YNOT at the Movies

Can you spontaneously join someone to rob a bank? Sure you can, if you are in the preposterous story of the director Michael Bay's new action film "Ambulance" (USA 2022 | 136 min.). And that's actually the less implausible setup in the film; there are even more inconceivable scenes in this over-two-hour long ambulance ride. But you might still be impressed and entertained by this action master's ridiculously exciting action sequences.

The person who becomes an impromptu bank robber is Will Sharp (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II), a war veteran who is trying to find some money for his wife's experimental surgery that the insurance company doesn't pay for. When he seeks help from his estranged brother Danny Sharp (Jake Gyllenhaal), a career bank robber who somehow remains free, Danny offers Will to join the gang heading to a bank in downtown LA to rob $32 million cash. Surprisingly, Will goes along with it!

Near the bank, the dedicated paramedic Cam Thompson (Eiza González) is taking a break after saving a girl's life from a horrific car accident. When she hears gunshots, she jumps into the ambulance and heads to the crime scene that Danny and Will are involved in. During the chaos, an officer Zach (Jackson White) is shot and put in Cam's ambulance, and Danny and Will also end up in the ambulance, because this vehicle seems to be their only hope of escaping from the police's drag net.

With the bleeding Zach on board, the police chases the ambulance, from the ground and in the air as typically done in LA, but doesn't aim to kill. That sets the parameters for those spectacular chase scenes to be played out for the rest of the film.

The entire chase lasts for more than two hours, and you may wonder how come the injured cop Zach can still be alive. Well, thanks to Cam and telemedicine, she is able to do the unthinkable to save Zach, whether you either choose to believe it or take your eyes away from the screen. This all happens while the moving ambulance is surrounded by an army of cop cars and several helicopters in the air.

Perhaps not only Will, but the entire bank robbery is spontaneous. Did Danny and his pals ever plan how to get away from the bank? Where are they driving this ambulance to? Danny keeps telling Will that he will go home with the money, but how?

Regardless of how ridiculous the story is, the actions are still exciting, even though it's a bit too long. The bottom line is that the entire movie is for Michael Bay to use the freeways in LA to play out a more exciting chase than what the O. J. did a while back, and we all have a pretty good idea how a chase like that would end.

This movie gives the term ambulance chaser a whole new meaning, but it still doesn't sound very appealing.

"Ambulance" opens on Friday, April 8, 2022.