Review: AMBULANCE is an Absolutely Insane Action Film That Only Michael Bay Can Deliver
First of all, I have to tell you that I sure am glad that Michael Bay is no longer directing those Transformers movies. During the time he was involved with the Transformers franchise, he made a couple of non-Transformers films including Pain & Gain and 13 hours. The first film he made after announcing he was done with Transformers was 6 Underground, which people didn’t seem to care for because it was like a parody of Michael Bay films.
Well, Bay is back in glorious action with his latest movie Ambulance, and holy shit… he went full-on Bayham and beyond with this movie, and I enjoyed every freakin’ second of it! Bay used every trick in the book that he’s ever learned, and utilized it in this movie, and then on top of that he discovered the awesomeness of drones and used them to shoot some of his action sequences. You can tell he has a ton of fun with that. Hell, it looks like the guy had an absolute blast making the film, and I had a blast watching it!
Michael Bay certainly has a bonkers style of filmmaking, and that’s why I enjoy the movies he makes. He just offers pure entertainment and that’s what Ambulance is. This movie is insanely action-packed, and there are moments that are absolutely ridiculous. I don’t want to get into spoilers, but there are things that happen in this movie that almost get to the level of Fast and Furious absurdity.
The movie stars Jake Gyllenhaal and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II as adoptive brothers who end up hijacking an ambulance as a getaway vehicle after a bank heist goes completely off the rails. The movie also stars Eiza González as an EMT who is in the ambulance with a critical patient who’s been shot when it’s stolen. The movie follows these characters as they are being chased across Los Angeles by the police and the FBI. As you can imagine, there is so much carnage left in their wake. It just flows with violence and explosive destruction.
Gyllenhaal goes completely over-the-top in this movie, as Michael Bay pushed him to a new level of crazy. The energy the actor had was just as explosive as the action in the film. He was just an absolute wild man with a lot of crazy going on in his eyes. I’ve never seen Gyllenhaal like this, but it’s almost like he was channeling the crazy side of Nic Cage. I feel like if anyone would have touched Gyllenhaal while making this movie, he would have physically exploded. That’s the type of energy I’m talking about. As for Abdul-Mateen II and González, they were great and their characters were a lot more level-headed.
One of the things that this film does that I don’t recall seeing in any other Michael Bay film is that it actually makes references to some of the classic films that Bay has made over the course of his career. Mentions of films such as The Rock and Bad Boys, which I found amusing and it gave the audience a good laugh.
Look, if you enjoy Bay’s action films, you’re gonna love the hell out of Ambulance. It’s the ultimate Michael Bay movie!
