Ambulance (2022)
It was supposed to be a simple heist.
Trailers and names can go a long way to sell a person to watch a movie. In this case, some scenes of actions and cars, as well as a well known name like Michael Bay - it’s very easy to assume what’s going to be delivered in this movie. Now, I know that not everybody is super fond of Bay movies, and that’s fine I suppose - but the man has a certain style that you can rely on being delivered - just like your favorite author or musician. The real question becomes how much of it will be delivered - is it the big IV bag, or perhaps a straight person tap? Tune in this time as we hop a ride to find out on your reliable neighborhood Ambulance.
We have three stories going on here that convene into one, then splits slightly into a few more splinter stories as they reconvene back into the main story. On the one story, we follow a pair of paramedics on their day to day saving people and getting a little character building. On another side, we get a pair of cops and one’s attempt to get a girlfriend. On the last, a soldier brother ends up visiting his brother for work and getting put to task in a bank heist. Of course, as things usually go in a bank heist movie, things quickly take a turn as it turns out the special cops knew it was happening and it was a bust the entire time - causing the brothers to combine into the ambulance for an escape that just so happens to be carrying the injured cop who was looking for a date. Thus begins a high and low speed chase with plenty of tension, action, drama, and even a few explosions.
Although the story segment of this might lack in descriptive pulls from how I like to keep it sparse for folks to be able to experience things for themselves, I will say it actually does a relatively good job of keeping you invested in the characters. There’s just enough depth to them that you have enough to get the idea of the person, but not enough that we needs seven minutes per numerous character to devote to them. This might lead some to feel more shallow, but for the ones that count - mainly the crew stuck in the ambulance, particularly the medic and two brothers, it works. The one brother in specific is given the time to have more of a dimension to his character than the others - developing him out to be the main focus of the audiences wanting to see them make it out alive or okay if not escaping issues. I know a lot of folks might hyper focus on the idea that Bay tends to make flat characters or just have eye-candy women, but for this one I think it’s a fine job. The female medic gets put through the ringer in this thing, but she has some moments where even as a hostage she gets to shine as not just being window-dressing - so perhaps not an E. Ripley, but better than “girl in red dress” I’d say.
Part of what makes that effective is the acting. Although I only really recognize Gyllenhaal as far as actor names, they all do a pretty stellar job here. Deliveries are on point, and are pretty much always on point with the energy going on in the movie. This parks over into the side characters to some extent as well - even if they aren’t a real critical role and their part is a bit comical like, they still fell like they are giving it just what they need for the scene. Taking that all in tow, I’m sure people could find things about the characters to complain about if they want to - people always can. As far as going in for an action movie, I was pleasantly surprised to see how well everyone worked together, and either enjoy or laugh off anything that was irrelevant to the plot. In that sense, I am very much the classic target for a Bay movie - but that doesn’t mean anyone in this movie is just phoning it in for a paycheck, and I think any complaints would come less from the actors or how they are portraying a character, and more just how they might be written.
Rescue team go!
So the story is a pretty good bombshell of a hook, even if at its core it’s just a simple heist goes wrong plot. The actors are doing a good job, and we can all get behind that. The audio is keeping up - largely the typical fair in a movie when it comes to musical soundtracks. It has a few songs that I do recognize from all my listening to classic rock, and sound quality-wise they feel fitting to the air about a scene when they play. For the most part, you’re a bit too preoccupied by the action and absolute everything that’s going on to pay too much attention to the music, so to say this escapes my soundtrack curse of disappearing after the movie is over would be a drastic overstatement - but it’s there, and much like the rest of the audio it’s balance very well to make sure you hear exactly what it is that you are supposed to hear. Could be a helicopter, could be a police radio, could be an explosions and shouting - I didn’t miss any lines from it while things were going on - but for those who might, the subtitles were also pretty good (because you know I always have those things on).
You might be wondering about the effects here - there’s a bunch for sure. We get plenty of breaking vehicles, structures, glass, and some people. We get classic slow motion spins, some firefights, and a whole lot of vehicular stuff. Bay loves doing things practical, and there’s certainly a time or two while watching it you are wondering if perhaps someone might have had an injury to some extent after it plays out - but as far as immersion in the action it’s superb. For something that’s effectively a giant long chase scene without a ton of aggression from either end, it constantly finds something important to have happen to keep things interesting, punctuating the chaos with those big car flips and gun shots. It’s not afraid to pull in for some surgeon simulator in the ambulance back either - which isn’t really super grotesque about it even if someone does have their hands in someone else’s gut looking for a bullet. There’s also one scene that’s in the trailers that’s pretty much just pure over-the-top carnage, and since it’s still in the movie I can appreciate that.
The filming itself has some stuff that I wouldn’t mind mentioning as well, so I will. I know it’s not all the time that I talk about this side of it - every now and then I might talk about color grading or something in the effects, because I feel like if it’s something that highlights a strong or weak point of the movie it’s worth mentioning. In this case. someone was having a lot of fun with a drone. There’s some really fun drone shots in here, complete with straight under a car one car and over another - although I supposed I have nothing to prove it wasn’t just a swing arm and a cut of two things together, but given the plenty of drone shots gracing other parts I just took it at face value. It helps give plenty of wides and close ups of vehicles as they are zipping in and out of things, but also doesn’t get used so much the entire movie suffers for it. The movie also uses the cuts to the benefit of the chaotic feeling of the movie. Yeah, it can get a bit cut-y at times, but it’s never so much in a way that you get lost in what’s happening in so much everything just feels a level more stressful because of the cuts.
Anti-bank heist team go!
Ambulance is a pretty good thrill ride. You’ve got the action you’d expect, done to the fun level of extraneous that a Bay movie is held up for. Acting is good, story and characters are reasonable, and overall it’s so hectic that you won’t even notice that two hours has gone by until you’ve looked at the clock afterwards. It’s honestly a good watch, and I can see why it got 10 award nominations - although that being said I’m a bit surprised that the general review ratings are luke-warm at best. Perhaps it’s a lot of how you come in to the movie - I expected a Bay action movie, and got a better character investment than I thought I was going to get while still receiving the action that I had wanted. For me, it was worth the watch, but just like an Ambulance your mileage will most likely vary.