Ambulance

 This review may contain spoilers!

 

Ambulance is a heist film in which two brother bank robbers steal an ambulance and take the occupants within hostage after botching a bank robbery. I think this film found it's way to small moments of tension that were actually key to the script; moments like the snipers about to fire on the ambulance after the spleen operation were intense, likewise the big standoff between the Sharp brothers and Papi's men. Ultimately this film boasts a scale of action that feels impressive, shoot outs are heavy affairs in which the sounds of bullets punch through your ear drums or collisions rattle your very skeleton.

 

Keir O'Donnell, who played FBI Agent Anson Clark, is one of the more engaging characters in the film; O'Donnell crafts a role who understands our protagonists and makes for a good foil as their adversary.

 

However, the best performance came from Jake Gyllenhaal, who played Danny Sharp. This is a character who really falls apart over the duration of this movie and Gyllenhaal plays this manic loose cannon brilliantly. When first we meet Danny he's cool and collected, exceptionally charismatic and living surrounded by luxury. But as we soon come to learn, everything about Danny is quite a shallow facade. Gyllenhaal thrives on crafting a dynamic with his on-screen brother (Abdul-Mateen II) that revolves around manipulation, playing the right emotional cards to hook Will deeper and deeper into his criminal act. The way Gyllenhaal calmly navigates a scene to suddenly snapping is wild, it makes Danny a role that is hard to predict. You never really know if he's actually laughing and cracking wise or if he's boiling with rage. Gyllenhaal shows this wild streak being pushed down multiple dangerous paths, only anchored back by the love he has for his brother. That final scene in which he threatens their EMT hostage's life is a moment where all that is good in Danny is stripped back and only that which is venomous remains. Really grade A stuff from Gyllenhaal in a feature that certainly doesn't repay him.

In Ambulance the lead characters constantly tell the police that they do not stop, which is uncomfortably true for the majority of the feature. The bulk of the narrative is one of the most mundane cop/criminal car chase sequences you will ever watch in a blockbuster feature. Seeing this film be paced out from one big chase sequence to the next, with an occasional emotional plot tidbit being fed in from the occupants of the ambulance. This is the sort of unique mode of storytelling that works if the narrative is solid and the main characters are truly fascinating. But that isn't the case here. The core relationship of the film is two criminal brothers, one who is morally comfortable with the bad stuff they do and one who isn't. One who desperately needs the score to succeed and one who is just trying to prove himself. Meanwhile, our only other two major characters is a rookie beat cop who is unconscious most of the time and an EMT who is emotionally detached from her job until being made a hostage makes her want to save people again. It's so painstakingly simple that you barely have to follow what is developing before you find yourself dumped in the final act. Even the sudden inclusion of a larger criminal element led by the questionably named 'Papi' takes the narrative beyond itself. Suddenly everything spirals into being about how do we make the action kick up further and further without ever prioritising the story. Ambulance has a larger supporting cast than it needs, with many of the roles engaged in quite two-dimensional subplots. The dialogue often feels off keel and extremely random; the severely bizarre lines are a symptom of a number of Bay's last decade of haphazard works. While I liked the intensity of the action I found that a lot of the stunt work and sets looked set up, everything felt filmed and there weren't many sequences that managed to capture me in a meaningful way. The cinematography never stopped moving and often felt aimless, I also hated that there was a number of unnecessary visuals scattered throughout this piece that crafted quite a confused style when all put together. The score for the film was generic bass pounding action and failed to raise the stakes of the feature.

Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, who played Will Sharp, is extremely cut and dry as the criminal with a heart of gold; Abdul-Mateen really struggles to make Will an empathetic character which is a shame because the film relies so heavily upon that trait. Eiza González, who played Cam Thompson, is one of the least convincing EMT performances I think I'll see in a long time; I found the choice to make González's character this stony and detached figure a questionable one. Garret Dillahunt, who played Captain Monroe, was extremely offbeat as the police captain hunting our two protagonists; the choice to make Dillahunt a more comedic figure backfired severely. Jackson White, who played Officer Zach, is quite generic as the young and inexperienced rookie cop; I found watching White play the young man with a crush an extremely soppy way to bring him into the action of the piece. Olivia Stambouliah, who played Lieutenant Dzaghig, is placed as one of the more comedic figures in the film but really stumbles with her line delivery; Stambouliah gives the most deadpan delivery you get in the cast leaving a lot of her lines falling flat for the audience. Moses Ingram, who played Amy Sharp, is wasted as the loyal wife role holding a baby every scene she's in; Ingram is given nothing to play with here and is stuck with one of the most two-dimensional roles in the script. Colin Woodell, who played EMT Scott, was a confusing role because he was poised to be important and was promptly forgotten about; setting up a work partnership relationship with González that needed to grow and then doing nothing was weak writing for this character. Cedric Sanders, who played Officer Mark, had a very boring revenge/retribution side story; seeing Sanders play this determined guilty role in a way that didn't even feel fully committed made him really forgettable. A Martinez, who played Papi, is an extremely bad stereotype and quite the weak antagonist; watching yet another enraged Mexican crime boss in a Michael Bay movie is just disappointing at this point. Wale, who played Castro, is a very random and goofy figure who serves the film in no way; Wale feels awkwardly inserted into the narrative without ever really serving it as a proper character. Devan Chandler Long, Randazzo Marc, Victor Gojcaj and Brendan Miller, who played Mel Gibson, Randazzo, Victor and Trent respectively, are one of the most disjointed and unbelievable ensemble performances we'll get this year; Randazzo in particular gargles dialogue in a way that makes me wonder how he ever managed to get himself in front of a camera.

Michael Bay has somehow managed to scrounge up a worse film than a Transformers or Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie. I would give Ambulance a 2/10.