Even with an overlong third act, ‘Ambulance,’ starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II and Eiza Gonzalez, is Michael Bay’s best action movie in ages.
Ambulance (2022) 136 minutes rated R directed by Michael Bay and written by Chris Fedak shot by Robert De Angelis and edited by Pietro Scalia starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Eiza González and Garret Dillahunt opens theatrically on April 8 courtesy of Universal Loosely based on Larits Munch-Petersen’s Ambulancen, Michael Bay and Chris Fedak’s English-language remake expands and localizes this old-school high-concept programmer. Working with his lowest budget for an action movie ( Pain & Gain cost $26 million in 2013) since his feature debut Bad Boys in 1995, the $40 million Ambulance is the Michael Bay equivalent of a Blumhouse chamber piece. The bulk of its running time is set in a single cramped location with three speaking characters. But because it’s Bay, the location is an ambulance careering through Los Angeles with an entire police department on its tail. Yahya Abdul-Mateen II plays a struggling Afghan war vet struggling with a newborn baby and his wife’s medical expenses, namely an experimental surgery that his insurance refuses to cover. Reluctantly (and secretly) visiting his estranged adopted professional criminal brother (Jake Gyllenhaal), the desperate father gets reluctantly roped into a planned bank heist which just happens to be taking place that day (a coincidence you’ll just have to roll with). The robbery goes sideways, and our brothers end up, money in hand, hijacking an ambulance containing an injured cop (Jackson White) and a paramedic (Eiza González). The 135-minute picture takes its time setting up its characters and the bank robbery is staged for low-key tension and suspense over mad-chap intensity.
