‘Ambulance’ shares the traits of its namesake, it moves at breakneck speed, flashing its lights with all the whizbang effects of modern cinema.
Brimming with confidence that it is doing something meaningful, the film ‘Ambulance’ arrives at its destination only to reveal nothing precious is on board and that the journey was ultimately meaningless.
Yahya Abdul-Mateen II stars as Will Sharp, a war veteran, roped in to helping his adopted brother Danny (Jake Gyllenhaal) with a bank robbery. Without going into specifics, they end up in the ambulance of paramedic Cam Thompson (Eiza González) getting chased throughout Los Angeles. A neat twist on genre tropes, here the cops want the robbers to leave the bank to avoid a shoot-out and hostages, then follow and close in when they believe they can avoid casualties. This being a Michael Bay film there are of course shoot-outs, hostages, and casualties anyway.
There is a lot to recommend with the latest Bayhem blockbuster, the first being that Michael still makes great looking movies. The camera moves so fast that you may fail to recognise just how lovingly crafted each frame and location is. It takes work to set up the lighting, get the stunt people and camera crews in place just right and Michael and his crew never phone it in. With a brand-new toy in the form of First Person View (FPV) drones by Lightcraft, Michael and cinematographer Roberto De Angelis use the freedom afforded by this technology to move the camera in new and exciting ways.
The film was born out of the COVID-19 pandemic when Michael told his agent, “Goddamnit, I just want to get out and shoot something fast. I'm tired of being locked up at home”. You can feel that pent-up energy throughout, having accepted the challenge of making a feature-length car chase, Michael calls on every single way of shooting one, and creates a few new ones.
As a technical marvel, you have to acknowledge its prowess and good intentions abound too. At its centre is a strong female lead in Eiza González that the camera never leers at, Jake Gyllenhaal plays against type here as a somewhat slimy brother and criminal and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II who was underused not being Laurence Fishburne in ‘The Matrix Resurrections’ here has quiet gravitas as Will. They are backed up by a diverse cast playfully ribbing each other’s characters throughout.
Michael’s last attempt at going small budget was ‘Pain & Gain’ a film about reprehensible characters and the perversion of the American dream. His lack of subtlety there as a storyteller was a welcome strength, here Michael is trying to tell a story about admirable people having to make some hard choices, and that lack of subtlety hurts the picture. At 57, the director still makes films that feel like they were made by an adolescent after he just watched an action classic. Visually, he is beyond competent and, while lacking subtlety, Michael has dialled down performances and tried to keep the movie grounded. Yet the focus remains on the chases and shoot-outs and how cool everyone is and looks.
The great classics of the genre are about something, the ending here could have landed with so much impact but for that to happen you must put the beats in place along the journey. ‘Ambulance’ is too busy rushing to its destination.
‘Ambulance’ is in cinemas 7 April.
