Ambulance (2022) Review

 "Promise not to rob the place."

-Officer Zach

When his wife needs experimental surgery that insurance will not cover, military veteran Will Sharp (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) goes to his criminal brother, Danny (Jake Gyllenhaal), for a loan, but all of Danny's money is invested in a heist.  Will joins Danny's bank robbing crew, but when the job goes wrong, they steal an ambulance with a paramedic and an injured cop inside and try to make their escape.

What Works:

I am not a Michael Bay fan, I'll admit to that off the top.  I only like two of his movies, The Rock and The Island.  However, when I saw the premise for this film, I was intrigued.  One long chase movie that mostly takes place inside an ambulance.  I love chase movies, so I was willing to give this one a go.  Credit where credit is due, Bay pulls off the chase movie very well and the film was pretty much exactly what I hoped it would be.

This movie has incredible pacing.  There is barely a moment to catch your breath and for me that's a good thing.  It keeps you on the edge of your seat and changes the threats throughout the film.  With chase movies, you have to be careful to not let the chase become stale and it never does in Ambulance.  I was excited the entire time.

The performances from the main three actors are all awesome.  Abdul-Mateen, Gyllenhaal, and Eiza González all do an incredible job and bring a lot of heart to the role.  They are all likable in their own way and I found myself rooting for all three of them, even when they were going against each other.  One of biggest problems with Michael Bay's movies is the comic relief.  I almost never find it funny.  That's true in this movie, which I'll get into further down, but the comic relief that does work is all from these three.  They do a great job and their scenes in the ambulance are the best parts of the film.

Finally, what I wasn't expecting was the medical gore.  I'm a huge gore-hound and we don't get that often in an action movie.  There are two scenes that were actually effectively gnarly to watch.  Early on, we get an introductory emergency for our paramedic characters that involved someone getting impaled on a metal bar.  Later, characters have to perform surgery in the moving ambulance.  This is some of the best stuff in the movie, not just because of how gory it was at times, but the direction was very well done and intense.

What Sucks:

Like I mentioned above, Michael Bay's brand of comedy is not my cup of tea.  There are a lot of supporting characters in the film outside of the ambulance and almost all of them are used for comic relief at some point.  Almost none of it works.  The actors are trying, but the dialogue feels forced and awkward.  It's not what real people would say in those situations.

The action sequences are shot in two different ways.  The far away shots are very fluid and look great.  On the other hand, the close-ups are way too close and we cut between them too fast.  Occasionally it was actually hard to watch.  

Verdict:

Ambulance becomes the 3rd Michael Bay movie I actually like with a great premise, awesome pacing, fantastic performances from the lead actors, and shockingly effective gore.  The comic relief of the supporting characters falls completely flat and the action close-ups were not well done, but this movie has absolutely got it going on.

 8/10: Really Good