Based on a Danish thriller that came out some six years ago, Michael Bay’s Ambulance is a bank heist/hostage situation, action thriller; that thankfully, goes beyond the explosions, special effects, car chases & crashes that Bay is notorious for. And if you’re still scratching your head thinking Michael-who, this is the director who gave us Armageddon, Pearl Harbor, and The Transformers franchise. So you’ll appreciate what I say about his notoriety, and the kind of films he’s built his Hollywood legacy on - loud, destructive, and heroic.
Bay isn’t known for subtlety or a light touch; but I’ll hand it to him here, that while still on the side of being direct and blunt, there is a valiant effort to be more nuanced. His establishing the main characters is proof of this. First we’re given a prologue of two adoptive brothers, one African-American, and one white. They grow up to be William (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) and Danny (Jake Gyllenhaal); William a decorated army veteran who has a family, and Danny’s the one who entered the world of fast money & crime - a legacy from their father. And we’re also asked to empathize with Cam (Eiza Gonzalez), an Emergency Services frontliner, who works in the vehicle from which we get our film title.
William has an infant son, and his wife is in dire need of an expensive operation - so William, in desperation, turns to Danny for financial assistance. It’s from this point that things go very downhill, as Danny’s great solution is for William to join him in a bank robbery, from which they hope to get away with some $32 million. As Danny explains, it’s the only solution that he can offer, and William’s cut will solve his problems. Things go south (as they will), and it’s isn’t long into the film, and we’re stuck in the ambulance where Cam works, and the whole LA police force is after them.
The surprise here is that Bay’s establishing his characters actually succeeds, and both William and Cam resonate, and carry our sympathies. Both Abdul-Mateen and Gonzalez are effective in their roles. Gyllenhaal is the one who seems to be on automatic pilot, as this type of egotistical, conflicted but still hardened, unhinged criminal we’ve already seen him portray - like his Mysterio in the Spider-Man of Tom Holland.
Bay even pokes fun at his own reputation, giving us the slowest car chase in cinematic history - 20 kilometers per hour. The explosions and special effects are still there, although I’ll hand it to Bay for making this film’s special effects include that of abdominal surgery on a moving ambulance. And there are droll lines and asides to provide gallows humor - look out for Jake’s Danny saying, ‘But it’s cashmere!’
There’s some trimming that I feel would have made the film more effective, especially in the middle portion, when this section is about as exciting as watching OJ Simpson on the LA freeway. We’re lucky that the last twenty minutes or so, do pull some surprises out of the Bay hat. His use of music and the film soundtrack is still over-loud and bombastic, like a sledgehammer. So it is irritating that while we know this is supposed to be a stirring, emotional moment, the music is so heavy-handed in reminding us of this.
What I will say is that if this will be the Michael Bay from here on in, it is a more interesting type of action blockbuster; where the narrative and character development now carry as much weight as the wanton destruction and exploding that we know will be part of any Bay film.