Ambulance

        

       I can't imagine any director other than Michael Bay going near this ridiculous script.  Apparently he turned it down the first time it was offered but after CoVid shut down any production, he was anxious to start directing again. The film is based on the Danish film of the same name and I suppose Danish audiences were less forgiving. In typical Michael Bay fashion, logic and depth of character are replaced by pure adrenaline and explosions.

       Jake Gyllenhaal and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II star as brother Danny and Will Sharp. Danny took up the family business of robbing banks while Will became a Marine. Now faced with a desperate need for cash, Will agrees to help Danny with a $32 million dollar bank robbery. When things go wrong very quickly, they find themselves stealing an ambulance with an EMT (played by Eliza Gonzalez) and a wounded policeman (played by Jackson White) still inside. The remainder of the film is basically one long chase through the streets of Los Angeles. Garrett Dillahunt and Kier O'Donnell play the Swat leader and FBI agent pursuing them.

      Mr. Gyllenhaal is in manic mode as the desperate bank robber. Mr. Abdul- Mateen II is the sympathetic brother who wavers between surrender and getaway. Ms. Gonzalez steals the picture out from everyone as the tough talking EMT.  But the real star of the film is the camera work, filming the action from every angle sometimes at dizzying speed. Mr. Bay's bombastic direction is fast, furious and loud. He makes it easy to forget how ridiculous the story is, including reality defying surgery performed in a moving ambulance.

      Exciting at the start, the mind-numbing chase grows weary until the script throws in a Latino gang with a clever ruse to help the brothers. While injecting some fresh action, it's too little too late. Suffice to say, Ambulance runs out of gas and coasts to an inevitable ending.