Attending the premiere of Ambulance on Tuesday night with director Michael Bay was nothing short of surreal. What’s almost even more rewarding is the fact that this movie is friggin awesome, and Bay’s best outing in years by a long shot. Heart pounding, unforgivingly intense, suitability mean spirited, gruesomely violent, and irresistibly thrilling, Ambulance is everything I want to see from one of my favorite directors growing up. The Bayhem is out of control here, with visceral handheld camerawork, excitingly immersive drone shots, close ups galore, more plot holes than a city street in NYC, and yes, all of the explosions and frenetic anarchy you’d expect from Bay. Whether or not that’s your thing will decide your enjoyment of the movie. For me though, it was so refreshing to see Bay get complete creative control behind the camera, as his chaotic style fits this blood vessel popping roller coaster ride. The performances are as over the top as ever, with Jake Gyllenhaal delivering one of his most electrifyingly cartoonish roles to date. He’s like a villain out of a Saturday morning cartoon and is just so entertaining to watch. Abdul-Mateen II is the perfect contrast to Gyllenhaal’s unhinged performance, giving the audience a sense of moral ambiguity as the heist situation intensifies. Eiza Gonzalez does an excellent job as the hostage held nurse, and really sold her professionalism as she is asked to perform near impossible life saving tasks under an enormous amount of pressure. The chase sequences are Bay’s best since Bad Boys 2, with each car crash and explosive impact hitting like a sledgehammer to the skull. What shocked me the most about the film is just how emotionally invested I was in the main characters. Danny (Gyllenhaal) and Will (Abdul-Mateen II) are given a surprising amount of depth and backstory to their respective characters that I even felt a sense of relatability to their uneasy friendship. For the first time in a while, Michael Bay actually got me in the feels. This will not win over the non-Bay fans and it’s not supposed to, as Ambulance is full throttle Bayhem on steroids with a surprising amount of substance.
Myself and Michael Bay at the premiere of Ambulance.
Kommentare