169. Ambulance; movie review
AMBULANCE
Cert 15
136 mins
BBFC advice: Contains strong bloody violence, language, threat, medical gore
Yet another movie which has a compelling finale but takes so long to reach its destination that the audience may well have lost interest.
Michael Bay's Ambulance must have the longest chase in cinema history.
I guess comparisons could be drawn with Speed but even that bails out at under two hours.
Unfortunately, Ambulance doesn't match the latter for storyline or acting and outstays its welcome by at least 45 minutes.
This is something of a surprise because its cast is headed up by the usually reliable Jake Gyllenhaal.
He plays the son of a feared criminal and is planning an elaborate one-off bank raid to set him and co-conspirators up for life.
He persuades his adopted brother (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) to be the driver because he needs the money for his wife's cancer treatment.
Despite the conviction of Gyllenhaal's character that the raid will be akin to a walk in the park, it goes wrong and the brothers have to find a way out of the ensuing firefight.
They commandeer an ambulance whose paramedic (Eiza González) is still on board with a critically injured police officer (Jackson White).
Consequently, a hostage scenario develops with Garret Dillahunt and Keir O'Donnell playing the agents who are trying to stop them.
Our problem with Ambulance is that the character development is so superficial.
Sure, we know the brothers had a bad dad and one has a sick wife and is a former soldier but there's very little more to elicit empathy.
Thus, as the action unfolds, there is little buy-in to the fate of those on board the ambulance and especially those who are fighting for the best resolution.
Reasons to watch: Longest chase scene ever
Reasons to avoid: Little character exploration
Laughs: None
Jumps: None
Vomit: None
Nudity: None
Overall rating: 6/10
Did you know? There are 134 Ambulance Services in Los Angeles County, California, serving a population of 10,105,722 people in an area of 4,058 square miles. There is 1 Ambulance Service per 75,415 people, and 1 Ambulance Service per 30 square miles.
The final word. Michael Bay: "It's great when you're in a movie theater experience, because of the sound. It's amazing in this. I've seen it with big audiences, and it's real palpable. And you watch 350 people, and if you watch their body language, directors do that, when they're like this, that means they're really into it. When they start doing all this and going to the bathroom, you know that something's going on." Screen Rant
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