There’s a certain movie theater etiquette that is demanded of its patrons: No talking, keep to yourself, stay in your seats. It’s not only a common courtesy for your fellow moviegoers, but a sign of respect to the film, the filmmaker, and the hundreds of people who poured their time and energy into crafting the feature film you’ve paid money to see. Michael Bay seems entirely uninterested in said etiquette. The infamous action auteur’s newest film, Ambulance, demands the opposite: Stand up, react, engage, and get pumped. 

My unusually moviegoing persona, always mindful about respecting fellow theater patrons’ experience, was certainly dashed by Ambulance rather quickly. Only a movie-hating sociopath could sit through this mile-a-minute heist film in stone cold silence. To clap, to awe, to inch off the edge of your seat is only natural during Bay’s latest escapade.

The nuts and bolts of the film are rather straightforward. A pair of adopted brothers, played by Yahya Abdul-Mateen II and Jake Gyllenhaal, steal an ambulance after a bank heist goes terribly wrong. Inside the ambulance is a dying cop and a no-nonsense paramedic (played by Eiza González). What ensues is an hour and a half of the three stars barrelling down Los Angeles roads, nursing an unconscious cop, and evading the authorities. It is absolutely, unequivocally as ridiculous as it sounds. And boy is it fun. 

Ambulance moves at such a breakneck speed it makes the Fast and Furious movies look like they’re glazed and glacial. Bay is unrelenting in his pursuit of maximum action. Police cars are destroyed no more than every two minutes, simple conversations are shot with a whirling camera, Gyllenhaal’s deranged and quippy one-liners are often bookended by screeching tires, resounding gunshots, the buzz of a low flying helicopter. It can only be assumed that Michael Bay discovered the acrobatic use of drones mere minutes before filming began, as Ambulance paints Los Angeles in a barrage of careening, super-speed drone shots. Never has drone work been used so effectively in film. Every time the camera pans from a rooftop, before diving to the streets, it hits like a line of cocaine straight to the veins. Ambulance is nothing if not pure adrenaline.

But don’t be fooled. This is also a movie lover’s movie. From homages to some of L.A.’s great films (Terminator 2, Speed, Collateral) to direct references to Michael Bay’s own work (The Rock, Armageddon, Bad Boys), Ambulance is a sight-seeing tour of action movie moments and Bay’s illustrious career. Even the most cynical (and I will admit to entering with astronomically low expectations) will be swept up by the mayhem and self-referentialism of what Ambulance offers.

Whether that amounts to a “good movie” may vary from person to person - Martin Scorsese likely wouldn’t consider this film “cinema”. Michael Bay has often touted the line between making good movies and making fun movies, and Ambulance is no different. It is surely better (and more fun) than most of Bay’s recent work (five Transformers movies and a couple of failed action comedies highlight his contemporary CV), but it’s still a far-cry from the heights of, say, Bad Boys II. Where Ambulance parks itself is somewhere in the middle: It is a great movie that isn’t very good; a tense, overstuffed action flick that thrills beyond belief; it is Bay, not at his best, but at his most explosive. That alone though is worth the ride.

Acting/Casting - 1 | Visual Effects and Editing - 2 | Story and Message - 1 | Entertainment Value - 2 | Music Score and Soundtrack - 1 | Reviewer’s Preference - 2 | What does this mean?