Director Michael Bay
Starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II & Eiza González
Rated MA
Score 5/6

Two robbers steal an ambulance after their heist goes awry.

I think it has been more than a few months since I have last watched a movie directed by Michael Bay and he has always been the director that I go to when I’m in the mood for seeing things blow up in an action movie, because as we all know Michael Bay movies are the scale on which other action movies are measured. As police chase movies go Ambulance certainly is unique due to the vehicle choice, it should be noted that this is a remake of Laurits Munch-Petersen’s 2005 movie Ambulancen (Ambulance), and it marks the third film Gyllenhaal has starred in that is a remake of a Danish film. The other two being The Guilty (2021) and Brothers (2009). As far as explosions go things where certainly restrained especially when you compare Ambulance to some of the other movies that immediately come to mind when you say the name ‘Michael Bay’. What Ambulance lacked in seemingly endless cavalcade of explosions it made up for with its overall pacing, it was fast and frantic Bay brought all the camera tricks that you would expect from one of his movies. Then of course there was the vehicular carnage. I enjoyed the convention centre sequence. What I loved about Ambulance was the emotional stakes of the movie. I’ve found that with other action movies I have watched over the past couple of years that the filmmakers will fail to do enough to make you care for the heroes. Things were kept constant and that made the third act all the more satisfying.




Yahya Abdul-Mateen II was great opposite Gyllenhaal their characters where clearly two sides of the same coin. After looking over Eiza González’s filmography I was a little surprised to find out that she has been cast in so many other movies that I have reviewed for The Movie Boards. Her role of Cam Thompson had more depth than a lot of the female leads in Bay movies. I was a little surprised to see that Garret Dillahunt mainly because in my watching I tend to usually see him in more television roles then the film roles that he has been cast in. Also a few days ago I had seen him in an episode of Burn Notice. I loved the attitude Olivia Stambouliah brought to the role of Lieutenant Dzaghig and I enjoyed some of the moments she had with Dillahunt’s Captain Monroe.