of action slow-motion is back. And this time, instead of making sequels to the Transformers franchise, he’s remaking a French movie from 2005 called, (not) surprisingly, Ambulance? Yep, the movie world can be a weird place at times. Anyway, he does it in his style, inviting the hottest actors (Jake Gyllenhaal, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II and Eiza González) and directing it in what best can be described as “Michael Bay hard”. Except he found drones, so the action looks more lively without as many cuts. And that results in a surprisingly decent action film.
On my Letterboxd (username is InMoviesLost if you feel like following me there), I wrote about this film the following:
I feel like watching Ambulance must be how it feels to witness your first-ever Nascar race live. Thrilling, then it gets boring and it stays purely American for the entire time. The first hour is a thrilling adrenaline ride, only for you to quickly realize that this is pretty much all you get, so even the nonstop action starts to bore you. I enjoyed myself mostly but I won’t be in any rush to rewatch it any time soon. Also, Bay referencing two of his movies… I don’t know if that is the most self-centred thing ever, but somehow it didn’t feel out of place. It felt like something only Bay would have done.
My review of Ambulance
And I think that still sums up the film well. I was in it for the first hour. I liked the fast-paced action; I liked Yahya’s character; Jake understood he was in Michael Bay’s film and acted accordingly. What does that mean, you might ask? That means that Jake’s performance here might be the most unhinged I have seen in a while, possibly ever. But since he is a great actor, he understood he couldn’t act unhinged from the beginning; he slowly builds up towards it. And Eiza… I was surprised, given Bay’s history and his treatment of his female actresses and their characters, she was a surprisingly fleshed-out character with almost no “perv” shots (something Bay has made a career of, for more examples, watch any Transformers movies). So I was happy with our leading trio and the first hour of this wild movie.
The issue is the movie doesn’t have peaks and valleys. It is just one steady line of action, driving the ambulance and avoiding the police. Yes, the film tries to have some serious moments with Moses Ingram, who plays Yahya’s wife, but that storyline doesn’t get nearly enough time to be as impactful as the movie would like. So after that first hour, you start to get bored because it hits this weird spot where there are things happening, but you are almost numb to it, given there doesn’t seem to be any level of danger. Jake and Yahya are doing the best they can, but something tells me this film shouldn’t have been directed by Bay. If the film wants to be half action, half drama, we would have to get a different director altogether; as Bay can do action well, but “the drama” was never his forte. And I think this is where the cookie crumbled for me.
This is where I go back to what I have written on my Letterboxd already; and my Nascar analogy. If you have never watched it live (like me) and ended up at one of the stadiums to witness it, you would probably have a blast for the first hour or so. But then, since they are “only going in circles”, as the old joke goes, it gets boring. Ambulance was the same way. Once the film went past the hour mark, it started to get repetitive, and the film had to get louder; it must have had some more insane scenes (like operation over Facetime) and the more it goes, the dumber it becomes.
I will give you a perfect example of “the dumb” – at the end of this film, Eiza’s character does something nice for an unspecified character (without going into spoilers). And even though what she does is understandable (to an extent), the way she does it (in front of many people, including police officers) is simply so fucking dumb. And since this is Michael Bay’s film, nobody notices it, and she is allowed to do it and be the hero. If you have seen the movie, you know what I am talking about. Here is the thing – that scene could have been fixed simply by doing it a few days/weeks later. Eiza would do the same thing somewhere else, just her and the other character, and it would have worked much better. But that’s Michael Bay for you; he’s too focused on making shots look cool and operating those drones nowadays; he doesn’t pay attention to these tiny “details”. “Logic? What’s that? We need more drone footage, and we need it yesterday!” – Michael Bay on the set of Ambulance, probably.
Overall, Ambulance is a surprisingly solid action flick that is too long for its own good. The longer it goes, the dumber it gets but not in a good way, like “it’s so dumb it’s good!” kind of film, more like “it’s so dumb I wish it would have ended already”. What uplifts this film more than other flicks by Bay is the cast, as Jake, Yahya and Eiza are likeable and capable actors who know what they need to do. Especially Jake is as unhinged as you will see him in some time. I would cautiously recommend Ambulance if you want something big, dumb and actiony to watch.
That’s all for this one! Did you see it? What did you think about it? Let me know!
Until next time,
Luke